Posted: November 29th, 2014

Qualitative Report- interview

Assignment 1 – Qualitative Report- interview -writer choose topic,

The first assignment is to produce a research report (max. 3000 words) based on an analysis of qualitative data you will each collect by undertaking an interview. Your task is to conduct an interview, record it, transcribe a sample of your recordings, undertake some initial analysis of the content of the conversation and reflect on the process of collecting data this way. It is expected you will support this using insights gained by your wider reading on the subject of qualitative interviewing.

The aims of the assignment are:
to familiarise yourself with the use of a qualitative method (in this case interviewing) for both data production and data analysis
to develop your research interviewing and transcription skills
to promote reflection on the process of doing qualitative research.
The assignment task is to use a semi-structured or an unstructured interview process to discover your interviewees views and perspectives on the subject of the experiences of postgraduate students who study abroad.

This will involve using interview approaches to probe the subject and gather and analyse your interviewees own responses to this topic (in his or her own words).

The expectation is that you will interview a fellow postgraduate student, possibly someone from your own course (but you can interview a postgraduate student from outside the University of Lincoln if you wish). You will have to use your initiative to find a person who will be willing to be interviewed. It is preferable to make contact with someone you dont know very well; a useful approach to do this may be to seek someone who is a friend of a friend.

Give yourself plenty of time to set up the interview. Having made contact, you will have to explain what the interview is about and arrange a time and date. The interview should take place at a location where the interviewee feels comfortable but also where you are both safe, for example, in a public space such as the university library or business school building during normal office hours. (University guidance on lone working can be found at https://portal.lincoln.ac.uk/C1/hs/Health Safety Handbook/S, Lone working policy and Guidance v1-5.doc). Set aside between 1 to 2 hours for the interviewing; you may not need this long but dont underestimate how long it may take to undertake a meaningful interview. The intention is to allow the interviewee to talk freely.

You decide if you want to use a unstructured or semi-structured interview approach. You must explain your choices in the method discussion of your report. If you use a semi-structured approach prepare a schedule of interview topics you think it may be useful to discuss (please include these as an appendix to your report and comment on the practical and theoretical relevance of these in your analysis). If you use unstructured interviewing approaches describe in your report how you started the discussion and used follow-up questions. You should lead your interviewee into the topic gently without putting words into his or her mouth; so you should not introduce too much rigid structure or artificiality into the conversation. The atmosphere should be relaxed allowing your interviewee to talk in detail about events important to him or her. Your role is to keep the interview flowing and on-course and respond to their conversation appropriately with follow-up questions and comments. Ideally you want to capture rich, descriptive details of their experiences and perspectives.

There are three stages to this assignment, each has specific marks allocated to it and must be in evidence in your final report:

1) Data production and Method (approx. 1000 words):
Each student is to conduct their own interview with a relevant participant and should consider (through appropriate reading) how to conduct this successfully.
The report should discuss who you selected (a general description, without identifying the individual); why you selected them and how you set up the interview with them.
Ethical guidelines are emphasised and you should ensure that you follow these (including for example considering issues of informed consent and confidentiality).
The interview must be recorded – this must be kept safe and made available to the tutor if requested. You should be able to use your phone, mp3 player, computer or a recorder to complete this task. (Loan audio/video equipment if required is under the supervision of Media Loans, Ground Floor, MHT building; equipment is limited so book early!)
Your report should include an account of the methods used and your methodological approach. Academic references should be used to indicate how your approach was informed by background reading on qualitative interviewing. You should also discuss how and why any themes were chosen to help structure the interview and how the resulting data was analysed.

2) Transcription (approx. 500 words of actual conversation from the interview):
The assignment must include a transcript of part of the interview; which should demonstrate the use of transcription techniques.
Students need to familiarise themselves with the script of the resulting interview. They should listen to the tape several times to work out which parts of the conversation are most relevant, interesting and able to demonstrate your transcription skills. This extract from the interview should be around 500 words and must include (as a minimum) the exact words as spoken during part of the interview.
The interview should be conducted in English (even if the interview participants English is not perfect). Your transcript should be of the interview as spoken, and this may include mistakes and unusual sentences. You may however sometimes have to include some explanatory comments in order to make the sense clear to the reader.
In the extremely unlikely event you are unable to interview in English you would need to make a full transcription in the first language and then a full translation. Your reasons for doing this must be justified and discussed in the method section and it should be noted that this is NOT RECOMMENDED as it takes much longer to do and is much harder to capture the meaning of the conversations.

3)Reflection on research findings and process (approx.. 1000 words):
Students need to write a short reflection on the interview they conducted.
This should include a summary of the findings – including a summary of key themes emerging from the interviews and the lessons learnt.
You might want to discuss the differences between your original expectations of themes for conversation and those discussed in the interview itself.
You should reflect on the success or otherwise of the interview in addressing the overall original objective of the research.
You may want to relate this discussion to the known strengths and weaknesses of the technique you chose (giving academic references). Remember this should always relate to a reflection on the process of your interview and its outcomes not a general discussion.

The structure of the report should be as follows:

Method Description and Discussion (approx. 1000 words) – 40% of marks
Transcript. Presentation of an extract from the interview, a sample transcript with annotations (approx. 500 words) 30% of marks
Reflection on the interview findings and approach (approx. 1000 words) – 20% of marks
References (using Harvard conventions) – demonstrating appropriate wider reading and skills in referencing 10% of marks

The report should be submitted electronically (via Blackboard) as ONE document; so as to detect any attempted plagiarism. Please remember that academic honesty is required at all times and your work must be entirely your own. Views and quotes from other authors are encouraged where they add to your argument/discussion but the source of these should be clearly given (as a reference) and all

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