The Influence Of Interviewing Tai Menllhall: An Oral History Project

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There are many different influences that can effect the direction in which an interview is going. While interviewing Tai Mendellhall for an oral history project, an obvious influence was the location of the interview. It was decided that the interview would be held in his office. Analyzing the interview, a connection could be made as to why all of the questions we asked always had a work related answer. Being that Tai was in his office he was very calm, but he could have been comfortable to the point that he allowed his work stress to merge into what he was saying. By allowing the negative energy to grow, Tai manifested on the trials and tribulations he felt as oppose to the good things that went on. Tai made several negative generalizations …show more content…

The fact that we were college students greatly impacted the topics we found interest in. Once the topic of college came up, my partner and I were able think of questions that was concrete in answer but flexible to add into the story. Being college students—interested in potentially going to graduate school—greatly influenced the topic of the interview. If we, the interviewers, would have been adults who had careers in parks and recreations the topic would have been swayed more to environmental issues. When he first started talking about his college career he was very detailed but focused strictly on statistics. When Tai started brining up a few of his personal stories about graduate school, we were able to think of more questions due to curiosity. Being that Tai is a professor, our interest in the subject of school made us, students, more relatable to him. He stated in the beginning of his interview that he wasn’t ready for college and had many unanswered questions. Unconsciously, he could 've been trying to prepare us—the interviewers—by thoroughly answering questions he would’ve wanted answered about graduate

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