Techniques for Documenting with Proof or Supporting Evidence, and Related Strategies for Problem Solving

Chapter 6) Technique-6, Interviews and Discussions to Obtain Information and Related Supporting Evidence to Write A Document

This e-book presents 28 techniques for supporting the validity of the statements and documents you write.

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Table of Contents, and an Outline of this Chapter

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PART ONE. 4

Topic 1.) Technique-6, Interviews and/or Discussions to Obtain Supporting Evidence. 4

Two Categories of Technique-6. 5

Topic 2.) Technique-6, Carrying Out Your Own Interviews and Discussions. 5

Subtopic, A Good Alternative, if You Lack Experience in Carrying Out Formal Interviews. 6

Subtopic, Prepare a Set of Questions, for the Interviewer Discussion 7

Subtopic, Carrying Out Interviews, or Discussions with the Telephone, and/or Email 7

Subtopic, Limitations and Difficulties that you Might Encounter if You Carry Out an Interview or Discussion. 10

Subtopic, Ethical Issues, When Carrying Out an Interview, or Discussion, for Your Writing Project 10

Additional and Supporting Information from Web-Based Video, in Regard to Conducting Interviews and Discussions. 13

PART TWO. 13

Topic 3.) Technique-6, Obtaining Interviews, Discussions, Public Hearings, and Speeches from Published Sources. 14

Subtopic, Analyzing, Interpreting, Evaluating, Published Material 15

Subtopic, Finding Web-Based Interviews, Discussions, Public Hearings, and Speeches. 16

Subtopic, Searching for Speeches and Other Published Material Created Before the 1930s. 17

Subtopic, A List of Websites and Search Pages with Interviews, Discussions, Public Hearings, and Speeches. 18

Interview video of: Nixon with no expletives deleted, CNN 21

Web-Based Articles Videos for Additional and Supporting Information, for Technique-6. 24

Web-Based Videos for Additional and Supporting Information, for Technique-6. 25

This E-Book Provides Additional and Supporting Information from other Authors, with Web Links

This e-book contains links to web-based articles and videos from other authors, for additional, alternative, and supporting information. The links are the blue underlined words, presented throughout this e-book. However, some of these links are to access different sections of this e-book, or material on my own websites.

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For an audio narration of PART TWO, left click on these words (requires 14 minutes, and 24 seconds).

PART ONE

Topic 1.) Technique-6, Interviews and/or Discussions to Obtain Supporting Evidence

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Technique-6, involves interviews and/or discussions to obtain evidence to support the validity of the statements in your document. This technique can serve a dual function. Specifically, the interviews or discussions will usually provide the information needed to write a document, as well as the supporting evidence. For example, the supporting evidence can be the names of experts that were interviewed, to obtain the information to write a document. This ideally should include the contact information of the experts.

Two Categories of Technique-6

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Technique-6 can be divided into two categories. The first involves discussions and interviews that you carry out yourself. The second category involves interviews, discussions, public hearings, and speeches that were obtained from published sources. A good example would be a video of a professional reporter, interviewing a famous person. The two categories are discussed in topics 2 and 3.

Topic 2.) Technique-6, Carrying Out Your Own Interviews and Discussions

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The interviews or discussions can represent your own efforts, such as having a discussion or interview with a friend, relative, colleague, your professor, etc. With a little extra effort, you probably will be able to obtain interviews of people you do not know. This can probably be done by explaining the purpose of your interview in a letter or email, and following up with one or more phone calls. Another strategy, which can be combined with the above, is to ask people you know to speak to people they know, explaining your need to carry out interviews. Another alternative is to ask for volunteers in advertisements, such as in local newspapers, or on print flyers, or by sending out emails. This is likely to work well if you offer a fee for their time and effort.

For additional information, from web-based sources, see the following articles:

How to Find Interview Subjects for Your Blog Posts and Articles

3 Ways to Find People for Informational Interviews, By Melissa Suzuno

Facing Your Fears: Approaching People For Research By Carolyn Chandler

Subtopic, A Good Alternative, if You Lack Experience in Carrying Out Formal Interviews

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If you do not have experience and training conducting interviews, you might be better off with an informal discussion. However, this might result in some extraneous information that might not be useful for your writing project.

