So, what are you supposed to write and present? Some guidance

No one's asked this-- yet-- but I have a feeling it won't be a bad idea to provide some guidance.

Here's what I'm thinking: My intention is for this to be useful for you (and for each other), so what I'd like you to do is to tell the story of your interview, highlighting the most important things you learned.

I want to note here-- and this is important (and may not be what you expected): The most important stuff you learned may or may not be what your interviewee actually said to you. It's whatever you learned from the whole experience, so, for example, it could be:

* What you learned from the experience of *getting* the interview.
* What you learned from the *process* of preparing for the interview (doing research, writing out your questions, etc.)
* What you learned from the process of *doing* the interview (and note here: we often learn the most from what goes wrong. When we find ourselves under-prepared, or too nervous, or whatever. Drawing some conclusions about what you would do differently next time may be the most important lesson you can get.)
* What you learned may have more to do with the other person's manner-- (Were they much nicer than you expected? Or, conversely, were they kind of a jerk, or just awkward?)


This may sound obvious and redundant, but what you learned means: What surprised you? What happened that you didn't expect? And what conclusions did you draw from that experience?

Again, we often learn the most when things go wrong-- or at least don't go as we expected/planned. SO: It's important NOT to sugar-coat your experience (or your performance). The mistakes are the most important part. Don't leave them out.

Here's a highly-recommended structure, especially for the in-class presentations. Even if you modify and adapt it, please make sure to answer all of the following questions:

1. Lead: Who did you interview, and what's the most important thing you learned from them? (This is 1 or 2 sentences, tops-- practice with the inverted pyramid style.)

2. Chronology: Walk us through these steps, but give the most EMPHASIS to the one where you learned the most. (This is especially important in your oral presentations, where you'll have only a limited amount of time.)

a. How and why did you choose this person?
b. How did you go about getting in touch with them and getting them to agree to the interview?
c. How did you decide what you wanted to talk with them about?
d. What research did you do to prepare for the interview?
e. What were the main questions you planned to ask?
f. Briefly tell the story of the conversation itself (e.g., I reached Mr. X by phone last Friday, and we talked for 10 minutes. He seemed in a rush when he picked up the phone. He responded to question A this way: blah blah blah. He really warmed up to question B. [Summary of what s/he said, with quotes to illustrate]...

3. What you learned and how: You'll deal with this mostly in the "chronology" section, going into detail about whichever step of the process was most important for your learning. But you may have a few overall notes-- other lessons learned along the way-- or your most-important lessons could be big-picture (for instance, about time management?) rather than about a specific step in the process.

In closing, I can't say this enough: The what-you-learned part, the heart of this assignment, is really the answer to the following two questions:

1. What happened that surprised you?
2. Reflecting on that surprise, how did it change your point of view?

So:

The part that went the "worst" may be the part you can learn the most from. What would you do differently next time? Making mistakes is how we learn.

Or:

the thing that surprised you most *may* be something your interviewee said in your conversation. That's also great, of course.

OR what surprised you may have been some other kind of success: that you were ABLE to get through to somebody who'd seemed like a long-shot, that you found a persistence and resourcefulness in yourself that you hadn't tapped into this way before, that you REALLY LIKE interviewing people. Also totally great.

Whatever your experience with this assignment was, the key here is to share it honestly; that's the way to make it really useful to your classmates, and to get the reward of their support.

Cool? Cool.

Meanwhile, I'm still working on revising the grading curve on paper #2-- thanks for your patience! You'll have something to look at before class on Friday for sure.