The next assignment, the object analysis, has been replaced by an outline of the protocol for the questions that you are going to be asking your interview subjects. This short assignment is due on March 3rd, which is a Monday. The reason for this is that I would like to have these reviewed and handed back to you for class on Thursday. This will give you time to revise and improve them as necessary.

The parts of the protocol are as follows:

1) A list of the people you will be contacting, the reasons you are contacting them, how you found out about them, a disclosure of any possible conflicts (such as them being family members or close friends.)

2) A draft of the letter that you will send to them to invite them to participate in the project. This message should include information about yourself, this course and the topic you are focusing on for this project. You should also explain what you plan to do with any materials that result from this interview. Also, some details of the interview including its length, some of the topics you expect to cover and that it will be recorded. This isn’t the consent form, but it allows people a chance to understand what they are participating in before they sign on.

3) A schedule (which is essentially a list) of the questions that you will be asking them in a form that is as close as possible to the form you will be posing them during the interview. You will be able to ask follow ups in the actual interview, but this should serve as a general outline of what the interviews will look like. If you have questions that you will not be asking some participants, you should clearly specify that in the list of questions you submit.

4) A copy of the consent form that you will be using. This should follow the form of the example below, but include a short description of the project you are researching.

To help you gather these materials, I am including a document that explains what you must inform the people you are interviewing of before you may conduct the interview. It also includes a sample consent form that will you should adapt (mostly by including a description of your project) for the purposes of your project.

That can be downloaded here.

Again, to repeat, this is due on March 3rd (which is a Monday) by noon.