by George Brosi

When your "source" is a living, breathing human being, you have the tremendous advantage of being able to engage in dialogue! You can pin your source down. "What do you think about this thesis?" "What is your opinion?" "If you had to do a paper like this, what would you try to prove?" "What lines of argument have you heard to support this policy or idea?" "Who are some other people I could talk with who might be more familiar with the literature on this question?" "What have you read that would be really useful to me in proving this point?" Obviously, personal interviews can help the student researcher tremendously in many ways.

Use personal interviews not only to obtain a few quotes and paraphrases and perhaps summaries. Use interviews also to develop new lines of argument and new sources you can use.

Use your interview to develop your "outline" of lines of argument. Use your interview to sharpen your thesis. If you wish, and your source is willing, have your source read your paper and make suggestions. Get a phone number for your source, and make another face-to-face appointment or talk on the phone again to see what your source feels about your ideas as they develop.

Parenthetical documentation for interview material is simply supplied by putting the word "interview" in the parentheses: (interview). On the works cited page, simply list the contact, last name first, then write "Personal interview." or "Telephone interview." and then the date. "Letter to the author." in the same place works for personal correspondence.

People interviewed can be valuable contacts in many ways. Common courtesy demands that you write a brief "thank you" letter to the person you have interviewed and that you double check any material which you attribute to your contact in your paper. Either read what you have written over the phone or fax or mail a copy with a short covering letter. Sending a photo-copy of your final draft of your paper is also an appropriate way to express appreciation for valuable time spent.

Like searching for written sources, the search for individual sources can be as frustrating as it can be innervating. Your contact can put you off, show you up, or treat you in a patronizing way. That is one reason it is important to line up a personal interview way ahead of schedule. It is also a good reason to try to schedule more than one interview. Just as you search out written sources from many perspectives, it is important to search out different perspectives from interviews as well.