Teaching Beginning Undergraduates How to Do an In-Depth Interview: A Teaching Note with 12 Handy Tips.

In-depth interviewing is now a common method in sociology. Although there are many potential benefits of in-depth interviewing assignments for both majors and nonmajors, few have developed tools one can use to teach this method at the first and second year, especially in substantive classes where instruction in interviewing is constrained by time and practical circumstances. In this note, the authors present an in-class exercise and tip sheet they developed to teach beginning undergraduates how to conduct quality in-depth interviews. Comparative analysis of students’ preliminary and final interview guides, as well as the results of a student survey, support the teaching effectiveness of the workshop and tip sheet.