Williams

Learning to Read and Write: An Interview Assignment Two (ENGL 1101) Fall 2012
This assignment will be broken down into two major parts. First, you will develop a set of of interview questions about a selected individual's experience learning to read and write. Next, you will conduct the interview, record it, and transcribe a portion of the interview session. We will be spending a large amount of time preparing for and conducting this project, but do be sure to set up and conduct your interviews as soon as possible after developing your questions. Part I Be sure to choose an individual (preferably someone older or of a different background) to interview You may use I in your 250 word biographical description; this should include an explanation of how you know this person A total of twenty (20) interview questions must be asked in regards to their previous schooling, current and past jobs, and personal experiences learning to read and write Be sure to refer to Brandts Literacy in American Lives as a model No documentation of research materials required Be descriptive and deliberate about your word choices, and please follow the guidelines of Standard Written English 1 margins, 12 pt Times New Roman Font, 250 word biography singlespaced, 20 questions in addition Part II Now that you have created your questions, the next step is to conduct the primary research.

 Record the entire interview from start to finish. Have a copy of the file available to turn in during class the day the transcript is due. You may do your recording in Garage Band, Windows Media Player, Mac Version of Microsoft Word, or Audacity. Transcripts should be in 12 point, Times New Roman, Single-Spaced. No citations are necessary at this time. You are only responsible for transcribing a minimum of five minutes, but please do not exceed ten minutes of actual transcription. Please include line numbers for each line of the transcript. This will make it much easier to specifically reference interesting passages that you may want to further explain in your biographical paper. Once you have completed the transcript, write a 500 word summary paragraph of the patterns you are starting to identify in your interviewees experience. Consider explaining: 1. 2. 3. 4. What did his/her body language during the interview indicate about his/her attitudes toward reading and writing? Were there phrases that your interviewee repeated often? Why do you think this is so? How do you know what that attitude is?

You must bring in two copies of a draft of your assignment on the scheduled workshop date ready to work with your peer response partner. Failure to do soor should you choose not to show up to the workshop daywill result in a zero for your workshop grade You must have a reflective letter discussing the strengths and weaknesses of your paper; no reflection, or an incomplete one, will result in failure of the entire assignment Reflection: 500 words, 12 pt, Times New Roman, single-spaced Describe your strengths and weaknesses giving examples Describe what comments were helpful/not helpful from your peer responder Explain what aspect of the paper you want me to pay particular attention to and why Williams Page 2! of !2

DUE DATES:
Interview Questions Posted on Moodle by Class Time: Wednesday, 9/19 Workshop Draft (2 Copies) for Class: Wednesday, 10/3 Revised Copy Posted to Moodle with Reflection by Class Time: Monday, 10/8