In many situations, the ideal might be something in between a discussion and interview. This can involve a casual conversation that includes a few questions. This may be easier to obtain than a formal interview. To start a conversation you do not have to ask permission. However, if you use the person’s name, in your document you must obtain their permission. Even if you quote or paraphrase them anonymously, you should obtain their permission to do so.

Subtopic, Prepare a Set of Questions, for the Interviewer Discussion

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Whether you are planning to conduct an interview or carry out a discussion, you should have some idea of the information you want. You should prepare a list of questions that relate to your objective. However, it is probably best to allow the discussion or interview to develop naturally, without focusing excessively on a specific set of questions or objectives. With this approach, you might obtain interesting and useful information that was not in your original plans.

Subtopic, Carrying Out Interviews, or Discussions with the Telephone, and/or Email

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Another alternative is to carry out interviews or discussions with the telephone, and/or with email. Ideally, email and the telephone should be used together. This can involve a set of prepared question sent by email, followed up by one or more phone calls to obtain answers to the questions. If the questions are transmitted and answered by email, one or more telephone conversations can be used to discuss the answers, and related background information.

Some people will find it easier to carry out interviews in this way, and some interviewees will prefer this strategy. With this alternative, the interviewee does not have to allocate a block of time for an appointment. Email and telephone interviews can be done whenever the interviewee has some spare time. This can even involve a number of short phone conversations carried out over a week or two.

When emails are used, the interviewee can carefully evaluate your questions, and answer them more precisely, when compared to a face-to-face interview. The interviewer and interviewee are less likely to say the wrong thing when email is used. Email provides the opportunity to think over questions and answers to avoid embarrassing statements.

For additional information, and other alternatives see the following web-based sources:

Phone Interviewing as a Means of Data Collection: Lessons Learned and Practical Recommendations Lisa A. Burke & Monica K. Miller

The use of the telephone interview for research, Eloise C.J. Carr, BSc(Hons), MSc, PhD, RGN, PGCEA, RNT

Realities Toolkit # Using phone interviews, Annie Irvine, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York

3 Easy Tips For Un-Sucky Email Interviews

How to Administer an Email Interview

Conducting E-mail Surveys and Interviews, by Moira Allen

Skype: An Appropriate Method of Data Collection for Qualitative Interviews? Jessica R. Sullivan, Western Michigan University

How to Record Research Interviews Conducted via Skype, Date: November 7, 2014 Author: Isaac

Using internet technologies (such as Skype) as a research medium, Paul Hanna

University of Brighton, UK

Subtopic, Limitations and Difficulties that you Might Encounter if You Carry Out an Interview or Discussion

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If you are not a well-known news reporter or author, you might encounter some difficulties and limitations, when you carry out an interview or discussion. First, you probably would not be able to meet with famous people for interviews. In addition, your readers and/or publisher might perceive your paraphrases, and quotes, from the interview or discussion as weak supporting evidence. Anything you write that relates to an interview or discussion might be perceived as a statement that lacks adequate supporting evidence.

The solution to the above problem is to use additional supporting evidence, when you write statements that are based on an interview or discussion. This can involve a video and/or sound recording of the interview. In some cases, it might be feasible to use published sources to support the validity of some of the statements that were obtained from an interviewer or a discussion. For example, if your interview involves obtaining technical advice from experienced computer users, you can use citations or referrals to published sources, to convince the readers and publisher of the validity of the information in your document.

Subtopic, Ethical Issues, When Carrying Out an Interview, or Discussion, for Your Writing Project

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When you carry out your own interviews or discussions to obtain information for your writing project, there can be some ethical issues. These problems can be eliminated with the strategies presented in this subtopic.

First, you should explain to the people you plan to talk to, the nature and purpose of your writing project. You should indicate that you want to use their statements and/or opinions for the document you are writing. If you plan to make a videotape or sound recording of the interview or discussion, you should get permission to do so in advance. If your interviews or discussions are focused on personal information, such as for a sociological or psychological study, you should delete the names of the people you spoke to in the final draft of your document. Alternatively, you can place the names with pseudo-names.

