How to Write an Interview in APA Format

Writing an interview paper

Sometimes, in order to find the best information, you need to go right to the source, ask an expert or question the relevant persons. Since this type of primary research is not as straightforward as quoting from a book or journal, the rules for formatting the resulting paper can seem confusing. Luckily, writing an interview in APA style is fairly easy and, in some ways, even simpler than using third-party sources.

Things You'll Need

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition
• Notes from or recording of interview(s)

Instructions

1. Introduce your interviewee(s) and describe the purpose of the interview. Why and how did you choose those participants? What topic were you investigating, and what were you endeavoring to discover? How did the interviewee act while being questioned? By addressing these issues, you can present an overview of your study's topic and goal before examining the interview itself.

2. Describe the specifics of your interviewing process. Explain what sort of questions you asked, and note how you formulated those questions. Specify whether the questions were open-ended or closed. Offer any relevant numerical facts, such as how long each interview lasted and how many people you interviewed. Additionally, write the details of this primary research study: Did you interview the participants in person, over the phone, through a survey or otherwise? How did you record and analyze their answers? How did you use those data to reach your conclusions?

3. Introduce quotes from the interview with your own original text, rather than just presenting large chunks of the interview without first discussing them. You could offer a general conclusion and then include a quotation to illustrate; or, you could quote from the interview and then summarize or interpret the message.

4. Enclose short quotes (fewer than 40 words) in quotation marks. If a quote is 40 words or more, the American Psychological Association (APA) manual stipulates, then you should present it as a block quote: Start on a new line, and indent the entire quotation half an inch from the left margin. A block quote does not need quotation marks.

5. Cite the interview each time you quote from it. In parentheses, at the end of the quotation, state the name of the interviewee (first initial and last name), the phrase "personal communication," and the exact date of the interview (Month Date, Year). For example, (P. Brown, personal communication, April 5, 2010).

6. Omit the interview from the reference list. According to the APA's website, interviews are "not considered recoverable data"; hence, there is no way or need to cite all the information needed to locate them. Instead, your paper is creating the source of the interview. (If you don't cite any other sources in your paper, then you can omit the reference list completely.)

Tips & Warnings

• If you need to make any changes or clarifications within quotes in the text, the APA manual requires that your edits be contained within brackets, [like this], to specify that your changes were not part of the original interview.

References

• "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association" (6th edition); American Psychological Association; 2009
• How do you cite an interview?; "APA Style"; American Psychological Association; 2010

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish