“American History Through the Eyes of Americans”: Conducting An Effective

Oral History Interview

Mrs. Alexes M. TerryU.S. History/African American History

DeSoto High SchoolSpring 2013

Region 10 TTC

What Is Oral History?

Oral history is a way to gather information from people who took part in past events (not hearsay, folklore, gossip, or rumors). Historians gather this information by interviewing people and recording their answers. Oral histories are created when one person interviews another person about a specific time period in their life or their memories of a specific topic. The interviewer takes the person’s responses and creates a text of their words and their story, told through their point of view.

On Conducting an Oral History Interview

• In order to conduct an oral history interview, select an interesting individual with a good memory who is willing to talk about his or her experiences (bias #1: oral histories provide no evidence from those who do not wish to discuss their pasts; bias #2: oral histories leave out the senile and those who did not survive; bias #3: oral histories come only from those who have contacts with the interviewer).

• Make a list of 25 questions that you want to ask and stick to them. This does not mean you should not let the person reminisce, but that you should attempt to keep the interview on track. Tell the person that you will be tape recording them (see cardinal rules 1 and 2 above).

• After you have conducted the interview, transcribe it--and keep the tape/video recoding.

On Conducting an Oral History Interview

An oral history is basically a primary source that an historian constructs from an interview with an interesting subject. There are a few cardinal rules for oral histories:

1)Tape record the interview and do not change what the interviewee says--not the language, not the order, not the content;

2) Tell the interviewee that you cannot turn off the tape recorder, ever--and don't do it. Some of the best information comes after the tape recorder turns off;

3) Include your own questions exactly as you asked them in the transcript of the interview, but;

4) If conducting more than one interview about the same topic, be consistent in the questions that you ask.

Steps to Completing the Oral History

• Select a person you wish to interview

• Obtain their permission

• Set up an interview time and location

• Plan your 25 interview questions and write them out

• Conduct the interview and record the answers (you may conduct your interview via audio/video recording, but final interview must be submitted in a typed transcript.)

Interview Manners

• Be on time.

• Be prepared. Have your questions ready and your recording device/pen or pencil with you (have a back up plan in case original recording plan fails).

• Be polite.

• Provide time for the person to answer questions. Do not interrupt, yet do not allow interviewee to take control of your interview.

• Say thank you at the end of the interview.

• Transcribe interview while it is fresh on your mind.

Bibliography

Information for this presentation was derived from the following source:

Lavender, Catherine. "On Conducting an Oral History Interview." On Conducting an Oral History Interview. n.p., 25 Feb. 1988. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.