Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Questions and challenges you're facing writing an oral history narrative
To start class today, please post any questions you have about the next phase of our oral history project. That is, I'd like to know what you think will be challenging for your as a writer as you move from transcribing the interview to writing the narrative profile of your interviewee's experience. What seems difficult right now? What questions do you have? What can I do to help you navigate this process?
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I'm not sure how to make the narrative more interesting and concise than the transcript, how to organize it well, and how to incorporate quotes within the paper. I feel like it's going to be a lot harder than I anticipated figuring out what of his interview should be the focus of the paper. The information he gave us is interesting, but not very specific. I don't know how to narrow it down to five pages and still keep an interesting story involved..
ReplyDeleteKelsey and I finished the transcripts are are about halfway done with the papers. I think the most difficult thing for us will be fulfilling the 5 page requirement. We are tying to make the papers interesting for the reader but are still unsure of what PAH Is expecting from us.
ReplyDeleteRight now, my only concern is selecting which information to transcribe. Is their anything in particular that I have to write in the oral history? Should I focus at all on direct quotations from the interviewee?
ReplyDeleteI feel that picking out key information and shaving two 50 minute interviews into a five page narrative profile is going to be difficult. Sean and I have so much information that we can use from our interviews and it's going to be hard to decide what parts of the interview to use and what parts that need to be left behind. I guess the question I have at this point is what is a good way to decide what we should use when writing the narrative? Also, whats a good way to order the information in our narrative profiles: Chronologically, theme based, or something else?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Leah that the narrative portion of this assignment is turning out to be harder than I thought it would be. I think I'm going to have trouble connecting the different portions of David's story into a cohesive, interesting narrative.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a transcript to work with so I'm not having the problem of figuring out how to narrow the information down. My problem is kind of the oppostie where i'm not exactly sure how I'm going to expand enough.
I only have a few direct quotes to use from when I called David and talked to him again after our recording was lost. I'm a little bit unsure of how to integrate these quotes into the narrative but I think that that is something I will figure out as I write more.
I don't have any questions that come to mind but I know that I have been thinking about how to start writing this narrative and I don't really know where to start. I'm struggling with how to incorporate everything and make it more of a personal story than simply a story about Project Angel Heart. I have somewhat of an outline for this narrative with quotes and a logical sequence but I don't know how effective that will be or if it is even set up well. I have finished transcribing everything but since there is so much information to sort through, I don't really know how to begin. I am trying to think of a topic or something that I could carry throughout the entire paper that would kind of tie things together but I am not sure what that would be.
ReplyDeleteIt's overwhelming to sort through everything and to find the personal statements because our interview was somewhat personal but it wasn't really that personal. I guess it was more closely related to the history and the journey of Project Angel Heart than it was about her journey.
This project is also somewhat intimidating because we're writing for an audience that I've never written for before. I feel like there's pressure to get the narrative just right so that it genuinely reflects the history of Project Angel Heart and Sandy's relationship with it. I want to write something that honors her role with the organization and to make it sound good.
I don’t really know where to start with my narrative. I had a great interview and have lots of really good material, but I’m not sure how to translate that into my paper. Is the bio supposed to focus on the interviewee, or on Project Angel Heart? Because my interviewee started Project Angel Heart, so I feel that his experiences prior to that may be important as they prompted his starting the organization. Also, he was only with the organization for four years, so is information about what he’s doing now also appropriate? And if so, how much?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don’t really know how to write in this style. I’m used to academic writing and lab reports, etc, but I don’t know how to write a narrative. Should it read like a story? I also am a little afraid that my writing will be too formal for the assignment and may sound stiff. I’m not very good at incorporating details and making the writing flow, I’m better at just getting information across in the most efficient way, so I anticipate some problems with that.
Right now, I am almost done transcribing and have a very rough outline of my piece. My main struggle when I was out lining was how to be selective with the material – I will not be able to include every detail that my interviewee talked about in my final piece. In order to be more selective, I feel like I need a little more direction about what the precise purpose of this narrative is. From my interview, I could talk a lot about PAH and its history, or I could talk some (but not a ton) about my interviewees personal experiences, or I could try to incorporate the two. Is there a preference? Is there something in particular I should be focusing on while writing, or do I have creative license to portray what I want? I also agree with Leah's questions.
ReplyDeleteAs I begin writing my draft, my big question is how to make it so that the narrative isn’t just a summary of the interview, but has some sort of character. Also, I feel like it is difficult to transition between the different personal stories and quotes that I have in my paper. I also feel like trying to put all of the interesting information into the paper will cause the paper to become very disorganized and unfocused. I also don't really know how to start the paper and end the paper. I have a lead-in but don't know where to go from there. I need guidance on how to make it a personal profile, not a summary. I need help making it more involving to the audience.
ReplyDeleteI think the most challenging part for Matt and I will be condensing our interviews down and deciding what not to include. I feel like we have a lot of important material and simply condensing the information from the interviews will be challenging. As far as questions go, I don't have any specific questions that come to mind right now.
ReplyDeleteThe main question I have is very general. I’m confused about how I should be writing the oral history. Should it be a more objective account, explaining his answers to our questions or more story-like? Are we supposed to be trying to prove something about the person through our essay or just describing their involvement? I’m also confused about how much detail to go into. Cayla and I were working on one of our histories last night, and, though we thought we put in a good amount of detail and covered most of what we wanted to say, our essay was only 3 ½ pages long. How much detail is too little and how much is too much?
ReplyDelete