Oral History Workshop – 9

After the interview

Shahed Yazdan
Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2023-1-31

The oral history website is going to provide the educational materials of some oral history workshops to the audience in written form. The present series has been prepared using the materials of one of these workshops. As you will see, many of the provided contents are not original or less said contents, but we have tried to provide categorized contents so that they can be used more.

After the interview

The first thing that should be done after an interview is to transcribe it. To do this, the audio file of the interview should be converted to a text without the slightest change. Each hour of interview will be approximately 32 pages of handwritten paper and about 17 typed pages.

In the next step, to document the interview, print the transcribed text and get a written confirmation from the narrator. If the interview is related to a specific organization or body, the seal of that organization should also be stamped on the paper printout.

After the interview is transcribed, the text should be studied by the interviewer. If there were incomprehensible words or points, if some questions were incompletely answered, the names of people or places were said that need further explanation, and every incomprehensible thing that was seen should be noted down and these items should be disposed at the beginning of the next session.

Sometimes these ambiguities and questions are so numerous that clarifying them requires another session, and this is the supplementary interview.

Things to do after the interview:

1. Transcription
2. Documentation
3. Saving a backup copy of the audio file
4. Clarifying the ambiguities

It is necessary to do these four steps after the interview. If these things are not done, our interview is incomplete. After the interview is transcribed and the ambiguities are resolved, the meeting will end, otherwise the interview is still incomplete.

A complete meeting for an interview means studying the transcribed text and fixing the problems and defects of that session.