Tasks

Post on the Interviewee Report discussion board to PREPARE for your Research Paper. For example, if you want to write about music or song lyrics then you should plan to interview a musician or song writer. It is your responsibility to reach out to different individuals in the community as this is critical research!

Write five or six sentences about the topic you want to research and a person who may be a good subject to interview. Important: this person should identify as African American or black. Then write out five questions you will ask to guide your interview. Make sure these questions are open ended!

Interview Tips and Strategies

● Choose a person that interests you. Think about the reasons why this person holds your interest other than race. While this person needs to self-identify as African American, DO NOT make race your main focus.

● Consider how your interest in this person reflects on a unifying theme for your interview.

o Hobbies and interests

o Opportunities and career goals

o Demeanor or character

o Outlook on life and beliefs

o Family traditions and family history

● DO NOT ask about racially sensitive topics unless you have already established trust with your subject (friend/family member).

● Be mindful in your approach. Let your interviewee talk about what they desire even if this goes off subject. Be courteous and respectful.

● RECORD your interview.

● Remember the length of interview equals the amount of information from which to pull from. Estimate thirty minutes or more.

● Think about your own biases, approaches, and expectations. Go into your interview with as open of a mind as possible.

● If you yourself identify as African American, then interview someone who may have an entirely different perspective (different generation, gender, sexual orientation, interests or lifestyle, and so forth)

Research Paper

You will write a research paper that will focus African American cultural traditions, information you learned from this class and information you learn from your interview.

● Began by summarizing your interview. What were your focusing topics or ideas? How did your interviewee answer questions or respond to topics?

● Connect and synthesize the ideas and information from your interview to ideas we have learned in class.

● Support your paper with research and academic citations:

o An example of support could include statistics that highlight issues at hand, newspaper articles about events or phenomenon, life experiences of any noteworthy figures that may be similar to your interviewee’s experiences.

● While this is a research paper you may comment on your own self-reflections of the interview or class materials. What surprised or interested you? Why?

MLA or APA format

4 citations minimum 5 pages minimum