Over the first Hurdle

This week I kept plugging away at the transcription project for the Sonya Hollins interview. It was tedious work, but I finished it in the middle of this week. I felt relieved to have that out of the way. I have a grand total of 15 pages single spaced for the hour and 15 minute interview Veta (my internship coordinator) conducted last semester. I met with her this week and we discussed the current oral history I’m working on. She said that they’re more valuable transcribed and so my next thing to do is begin editing the interview.

I attacked this idea of transcribing by writing just as the person spoke. Of course, none of it is grammatically correct. The document reads more like a stream of conscious thought, very similar to human speech. However, this isn’t ideal for easy reading when someone comes in blind to reading the interview. I’m working on making things grammatically correct and writing up new interview questions for a follow up interview. This was a small point of contention for me this week. Veta wants me to focus more on Sonya’s life and I originally wanted to focus on her research and how that is developing. So, she suggested writing two articles. I plan to work on the article focusing on Sonya’s life and pulling out common themes that run through the interview.

Although I’m most interested in Sonya’s research on a remarkable woman named Merz Tate, for now I will defer to what my internship coordinator wants. Criticism is always hard, especially when you think you have it figured out what the person wants. I have to get in contact with Sonya over the next week or so to schedule the interview.