From chapter 10, “‘What One Learns in College Only Makes Sense When Practicing It at Work’: How Early-Career Alumni Evaluate Writing Success”

Round 1 Interview

Note to Interviewer: Make sure to ask questions about where behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes about writing come from and how these change across time.

1. How would you describe yourself as a writer at work? Please explain.
2. What challenges, if any, did you experience when first learning to write at your work?
   1. How did you respond to those challenges?
   2. Possible follow-up: How did you feel? What did you do?
3. In the survey, you mentioned qualities about yourself that still make your workplace writing successful.
   1. Would you tell me more?
   2. How did you develop these qualities?
4. You also mentioned qualities about yourself that still make writing challenging at work?
   1. Would you tell me more?
   2. How are you responding to these qualities?
5. Would you say you have changed as a writer since graduating?
   1. If yes, how and why have you changed?
   2. If not, why would you say that you have not changed?
6. Looking back, what experiences were most meaningful in helping you learn to write at work?
7. Looking back, what have you learned about writing in the past that you found inappropriate or inaccurate for writing at work?
8. Is there anything else you want to tell me about yourself as a writer at work? What else should I have asked you?

Prompts for the Second Interview

When we talk one more time, please bring two pieces of writing. These pieces can include a range of possibilities, including promotional materials, scripts for a video, infographics, reports, email, Instagram posts, and so on. These pieces can be either projects you worked on alone or in collaboration with others. Please select one text that you are particularly proud of, and please select another text that you found to be particularly challenging to write.

Round 2 Interview (with Two Texts)

1. Tell me the story of this piece of writing.
2. Did you consider purpose when writing this text?
   1. If so, what were the purposes?
   2. How often have you written texts for this purpose?
   3. How did you learn to write for these purposes?
3. Did you consider the audience when writing this text?
   1. If so, who were your audiences?
   2. How did you establish these were the audiences you wanted to target?
   3. How often have you written to these audiences?
   4. How did you learn how to write to these audiences?
4. Describe your process of writing this text.
   1. What resources did you consult?
   2. Did others review your drafts?
      1. If so, what did you do with these reviews?
   3. (For significant steps in the process)  Why did you do that?
5. What are the important conventions of this text? That is, what makes this text an __________?
   1. Where did you learn how to write these conventions?
6. As you approached this writing task, what experience did you draw upon most?
   1. What was most valuable in helping you complete this piece?
   2. Were there any experiences which did not help or that you had to revise? Please explain.
7. What was it about YOU that impacted your approach to this writing task?
8. How did you figure out what was going to make your writing successful for this piece?
9. During our first interview, you mentioned that there were types of support for writers at your work.
   1. Did you use any support to write this piece? Please explain.
10. What were the biggest challenges for you in completing this writing task?
    1. What strategies did you use to meet those challenges?
11. Why did you pick this text as your significant text? as your challenging text?
    1. How often have you written this kind of text?
    2. Where and how did you learn to write texts like this?
12. What else would you like to tell me about this text?