How to Evaluate Sources

Strategies for Evaluating the Relevance of an Interview: Step 1

The first step in evaluating the relevance of an interview actually takes place before you even conduct an interview. That is, you must first determine who appropriate interview subjects are. For example, Gaele Lopez, who wrote an essay on low voter turnout among Americans aged 18 to 25, decided to conduct interviews with 18- to 25-year-old American college students in order to obtain personal opinions about why they do or do not vote.

As you can see to the right, Gaele started his interview by asking the person he was interviewing (Thomas Clark) how old he was and whether he planned to vote in the next presidential election. These questions helped Gaile determine whether the interview is likely to be relevant to his research project. If Gaele had been writing an essay about the voting patterns of older adults, he would have interviewed people from another age group.

Once you've decided who you will interview and have conducted your interviews, you must then determine whether your interviews have provided you with information relevant to your research writing project.

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