"Wow" Never use interjections in interviews

As I begin to think about data collection, I realize just how careful one must be in posing interview questions. And I now truly understand all the readings we have done in this class and in others about the careful wording one must use to elicit sound responses. I realize how easy it would be to pose a question to get the answer that one wants. For example, I am looking to see how the use of blogging affects student revision work in writing. I know that I want to hear wonderful things from students about this, but I also want true answers so I have to be very careful. I could say "Wow, isn't blogging great?" But this is tricky. Students may not feel it is great, but may pick up on my enthusiasm from the Wow, and might answer with a response that they think I want to hear over what their real impression is. I want to share my interest, but I don't want to color my participant's responses. I am also quite aware of the power differential and the fact that in qualitative research, the interviewer is or can be the significant power figure. This points to the importance of making sure participants are listened to and involved. Interviewing and the job of moderator as expressed in the articles is very key. One needs to know how to conduct and moderate a successful interview without letting power get in the way, but at the same time must control the environment so the goal is reached. Having an MBA in marketing really helped when I read the article that talks about focus group interviews and the move from marketing into social sciences, especially the part that talks about the business people watching the interviews. I liked the comment from one of the educators that mentioned that an IRB would have a field day with the silent-observation. Focus groups did help our business. I would like to conduct both private one on one and a group interview with the students in my project to see how their individual reports mesh with the group reports. From a socially constructivist perspective, it will be interesting to see how the sharing of information helps define meaning and importance.