Interview - 13 February 2006 - Circumstances of the Interview

Circumstances of the interview

Cara arrived at SUB looking a little haggard. She was nice and polite, but somewhat stressed over the plethora of midterms that she was studying for. After the interview, she immediately headed up to the first floor of SUB to study.

We went to the SUB basement clubs office to record, as there was little noise down there. She seemed to have a lot to say, but needed time to think about it. There were some questions that, when followed up, seemed to generate a bit of embarrassment in the interviewee, even though I did try to reassure her that she did not have to answer if she did not want to. She seemed nervous, expressing some doubt in all of her answers in the interview, wondering if there was a right answer or not.

This is one of those rare interviews in which all of the suggested questions were answered fully, with some exploration into some detail, and when asked if there was anything she wanted to add, she could not think of anything. Afterwards, (as it seems to be for most interviews), I immediately thought of a few other questions I would have liked to ask. Of course, by then, the recorder was off, everything was packed, and it was too late. I do remember that I asked her if her friends had these devices, and she said that some of them did, and they used them almost all of the time.

The majority of my transcription edits are concerning removing repetitions and stutters. Both of us were quite nervous, and repeated things as well as ending sentences in question marks, an indication of doubt concerning one’s conviction or one’s validity. To present the view of the interviewee in clear and concise fashion, I removed these things. I also removed some mannerisms that I felt reflected more on this nervousness rather than what she was saying. There were also some verbal cues that were recorded in the literal transcription but not in the edited transcription.