1. Determine beforehand what areas of the subject’s life will be discussed (childhood, military career, achievements, etc.). This will allow you as the interviewer and your subject to stay on track and remain focused.

2. Ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer.

3. Keep the number of subjects interviewed to one or two at a time. Interviewing more than two subjects at a time will often create an audio or video with excessive crosstalking (people interrupting or talking over one another). Important information will often be lost in this situation.

4. Make sure you have quality recording devices and that your subject is close enough to the device. Always perform a “test” before starting the actual oral history interview to determine that the device is still working correctly and the subject is speaking loud enough. If recording a video, also check your lighting and test different camera angles to determine which one is best.

We hope you found these tips useful. The other four tips will be discussed in Part 2 of this blog post.