When your interviews or discussions are focused on sensitive personal information, you should not accept any participant that gives you permission reluctantly. For example, this can involve an individual that appears to be excessively concerned or worried about revealing personal information, after the details of the project were explained.

Question: What do you do when an individual gives you permission to videotape, quote, or paraphrase them, but they changed their mind after the interviewer discussion is completed? The answer to this question is subjective. I believe it is best to comply with their wishes, and not use the material you obtained. However, if they are not overly distressed about the issue, it may be advisable to try to convince them to allow you to use the material, before discarding your work.

Additional and Supporting Information from Web-Based Articles, in Regard to Conducting Interviews and Discussions

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How To Conduct an Interview “Interviews have four stages that precede the writing of a story: arrangements, preparation, the actual interview and the reconstruction.”

6. Best practice in interviewing Joanna Chrzanowska

Demo qualitative interview with mistakes Joanna Chrzanowska

RESEARCH METHODS Knowledge Base The Role of the Interviewer

Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Interview Techniques in Qualitative Research, Raymond Opdenakker

Design Research Techniques Semi-Structured Interviews

Interviews: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Why Interview Research?

Interview Methodology, Heather Hamill

Additional and Supporting Information from Web-Based Video, in Regard to Conducting Interviews and Discussions

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The following is a very good video that shows how to conduct interview, and how not to conduct an interview: How to do a research interview Graham R Gibbs

Interviewing for a Research Project Shawna 12 videos by Shawna W

Interviewing for Research Projects : Research Projects: Preparing Interview Questions

Interviewing for Research Projects : Research Projects: Types of Interview Questions

Interviewing for Research Projects : Research Projects: Record Keeping During Interviews

Interviews and Personal Communication

Social Research Sample Interview

PART TWO

Topic 3.) Technique-6, Obtaining Interviews, Discussions, Public Hearings, and Speeches from Published Sources

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The limitations and difficulties, mentioned in the previous topic, are eliminated, when you use published sources for interviews or discussions. This includes web-based articles, videos, and sound recordings that contain interviews carried out by professional news reporters. Of course, this is not the same as carrying out your own interviews and discussions, which may represent original research. However, using published sources has its own unique utility and advantages. With this alternative, you can use interviews, discussions, public hearings, and speeches from famous people, even if they are deceased.

With this version of Technique-6, you should refer the readers to the published sources you used to write your document. This serves as supporting evidence for the statements you wrote that were based directly or indirectly on a published interviews, discussions, public hearings, and speeches. If you used any quote or paraphrases from the published material, you must credit the sources using any citation style that is appropriate for your writing project.

Published interviews, discussions, and speeches are often recorded on video or audio tape. However, they may be transcribed into text, and presented in articles, which may be web-based or in the hard copy format. The videos are most useful because, you can see body language and facial expressions. Text transcriptions are useful when dealing with historical material that was created before the development of high-quality tape recordings.

Subtopic, Analyzing, Interpreting, Evaluating, Published Material

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When using published interviews, discussions, public hearings, and speeches, it may be interesting to analyze, and evaluate body language, verbal content, the speakers, and the related history. One way of doing this is to devise a series of questions, such as the following:

· What are the probable motivations involved with the verbal responses?

· What are the set of events, or history that led to the speech, discussion, or verbal responses?

· What are the emotional states of the people that are speaking? This can be based on tone of voice, words used, and body language.

· What is your opinion about the individual or people that are speaking? When writing about your opinion, you should label it as such.

· What other questions can you devise that relates to the material you are evaluating question?

· Does it appear that any of the speakers are lying, or trying to conceal something important?

You can sometimes determine the answer to the above question highlighted in yellow, by examining history. People that are lying may eventually confess publicly, or historical evidence shows that they were lying beyond any reasonable doubt. This can be seen with the following two examples, involving former President Bill Clinton, and Lance Amstrong

Example 1)

Clinton, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman... In this video does it look like Bill Clinton is concealing something, or lying?

