Interview and Transcription Workshop: Creating a Useable and Permanent Record

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Interview and Transcription Workshop Creating a
Useable and Permanent Record
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As You Prepare to Interview and Transcribe
THINK

• Research
• Rapport
• Responsibility
• Reflection
• Restraint
• Respect

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Pre-InterviewBefore You Push the Play and
Record Button

• Develop a rapport with interviewee
• Ask them if they have any materials for you to
  examine?
• Coffee, lunch, dinner, mow the lawn
• The more you get to know each other the better
  the interview will be

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Choosing Your Equipment(Sound Matters)
-Stephen E. Everett. Oral History Techniques and
Procedures (Washington, D.C., Center of Military
History-United States Army, 1992).
http//www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/oral.htm.
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Required Equipment

• Tape recorder and external microphone
• Two, 60-minute tapes
• Extension cord
• Batteries
• Camera
• Disengage voice activation button

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Location, Location, Location

• The quality of your interview is significantly
  effected by where the interview takes place.
• Ask yourself, Are there any background noises
  that could end up on the recording?

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Developing Interview QuestionsHave a Plan of
Attack

• As you research for your historical
  contextualization keep a running list of
  potential questions. Consider what is missing
  from the sources you examined.
• Create a research timeline
• See what other oral historians have asked
• Expect interview to last a minimum of 1 hour
  (Take a break if requested or if going too long)

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Be Prepared, Be Flexible, Be Respectful

• The best interviewers are able to think on their
  feet and develop new questions and follow-up
  questions in response to the unpredictability of
  an
• interviewees responses.
• An interview succeeds when the fully
• engaged interviewer constantly evaluates his
• interviewees responses and changes gears.
• -Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History

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Types of Questions
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What do you think are common mistakes made by
students?

• View and discuss Talking Gumbo

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What do you think are common mistakes made by
students?

• Asking more than one question at a time
• Asking Yes or No questions
• Not listening (talking more than the interviewee,
  arguing with interviewee)
• Looking disinterested (Respect)
• Lack of practice
• Misplacement of emotional or controversial
  questions
• Not asking follow-up questions (Grade Buster)

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Interview Checklist

• Camera for picture
• List of interview questions
• Interview release form
• Notebook and pen to take notes during the
  interview
• Dress professionally
• Test your equipment

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Following the Interview

• Punch out and label tapes
• Make back-up copy for transcription process

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Following the Interview

• Write a thank you note
• If you feel you missed a question call back or
  e-mail the questions for response
• Transcribe as soon as possible

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Mock Interview Worksheet
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The Transcription

• Expect 6 hours of typing for every hour of
  transcription
• At the time of the project, I can
• Remember complaining profusely about
• how laborious transcription is. Here I
• will grudgingly admit that which did not
• kill me made me stronger.
• - Libby Barringer, St. Andrews Episcopal
  School Student

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Before You TranscribeListen to the Recording for
10-15 minutes

• Tape Listening Activity
• (Previous years student recording and transcript)

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Basic Rules of Transcription

• Put it all down
• Question Does every project need to be
  transcribed in full?
• Answer Yes, but . . .

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Exceptions

• False starts
• Crutch words
• Um, Uhs, ahs, mmmms
• Include uh-huh or Uh-uh when used to mean
  yes or no
• Retain questions posed by interviewer but pare
  down rambling

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What to Do About Grammar?

• Basic Rule Maintain tone of response
• Do not put interviewees words into standard
  English, maintain dialect
• Commas and dashes can reflect pauses in spoken
  word
• Maintain vulgar responses and time period
  appropriate words

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Pauses, Missing or Unintelligible, Inaudible Words

• Identify pauses when people speak
• Place a question mark before and after a word or
  phrase to indicate any uncertainty about it
  (?destroyed?)
• Identify garbled or unintelligible portions of
  the tape by
• -If one word is inaudible, indicate the gap
  with a ___??. When multiple words are inaudible,
  insert ___??.

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Non-Verbals

• Actions or gestures the listener or reader cannot
  see are noted and enclosed in parentheses
  (laughs, winks, expression of sorrow)
• Avoid editorializing, just put (laughs) not
  (laughs rudely)
• Indicate the end of a side of the tape in capital
  letters, for example
• END OF SIDE ONE, TAPE ONE BEGIN SIDETWO, TAPE
  ONE

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Adding Information

• To clarify an interviewees response, additional
  information such as first names, dates,
  definitions or technical, obsolete or slang terms
  should be placed in square brackets in the
  text.
• Informational footnotes can provide more detailed
  material at the bottom of the page.

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Final Edits

• Respect the interviewees right to review and
  edit the transcript, but note that such edits
  have taken place in the transcript heading
• Any changes in the transcription can be detected
  by researchers by listening to the unaltered
  recording of the interview.
• Create Time-Indexing Log

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Transcription Training

• Listening and Transcribing Activity

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Works Consulted

• This Interview and Transcription Workshop
  included adapted materials and courses from
• Thomas Saylor, The Transcribing Process Making
  a Permanent Record for Oral History Project of
  the World War II Years. Concordia University.
• Library of Congress Veterans History Project
  Interview Transcription Guidelines
• Glenn Whitman, Dialogue with the Past Engaging
  Students and Meeting Standards Through Oral
  History (AltaMira Press, 2004)