Retelling a personal history. . .

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Page 1: Retelling a personal history. . .
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Retelling a personal history. . .

From Reading to Writing Do you ever wish you knew more about the lives of your parents, grandparents, or friends? Although Rita Dove and Rudolfo Anaya are writers who chose to remember their grandparents in poetry and prose, some people share memories by creating oral histories.

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Retelling a personal history. . .

An oral history uses a person’s own words,

gathered from an interview, to record stories and

information about that person’s life. Counselors,

reporters, and anthropologists also use specific

types of oral histories in their daily work.

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B a s i c s i n a B o x

GUIDELINES & STANDARDS Oral History

A successful interview should• be guided by questions and

research about the person, prepared before the interview

• be recorded accurately through notes and a tape recorder, used with the person’s permission

• include open-ended and follow-up questions to draw out the person’s interests

• last no longer than 90 minutes per interview session

• include any necessary background information about the person in an introduction

• feature accurately transcribed quotations

• offer a well-rounded portrait of the person

• present a clear focus and logical organization

A successful oral history should

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Creating an Oral History 1 Conducting Your Interview

The first step is to choose the person you

want to interview. You might choose

someone who lived through an important

historical event or who knows about

something that interests you. After you

pick a person to interview, follow these

steps.

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Steps for a Successful Interview

1. Compose your questions. What do you want to

learn about the person you are interviewing?

Prepare a list of questions that focus on a few

subject areas, such as early life, work life, and social

life. Avoid questions with yes/no answers. Instead,

ask questions that begin with words such as how,

what, why, when, where, or who.

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Steps for a Successful Interview

2. Research your subject. You can learn more about

your subject by talking to people who know him or

her. If the person you plan to interview is a public

person, such as politician, you can use library

resources to learn about the person. Use your

research to help you prepare more in-depth

questions.

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Steps for a Successful Interview

3. Set up the interview. Set a date, time, and place for

the interview. If you plan to use recording equipment,

practice beforehand. Always ask permission before

you begin recording.

4. Listen carefully. Even if you use a tape recorder, it’s important to jot down notes and questions as you listen. You may need to ask follow-up questions later to get more information or to make something clear.

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Creating an Oral History2 Transcribing the Interview

Transcribe your interview verbatim, using the subject’s exact words and the questions you asked. Your transcript may look similar to this example.

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Answer: . . . I left school early in May to take this job at the J Company. Some friends of Ma knew that these men, Mr. Anthony and Mr. Joseph, needed a girl Friday. I took dictation and wrote letters and all that. . . .

Question: What kind of work did you do as a teenager?

Creating an Oral History2 Transcribing the Interview

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Answer: The building where I worked was at Clinton Street and Jackson and I’d be looking out at this clock on Union Station. And a clock never moved so slowly. There’s a very nice building on that corner now, not like the rickety thing I worked in.

Question: It sounds like they expected you to be able to do a lot of things at that job. What else do you remember about working there?

Creating an Oral History2 Transcribing the Interview

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Creating an Oral History3 Planning Your Oral History

After you create your transcript,

decide how you want to present the

oral history. Here are some steps to

help you.

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Using Your Notes and Transcript

1. Choose a focus. Reread the transcript and

decide which parts will be the focus of your

oral history. For example, if the person you

interviewed talked about childhood memories,

choose the most interesting memories for

your focus.

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Using Your Notes and Transcript

2. Structure your material. How will you

present the focus of your oral history? You

can structure your oral history as a running

narrative or story. You can also use the

question-and-answer structure of an

interview.

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Creating an Oral History2 Drafting

Begin drafting your oral history by editing the transcript. You have already found the sections of the transcript that fit your focus. Now you must decide how much of these sections to use for the body of your oral history.

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Creating an Oral History2 Drafting

Introduction

Draft an introduction that includes background information about the subject, such as the name and age of the person and the focus of the oral history.

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Creating an Oral History2 Drafting

Conclusion

You might end your oral history where your subject finishes telling a story. If this is not possible, write a concluding paragraph that summarizes or restates information from the oral history.

Go back to your subject to fill in any gaps, to add more details, and to verify accuracy. Never make up missing details.

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Creating an Oral History4 Revising

Target Skill

ACHIEVING UNITY AND COHERENCE

Sometimes a person being interviewed

gets off the main topic, speaks without

making clear transitions, or gives

important details out of order. You may

need to rearrange some of your material

to create a unified and coherent oral

history.

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Creating an Oral History5 Editing and Proofreading

Target Skill PUNCTUATING QUOTED MATERIALS

When you transcribed the interview or

took notes, you may have skipped

quotation marks, commas, and other

punctuation. Your final draft should use

punctuation that reflects the speaker’s

meaning.