Think where man's
glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.
William Butler Yeats
Like everyone else, I found it far more time consuming than
I had expected to recreate my conversation as a document. And this is after
reading the experiences of Heath and Tamara. I guess somehow convinced myself
this would not apply to me. I did appreciate Heath’s color coded comments and
incorporated the same into my own transcription. Besides placing comments in
parentheses, the color difference makes it much easier to note where additional
comments exist alongside the words from the conversation. Thanks, Heath!
I waited until Saturday
to do this as it was the time that worked for my friend. Since she was gracious
enough to agree to be recorded, she got to pick when it was convenient. Her
only real condition was that we do something fun together afterwards since we
have been time challenged for our friendship in recent months. In retrospect, it may have been better to
meet for a short visit after work. The time limitations placed by meeting on a
work night might have made for better focus. She was a little intimidated by
the thought of being recorded and needing to be on her A game with answers and
insights on demand. Maybe knowing that there was a 15 or so minute commitment
to speak on the record, and then all of Saturday afternoon to spend however we
wanted, would have been easier for her. I think she still comes across as the
open, warm and wonderful person that she is. She is sophisticated and
intelligent, earthy and fun. If we had simply been speaking in our usual
rambling, subject-jumping way, she would have made a few insightful comments
that I would have mulled over later and then we would have moved on to
something else. I think some of the
flavor of our friendship is also apparent in our interaction.
I did a little preparation in advance of our meeting. I
thought of seven or eight questions that I thought would help focus our
discussion and keep us on topic. Whenever we seemed to have hit an extended
pause in the conversation, I asked another question. After about 17 minutes, I
finished the interview. I did have another question or two prepared, but we
came to a natural stopping point and it seemed appropriate to finish. I
participated in the conversation and this was planned. I did not think that a
one-sided interview of her beliefs about friendship would generate much
interest for either of us. I think it would have been stilted and awkward and
unrevealing. As a participant, the conversation flowed more naturally and there
was pleasure in speaking about friendship in general and ours specifically. If
I were interviewing someone who was not well known to me, I think I would have
approached it differently. I would have followed up on statements, questioned
the non-verbal cues and perhaps identified a particular area of focus for that
particular person and chased it down.
Note. From “Goodreads.com, 2013, retrieved
from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2673985-key-themes-in-qualitative-research
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