Determine the purpose of your project. What is your desired outcome? Is your goal to create a family history? Do you want to present your project at a meeting of your local historical society? Perhaps you want to put together an exhibit for your school library, develop a website, or publish your project for teachers and others students to use. Determining your purpose will also help you to decide how many people you plan on interviewing.
 
 

Search for and select interviewees. The oldest interviewee isn't always the best. Oldest is a priority because they are not going to be around forever, but you should consider other factors as well. Consider the person's background and experience. Do they have historical insight, that is, do they know the significance of what they have lived through? Also, you may not want to limit yourself to extraordinary people because, while their story might be wonderful, it may not be typical.
 
 

Research! Hit the library and examine secondary sources and primary sources such as newspapers and town records. You want to be prepared to respond to what your interviewee is saying and ask effective follow-up questions. For instance, you are interviewing someone who went to UCONN during the 1960s. He mentions participating in a demonstration at Hawley Armory. You stop paying attention to his words as you are frantically thinking "What demonstration?" You should not learn about the demonstration for the first time during the interview. Remember, you are responsible for asking good questions and detecting inaccuracies.
 
 

Develop an interview guide. Identify main topics that you want to address. Develop some questions that you want to ask. This is only to help you prepare. Remeber, a good oral history interview is a conversation and is not putting someone on trial.  Do not give the list to your interviewee and do not stick to the list when you are interviewing. Our interview guide
 
 

Contact people and set up interviews. Tell everyone you know about your project. this is sure to turn up some leads. Contact organizations such as your local Historical Society, the American Legion, the Lions Club, Junior Women's, Senior Citizens centers. Send a letter to, e-mail or call prospective interviewees and explain the goals of your project. Make sure they fully understand how interview is going to be used. Be friendly and persuasive! Do not schedule two interviews on the same day. Interviewing takes a lot out of you and you don't want to burn out. Also, it is not a good idea to interview two people at the same time.  At the time of the interview, have the interviewee sign a form agreeing to participate in the interview.  Sample Interview Consent Form.
 
 

Transcribe Your Interview. Transcribing is the process of typing your interview as you listen to it. Transcribing is a long and tedious process, however your interview is more useful on paper than if it remains on tape. Reading is faster than listening and for some people it is easier to process. There are transcribing machines that slow the tape down but they are expensive and may not be readily available. You can do it without the aid of a transcribing machine. Find a quiet place, use headphones and be patient. There are services that will transcribe your tapes for a fee, however the fee may be steep. If transcribing is impossible, you can create a digital index using you tape recorder's digital counter. For instance label 1-25 childhood, 25-90 courtship and marriage and so on.
 
 

Edit. Send a copy to your interviewee for them to review. Have them make their correction in red ink so you can clearly see them. You must respect and carry through with any changes they wish to make. After all, it is their story. Have them sign a release form agreeing that this final version of the interview can be used by you in your project.  Sample Release Form.  Go over the interview yourself to check for inaccuracies. For instance, if you are interviewing someone and they say that Kennedy was president during World War II, you should eliminate that from the final transcript. For each interviewee you should have a copy of the original unedited version, a copy of the version with the interviewee's corrections, and a copy of the final edited version.
 
 

Send a copy of the final version and a thank you note to your interviewee.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Only one person at a time should speak. It is very difficult to distinguish who is saying what and what they are saying when more than one person is speaking.
 
 

Be Enthusiastic. Even if the woman you are interviewing is telling you every person who attended her wedding and you are bored out of your mind, nod your head, and smile. Encourage your interviewees to talk as much as possible, after all you don't want a bunch of "yes" or "no" responses.
 
 

You are not Barbara Walters or John Stossel. You are not an investigative reporter sticking a microphone in someone's face, confronting them with a lie, asking question to make them cry. Remember they are doing you a favor. Without them, you would not have much of a project.
 
 

Do not interrupt! Don't break up the interviewee's train of thought as you may loose important information or an interesting story as a result. Use your notepad to write down follow up questions and ask them after the interviewee has finished. Anticipate pauses. Your interviewee may not be finished but rather has paused to collect his or her thoughts.
 
 

Keep your personal opinions to yourself!You are not the interviewee. Also, your opinions may seem judgemental and cause the interviewee to watch what they say. For instance, if your interviewee says he approves of Truman's decision to drop the bomb, you should not disagree with him and say, "Well I think it was immoral !" and start to lecture him.
 
 

Ask open ended questions. The first question should be open ended. For instance "Where and when were you born?" or "Can you tell me about your early life?" instead of "You were born in Connecticut?" You want to get a flowing response, not a "yes" or "no" answer. Use the open ended question throughout the interview.
 
 

Don't ask leading questions. You should not place ideas and opinions in their heads. Instead of asking "Were you scared?" ask "How did you feel?"
 
 

Use the two-sentence format. This is useful especially when you are asking for personal information. This helps explain why you are asking the question and puts the interviewee at ease. For example: "Today we get the idea that everybody supported World War II. Did you know anybody who did not support the war?" Asking it in this way does not seem to accuse the person of not supporting the war.
 
 

Avoid the two-question question. "Why did you decide to enlist in the Army? What was your wife's reaction?" This will confuse the interviewee. Most likely, he will only answer one of the two questions.
 
 

Ask contrary questions. Don't just ask "Why did Kennedy win the election?" but also "Why did Nixon lose?"