A Brief Review of an Interview

This week my schedule is settling into a rhythm and I am beginning to feel comfortable with my assignments. I am working on several tasks, the first of which is:

 Interview and Transcription

        This semester my task is to direct interviews and then transcribe our interviews into Microsoft Word for future access. The staff of Celery Soup are familiar with this process of interview and transcribe. However, it has never been streamlined into a time-efficient process. So, in addition to transcribing I am in charge of writing the instruction manual for the transcription process. This manual will include the insertion of keywords for clear archival and retrieval as well as technical rules on how to treat different phrases and pauses, etc…  I believe that working on both the transcribing and the transcription guidelines simultaneously will allow me check and edit the manual in order to make the process as clean, clear, and quick as possible.

        This week I conducted my first interview, and it was a delightful experience. A week before my interview, Trish gave me a transcribed copy of her previous interview with this couple so that I would have an understanding of prior discussions. Reading through that old interview was incredibly useful since it provided an example of what Trish was expecting, helping me compose questions for my interview. On Wednesday we spent the morning with Betty and Don Reagan, Sanford Artists. Don uses the lathe to create wooden tea pots, or "tree pots" which have been sold all over the country and displayed in the Smithsonian.
       
During the interview they gave Trish and me a tour of their historic home (previously the property of General Sanford). Together we discussed their vocations, family, neighborhood, and travels for art shows.  Their lives have been quite interesting although they have always lived locally, either Sanford or Oviedo for their entire lives.

         This coming week, I will be working on transcribing the interview into a word document from the audio file and creating a transcription process.