ABSTRACT
Interviews are one of the most common approaches to generating data because there are many variations, and the data they generate is compatible with many analytical methodologies. Interviews allow researchers to quote participants directly, which can be an extremely powerful contribution to building an argument. Interviews in a participant’s usual setting can help them to feel at home as well as offer an opportunity to observe their workspace and ask them to perform a task as they usually would. Interviews can be formal, informal, or semiformal, reflecting the degree of structure. Establishing a rapport between the interviewer and interviewee can make all the difference between a barely sufficient set of responses and a rich source of data. Interviews allow for detail and nuance to be captured and brought into the data, revealing a lot of subtle aspects of the topic and allowing a deep understanding to be developed.
