Identify, invite, and interview a guest related to your term project

In this class we’ll be assessing different sources of information and data. One of the most useful often turns out to be people with expertise. You will identify someone from the community, invite them to class, conduct an interview (leaving time for other students to ask questions), and write up what you learned. We’ll discuss the possibilities here—it could be the mayor, someone from city council county commission, the chamber of commerce, council of churches, director of a welfare agency, community health, the sheriff, hospital administrator, etc. You get the picture. But it does need to be someone with experience and expertise working with community members, preferably living in this area, and related to your group’s project. Point breakdown follows.

A 70 point paper. Seventy points means I’m looking for effort. Here’s the breakdown:

Part I: Choice and questions (20 pts possible)

The choice: Justify the choice you made for the interview, how it fits into your group’s overall project. Discuss other people you considered, and why you ended up with the one you chose (sometimes it’s because the others weren’t available–just looking for an honest and thoughtful discussion of this).

The questions: Include in your write up a copy of the questions you prepared, and for each a brief rationale for why you were asking it (what did it have to do with your project, the problem you were focusing on, tying it to the larger community, etc.), and an explanation of the order and wording of questions where appropriate. Also describe the process of making contact and setting up the interview, as well as research you did prior to the interview relevant to your guest.

Part II: The interview content and process (35 pts)

The interview content: Here is where you will discuss what you actually learned from the interview, compare it with what you hoped to learn. This is the most important section of the paper.

The interview process: How did that go? Discuss all aspects–possibly sharing questions, follow-ups you asked or didn’t, opening it up to the rest of the class, order of the questions, etc. You should engage in some critical thinking here–I’m more looking for what you learned than what you think your audience (me) wants to here. I want to hear what you learned. 

The other 15 points are based on your level of effort and your ability to discuss and organize what you learned, remembering your focus was two-fold–the project you were working on, as well as how it fits in with a study of communities.

Points for the effort put into interview questions (20), interview itself (35), and effort and write-up (15; 70 points total). Paper due no later than May 22 (Monday of week 8). Length: Minimum of 4 pages, maximum of 6 pages (double-spaced, standard fonts and margins). Include transcription as an appendix/attachment.