Writing Homework Help

Products:

Please compile these documents as a single PDF in this order:

1. Your field guide, developed with your group
2. A brief reflection (approximately 500 words) on: (1) What you would do differently in the future and why, (2) What you can and can’t learn from in-depth interviews to answer your research question, and (3) What strategies you think you could use to learn that missing information
3. Expanded field notes
4. Verbatim interview transcript

Tips

Start early. Scheduling a 90-minute window when you and your informant can both meet can take longer than you think. And even for very fast typists, it generally takes at least 4 hours of work to transcribe one hour of interview

Write your notes as soon as you finish your interview. Your memory will be fresher.

Make sure you know how your recording device or app works. Reconstructing an interview from memory is a bummer.

Your interview should last about an hour, with your informant doing most of the talking. Probe repeatedly, circle back to things they said a few minutes ago, allow yourself to follow new ideas that you hadn’t thought of when you originally designed your field guide but that you suspect will be important to the research question.

Grading criteria

These are what I will be looking for, in relative order of importance:

1. Does your reflection demonstrate that you understand what type of data we use in-depth interviews to collect, when they are a useful tool to answer a research question, and when something else might be more useful?
2. Do your expanded field notes provide useful details on the context and setting of the interview? Are your theoretical and methodological notes thoughtful and reflexive regarding what you found, how you think the dynamic between you and your informant affected the data, and what you might change next time?
3. Is your interview field guide appropriate to answer the research question?
4. Do you mostly try to ask open-ended, non-leading questions that draw out your informant’s expertise? (i.e., are you having a guided conversation rather than administering a survey?)
5. Is your transcript verbatim?
6. Is your assignment pleasant to read? Is it well written with clear and consistent formatting (APA or MLA)?