Interview Reflection

After conducting this interview in class, I can see that it is extremely important to have a set of questions already in mind, but to not stay too strict to those questions. Having topics in mind is a great way to get the interview rolling, but if one stays too strict to their questions, important information could be lost. It is important to be able to follow up to be able to use follow up questions in response to what the informant is talking about. At a few points during the interview I found myself struggling just a bit for follow up questions, but once we really got the interview going, I found myself taking a more conversational role in the interview and that made it much easier to gather all kinds of information about Emma's bag. It was enjoyable to talk with her, and even though she felt that her bag was not as interesting as my ring, I enjoyed hearing why and how she acquired it and why she enjoys it so much.
I would say my biggest strength was just in the listening process itself. I sat toward Emma and even while I was writing information down, I tried for the most part to maintain eye contact and show that I was interested in what she was telling me. I also feel one of my strong points is either writing down or simply remembering important little details that may seem insignificant at the time, but that actually give a lot of insight into the informant and their object.
My weakness would be in quickly coming up with follow up questions to a question that I asked the informant. I found myself at times wanting to stick to the script so to speak and struggled in some areas when I had to think of something new to ask. I enjoyed this project and thought it was really good practice to what an interview should be.