Interview Skills and Techniques

Listening and Rapport

Thursday, February 11^th, we returned to FCHS to discuss the importance of building rapport with our interviewee and using good interviewing techniques. Dr. Wagner and two of our RU mentors put on a two-parted skit, enacting how a bad interview would be held and how to achieve a good interview. 

 Dr. Wagner asks students to consider alternate interviewing techniques, 

while RU Mentor Kelsey Boyd writes their responses on the whiteboard.

Afterwards, we compared and contrasted the two performances and made a list of good procedures and what to avoid. We learned that there’s a lot more to conducting a good interview than our first impressions—it’s a lengthy, detailed and sensitive process.  It goes beyond building trust with our informant and letting them know the goals behind this oral history project.  It is also about our manners, how we conduct ourselves, and the techniques and skills we implement. As interviewers it is imperative we become active–listeners, that we are being observant, are asking open-ended questions and the right follow-up questions.  By doing this we can be more thorough in our investigation of regional communities and neighborhoods.   

 
-->  Blog post: Fiona Mahar-Milani