{"id":930,"date":"2017-05-17T11:35:57","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inside.gcschool.org\/gracegazette\/?p=930"},"modified":"2017-05-17T11:35:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:35:57","slug":"how-to-conduct-an-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/how-to-conduct-an-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Conduct an Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, I interviewed renowned Professor Todd Gitlin, at Columbia University, on his involvement in the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War. He was key in organizing over 25,000 college students to attend the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/todayinclh.com\/?event=anti-vietnam-war-march-on-washington\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">March on Washington<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on April 17, 1965. Other significant protest movements were the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.history.com\/this-day-in-history\/national-moratorium-demonstrations-held-across-the-united-states\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moratorium Project<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 1969, where around 250,000 people marched to Washington D.C., and the marches against the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/endgenocide.org\/learn\/past-genocides\/the-cambodian-genocide\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cambodian invasion in 1970<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Gitlin says that \u201clobbying against the war in Washington was quite effective in mobilizing congressional support to unplug the war, to cut off funds for the war.\u201d Just as these protests played a role in convincing the government to withdraw from these conflicts, protests today could have a great impact on governmental action and policy during the Trump era.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I conducted this interview for my Culture and Violence in Southeast Asia class as part of a final project consisting of an essay and a podcast on a topic of my choice. I chose the American protests during the Vietnam War. This interview added a higher level of knowledge to my essay and made it easier for me to do research based on the topics we had discussed together.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At some point or another in your career as a student or professional, you will be required to interview someone. Having the skills to make a connection with your subject will help you get more information and make your assignment better. While it can definitely be anxiety-inducing to question somebody else about their lives, a lot can be learned. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what I would suggest to conduct an interview:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do research, and prepare your questions (10-15) beforehand based on the topic of your article\/essay\/podcast. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plan the interview well in advance and follow up the day before to confirm the time and place of your meeting.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Highlight the questions that are most important for your assignment and what you are trying to prove.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask if you can record the interview! It\u2019s much better to have audio than to completely forget what was discussed. Also, take notes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listen to them and don\u2019t ask a question that they already gave an answer to. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Begin with overarching, not controversial questions and then move to specific questions. End with any clarifying questions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use buffer questions to ease into getting to know the person before asking your most vital questions. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the interview, write down any big takeaways, things you might forget, and important phrases to look up later.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I interviewed renowned Professor Todd Gitlin, at Columbia University, on his involvement in the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War. He was key in organizing over 25,000 college students&hellip; <span class=\"read-more-span\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/how-to-conduct-an-interview\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How to Conduct an Interview&#8221;<\/span> <span class=\"genericon genericon-next\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"appful":[],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9uEnr-f0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"appful","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/appful?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}