A brief guide to structuring the interview space. Particularly useful for undergraduate students interviewing for coursework, or volunteer interviewers without significant methods training. Includes brainstorming worksheet.

1. THE
ABBREVIATED
LIFE STORY
INTERVIEW
BROOKE BRYAN, ANTIOCH COLLEGE
ORAL HISTORY IN THE LIBERAL ARTS
A TACTICAL APPROACH TO ORAL HISTORY
INTERVIEWING

2. IT BEGINS WITH
INFORMED CONSENT
We cannot possibly interview people in the name of oral
history without going through a rigorous informed consent
process:
• go over your project statement/research goals/outcomes
• why you sought them out as an interviewee
• provide explicit descriptions of how the interviews will be
accessed, used, and published.
• help your interviewee conceive of potential audiences
• how they can decide to opt-out, and when an opt-out is no
longer feasible
• sharing of release forms which are signed after the interview

3. WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE
SAY “INFORMED CONSENT?”
The federal government
requires institutions
receiving federal funds
to be certain that
elements of informed
consent are in place
before their affiliates can
commence research
involving human
subjects.
LEGAL
Professional
organizations, scholars,
and public intellectuals
recommend protocols
for best practices, in
keeping with
contemporary ethical
sensibilities and
possibly applicable legal
landscapes.
ETHICAL

4. WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE
SAY “INFORMED CONSENT?”
Institutional Review
Boards are a mandated
entity at institutions that
receive federal funds.
They exist to be sure that
all projects affiliated with
the institution have
rigorous informed
consent practices in place
for projects involving
people. The Principal
Investigator is the
responsible party.
LEGAL
Practicing oral history in
accordance with the
standards published by
the Oral History
Association is a voluntary
decision to act in
accordance with the
professional community
of practitioners.
However, certain funding
agencies will often only
fund projects that adopt
professional best
practices.
ETHICAL

5. THE ART OF THE
INTERVIEW
• an interview is a conversation between two people on a
pre-established topic/theme
• a willing interviewee wants to share their experience. don’t
overestimate your role as interviewer (who is ‘doing’
what? facilitate the conversation.)
• Interviewing LISTENING is an art form that becomes more
refined with practice
• a refined interview style comes from how you structure
the interview time, and how you ask questions/follow-up
questions

6. THINK. PLAN. ACT.
INTERPRET.
Thus, before embarking on a busy
interview schedule one needs to be
oriented to one's question or notion in
such a strong manner that one does
not get easily carried away with
interviews that go everywhere and
nowhere.
~Max van Manen

7. BE TACTICAL.
The ‘abbreviated life story’ interview
model is just one example of how to
structure the interview space,
developed to be a resource for
student and volunteer interviewers
with little methodological training.

8. LEDE
REFLECTIVE TURN:
TOWARDS IMPLICATIONS
AND MEANING
PURPOSEFUL TURN:
TOWARDS THE TOPIC
DEPTH
QUESTIONS
EARLY
LIFE
FINAL
THOUGHTS

9. THE LEDE
After sound checks, begin recording with a lede that
establishes the identity of interviewer and interviewee, the
place and date, and implicit consent to participate in the
stated project for the stated purpose.
Your lede will be directly related to your project statement.
“I am Brooke Bryan, here with Juanita Shockey Harris, to talk
about her life as a quiltmaker for a project exploring Flow and
Conservation Cultures in Oral History in the Liberal Arts.
Juanita, thank you for your willingness to speak with me. Can
you please state your full name, and your birth date?”
…
“Thanks. Today is March 13, 2016. Let’s begin with…”

10. EARLY LIFE
Let’s start at the beginning. Tell me about your family and
where you grew up…
What family values were passed on to you?
Who were your key mentors or teachers?
• Seek sensory descriptions (visuals/sounds/smells). Family
dinner times, neighborhood friends, early learning
experiences.
• Just be interested! Ease into the conversation and allow
yourselves to get comfortable.

11. THE PURPOSEFUL TURN
Bring the interview to the topic at hand, towards the
particular theme at hand:
For place-based or event-focused projects, you can
bring about the ‘purposeful turn’ with questions like:
• “You grew up in Idaho. How did you come to find
yourself in Yellow Springs?”
• “I know you experienced the March ‘64 demonstrations
in your home town, but let’s get a sense of the
community before those events unfolded. Where did
you go for social events, where did people go for fun?”

12. THE PURPOSEFUL TURN
For thematically-oriented projects exploring ideas, broad
themes of social history, or communities of practice:
• “how did you first become involved with *** organization?”
• “when did you first realize you were perceived by others as
different?”
• “what is your first memory of being ***?”
• “when did you know you wanted to be a *** (English major,
marine biologist)?”
• “how did you come to be involved with ***
(person/institution/community)?”

13. DEPTH QUESTIONS
• An interview project— especially one that has multiple
volunteer or student interviewers— must have a core set
of questions that get at the heart of the project’s intent
• Depth questions provide continuity across interviews
• Depth questions should be carefully researched and are
probably established by the project planners and advisory
group
• Depth questions were articulated in your IRB application
(if applicable) and

14. THE REFLECTIVE TURN
Once the topic is explored through structured Depth Questions,
bring the interview to the reflective stage by giving the
interviewee space to ponder what it all means, why it matters.
• “Bring us to contemporary times. Where did things go from
there? Have things changed?”
• “Would you do something differently if you could do it all over?
Do you have regrets?”
• “Were your actions/responses enough?”
• “Have your experiences
• —changed your perspective?”
• —impacted the trajectory of your life?”
• —caused you to think differently?”
• —brought change to your family?”

15. CONCLUSION & FOLLOW-UP
This is your chance to return to unfinished business in the
interview, open it up to topics you didn’t ask about, and
thank the interviewer for participating.
• Earlier you mentioned… and I’d like to go back to that…
• Is there anything we haven’t spoken about that you would like
to talk about?
• Thank you so much for speaking with me today.

17. RESOURCES
Oral History in the Liberal Arts
Oral History in the Digital Age
Oral History Association Best Practices
Forms in the Community Oral History Toolkit
‘Do History’ Oral History Toolkit
Baylor University Intro to Oral History packet
Question generator at StoryCorps
The American Folklife Center’s Cultural
Documentation Resources