Record all of your interviews on a recording device. Recording the interviews and keeping the tapes or digital files organized helps the interviewer keep accurate records of what the interviewee said, an important task for properly quoting an interview in the finished paper.
Bring a notebook to the interview and take notes about the pieces of the interview you think will be most helpful during the writing process. Having a list of notes can help keep you organized while you work.
Listen to the interview tapes and transcribe the quotes you plan to use word for word. Type out some paraphrased passages outlining the interview as a whole, the ideas that came from the interview and how the information influenced your research.
Separate quotes more than four lines long by indenting them 1 inch from the left margin to maintain MLA style. Type the quote into the paper word for word. Listen to the tape and compare it to the quotation as you have typed it. For these block quotations, do not include quotation marks. Type a parenthesis, the last name of the interviewee and another parenthesis at the end of the quote.
Indent the first paragraph of a quotation longer than 40 words by half an inch from the left margin if you're using APA style. Indent each subsequent paragraph in the quote by an additional half-inch. At the end of the quote include a citation stating the interview is personal communication. Include a parenthesis, the interviewee's first initial and the interviewee's last name. Next, type a comma followed by the phrase "personal communication." include an additional comma and the date in the month, day, year format. The citation should read as follows" (S. Warner, personal communication, September 6, 2011).
Type shorter quotes, those less than four lines long, directly into the body of the paragraph. Begin and end the quote with quotation marks. Remember to compare the quote to the tape to ensure accuracy. For MLA-style research, type a parenthesis, the last name of the interviewee and another parenthesis at the end of the quote. For APA style, follow the citation example described in the previous step.
Use paraphrased passages from the interview. Paraphrasing involves using the information from the interview without directly quoting the interviewee. Be sure to introduce the paraphrased section and attribute any ideas to the interviewee.
Include a sentence before each quote that introduces the interview. For the initial quote in the research paper, state where and when the interview was conducted. Also include information about how the selected quote or paraphrased section influenced the research, supported a hypothesis or disproved a hypothesis.
Include the interview in the works cited page in accordance with MLA style. Type the interviewee’s last name followed by the interviewee’s first name and separate the names with a comma. Next, type a period followed by the words "Personal Interview" and another period. Finally type the date the interview was conducted in the following format: day month, year. End with a period. The completed citation should look similar to the following example: Warner, Sarah. Personal Interview. 6 September, 2011. For APA style, do not include personal interviews in the reference pages as they are not considered recoverable data, according to the APA Style website.