Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Using email for interviews
Email provides an easy and manageable means for conducting interviews.
Rather than having to capture the data in real-time such as in a chat session,
email provides a readily accessible documentation of a discussion. In addition,
whilesomemayconsideritadvantageoustocapture“off-the-cuff”responsesto
questions, it is possible to access a greater depth of response when the inter-
viewee has the ability to think through a substantive response (Gaiser, 2000).
As with any research endeavor, it is important for researchers to remember to
seek permission. It may be easy to slide into a discussion via email that simply
feelslikeanin-depthdiscussion,andthatyoudecideyouwanttouseasdataas
you move forward with your research. If you're interacting via email for
researchpurposes,orthinkyourdiscussionmayleadtoaresearchexercise,be
sure to ask the participant's permission.
Wheninitiallyoutliningyourresearchendeavor,it'salsoimportanttoestab-
lishthescopeofyourwork.Whatyourexpectationis,howlongyouthinkyour
interaction will take, how many topics you are likely to cover, and so forth.
Given you'll be interacting online, it's extremely helpful to manage a partici-
pant'sexpectations.If,ontheotherhand,youchoosenottodoso,yourunthe
risk of losing a participant part way through the interview.
As an aid to “discussion,” almost all email clients will include the original
messageinareply,andmarkitwithaleading“
>
”characterorsomeothersym-
bol. Reply styles can be either top-post, bottom-post or in-line; in which,
respectively, the reply goes above the original, below the original, or is inter-
spersedwiththeoriginal.Thestylecanbeamatterofpersonalpreference,but
bottom-posting is easier to follow if there are many exchanges such as in an
interview, because the exchanges are ordered in the message as they would be
in a written document. In-line posting helps when several points need to be
addressed; the response can be adjacent to the related point. However, many
mailclientstop-postbydefault,andsomewillnotallowanyotheroption(most
commonly on compact mobile devices such as a Palm personal assistant).
Thereisnowaytoforcerespondentstouseanyparticularstyle;theonlything
that can be done is to ask.
Given the loss of visual cues in online interviewing (and online focus
groups), participants and researchers do not have the opportunity to see each
other'sface,experiencebodylanguage,andsoforth.Oneofthewaysinwhich
a researcher can make the difference between failure and success is by being
emotionally present online (Feig, 1989). Verbal cues such as added language
insertedintothetext:
;
I don't know anything about that [sigh]
usingsymbols(
);usingupper-andlower-caselettering-IDON'TKNOW
anything about that; using formatting to add emphasis - I
don't
know any-
thing about that; and question evasion, all communicate something. A good
researcher will be “present” and use skills to identify, address and learn from
online verbal cues.
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