The interview - due Wednesday, March 21

(Parent help is encouraged this week):

After the interview is set up, the student should make sure that they have at least five sets of questions that start with simple career choice type questions, and move up slowly, towards the most controversial elements of the issue. 

These five sets should be a pair of questions, one a complex question that must be answered with an explanation (similar to our EQ question used for Social Studies quizzes that students have written all year). The second part should be a followup question that asks to clarify a specific detail about the interviewee's answer in order to focus and get more information. At times, students will need to refocus the interviewee on the basic idea behind the question.

Students should draw on their research and Isearch papers to develop some of these questions. Students should try to find the interviewee's best arguments and pieces of evidence or personal experiences that support their opinions.

There are two methods of accomplishing the interview - 

1. In person or on the phone. Students will be taking a considerable amount of notes. It is suggested that the student record the conversation with the interviewee's consent, so that they can write up the most important parts, and pull key quotes necessary to write up a concise interview.

2. Via email. Students will send the first half of each pair of questions, and then send a second set of followup questions, or rephrased initial questions to help the interviewee answer the questions more thoroughly.

Writing the interview:

1. This is not to be a verbatim transcript of questions and answers.

2. The interview should introduce the interviewee, when and where the interview took place and how questions were recorded.

3. Typically each major question should be transformed into a paragraph, where key quotes are used only to reveal very important details about the topic, especially those details that surprised the student, or seem to go against common sense assumptions that most people have about the issue.

The interview should take place by the end of this week, March 16, and is due March 20th, as a first draft that is:

1. double spaced, typed 

2. a copy brought to class and 

3. saved in Google Docs and placed in a new collection: Controversial topic. The documents should be saved as "Interview (Topic - profession)." Example: Interview (Animal Testing - Oncologist).

4. Title format: Topic - an interview with (title first last name), (Profession) Example:

Animal Testing - 

An interview with Dr. Dave Smith, Oncologist