Bill Clinton admits to having inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky

Example 2)

Lance Amstrong Denies Using Drugs through the years In this video does it look like Lance Amstrong is concealing something or lying?

Lance Armstrong on Oprah: In this video, he admits he was lying.

Subtopic, Finding Web-Based Interviews, Discussions, Public Hearings, and Speeches

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A convenient way to find recorded interviews is to use Google video, at www.google.com/videohp One way of doing this is to create a search phrase such as Interviews with X. The X represents the name of the person, such as Martin Luther King, which results in the search phrase: Interviews with Martin Luther King. The X can also represent a topic of interest, such as interviews about the space program. The above strategy usually brings up a series of Google search pages with many videos. However, usually at least some of the material on the webpage is irrelevant to the search.

The idea presented above, also applies to public hearings, speeches, senate hearings, and some court cases. This essentially involves search phrases, such as the following:

· Speeches of X, X’s speeches, or Speeches by X For example, Martha Luther King’s speeches

· Public hearings with X For example, Public hearings involving the space program

· Senate hearings with X For example, senate hearings with President Nixon

Subtopic, Searching for Speeches and Other Published Material Created Before the 1930s

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When searching for speeches and other material created before the 1930s, it is best to use www.Google.com, with the goal of obtaining text transcripts. This is because, before the 1930s, electronic recording were not widely used, or of very poor quality, or unavailable. The search phrases presented in the previous subtopic can be used to find text transcripts, such as the following examples.

Speeches by Abraham Lincoln This search revealed a very useful website, which is Selected Speeches and Writings by Abraham Lincoln

Speeches by George Washington

Speeches by Thomas Jefferson

Subtopic, A List of Websites and Search Pages with Interviews, Discussions, Public Hearings, and Speeches

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The web links presented in this subtopic are for accessing interviews, discussions, public hearings, and speeches. Also included, are links to access search pages, and websites to find videos, sound recordings and text transcripts. Some of the speeches and discussions are very interesting.

THE FOLLOWING ARE DISCUSSIONS, INTERVIEWS, AND SPEECHES THAT WERE RECORDED ON VIDEO, OR AUDIO TAPE:

The Jonestown Death Tape (FBI No. Q 042) “An audio recording made on November 18, 1978, at the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana immediately preceding and during the mass suicide and murder of over 900 members of the cult.” This is an audio recording of mass suicide of adults, and multiple murders of children, conducted by Jim Jones. It is very unpleasant to listen to, especially towards the end, but it is interesting.

Note the website that archived the above recording appears to be an excellent source of general information: https://archive.org “Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.”

Video Interview: Bill Clinton Accuser Juanita Broaddrick Relives Brutal Rapes This includes videos and text.

America Declares War on Japan - President Roosevelt Speech

Mahatma Gandhi First Television Interview (30 April 1931)

Martin Luther King Jr Interview (Part 1 of 3)

Martin Luther King Jr Interview (Part 2 of 3)

Martin Luther King Jr Interview (Part 3 of 3)

David Frost extracts apology from Richard Nixon in famed interview

Lyndon B. Johnson-Speech on Vietnam (September 29, 1967

Richard Nixon-Address to the Nation on an Agreement to End the War in Vietnam (January 23, 1973)

David Frost extracts apology from Richard Nixon in famed interview

Sept. 20, 2001 - Bush Declares War on Terror

THE FOLLOWING ARE USEFUL WEBSITES FOR ACCESSING INTERVIEWS, SPEECHES, AND RELATED MATERIAL:

Speeches - Indexed by Speech Topic: “This speech collection is organized in alphabetical order by speech subject, theme, or topic.”

American Rhetoric, 100 speeches

The 1930s Speeches & Audio

www.americanrhetoric.com is an excellent information resource. One of the webpages from this website is titled American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches, and it provides links to access VIDEOS AND SOUND RECORDINGS containing speeches.

SOUND RECORDINGS AND TEXT The History Place: Great speeches Collection

TEXT: The 35 Greatest Speeches in History, Brett & Kate McKay

50 Famous Author Interviews That Shouldn’t Be Missed