SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW, INVESTIGATING CULTURE

Interview your grandparent or a relative you know well ofyour grandparents generation. If no relative is available, an acquaintance ofthe same generation (age your grandparent is/would be now) can be asked to helpwith the project (if you use someone other than your grandparent, you must obtainthe professors okay first). Before conducting the interview, do someresearch about the persons surrounding context at the time they were your age (history,geography, social practices).

Beforebeginning, read this short, very clear and readable publication: Oral History for Texans by Thomas L.Charlton (copyright 1985 Texas Historical Commission), which has some excellentadvice and points about interviewing about the past (and in general), forexample, about the importance of silence to give an interviewee some time togather their thoughts or add something, the interviewers significant role asan observer during the interview, and ways to think about sequence or follow upquestions (e.g. what he calls the funnel shaped sequence or the invertedfunnel).

Note: Unlikethe historians concern with the value of oral evidence mentioned in the lastsection of the 
article (p. 35-37), in this project your intervieweesreflections, recollections and interpretations are an important part of documentingand understanding the process of sharing and producing culture.
 
The project: Interview the person you have selected usingall of the topics below. There are 13 topics there is one Opening Questionfor each topic. There are also optional follow-up questions. Sometimes peopletalk so much about the opening question that only one or two of the follow-upquestions are needed. But then, some people need some prompting, and thatswhat the optional follow-up questions are designed for. You can also usefollow-up questions of your own. The idea is to get them talking about theopening question.
Length: 10-15 pages single spaced. Format: field notesand comments, paragraphs on different topics, not a polished essay.

PLEASE FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS. WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS ATTACHED. NO PLAGIARISM. REQUIRE PLAGIARISM REPORT TO BE DELIVERED UPON COMPLETION