These guidelines were developed by teachers at Hobart College to help students get started on oral histories once they have had some experience in carrying out interviews. Below the guidelines are some websites that offer examples of oral histories and other resources.

Oral Histories

Oral histories are the stories people tell that can be molded and reworked into a crafted piece of writing. Simply writing down everything someone says and submitting that for publication would usually result in a clumsy narrative. The writer’s craft is to structure the piece and edit out the unnecessary information, while still giving the writing an authentic voice.

Sometimes the oral history can be written in first person and at other times in third person. Both are valid. It is important that the story is interesting and lively in the telling and that the moment is captured. Good stories have drama and tension and make the reader feel moved. Dialogue is crucial along with a tone that matches the feeling of piece. It is important to be able to hear the history.

Writing an Oral History

• Your task is to find someone who has a history, i.e. just about anybody, and ask them to tell you their story. You could use a tape recorder or take notes. Your family members will have lots of interesting stories to tell. They may not think that they do but everybody has stories. That’s what our lives are made up of. Just listen to the conversations at lunchtime. Hundreds of stories are being told.

• Some prompts to bring the stories to the surface might be: tell me about the worst or best time in your life, tell me about a time when you were afraid, angry, sad or happy, tell me about the turning points in your life. Ask them about photographs. Perhaps go through an old album with them trying to go further into the time and situation. Your interviewing skills will need to come into play.

• When you have enough information think about how you might best tell the story. What will you include and what will you leave out? Read some biographical writing, including examples of other oral histories. Think about what works well in terms of structure and point of view.

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Additional resources:

Latino Legacy: A Community Oral History Project
http://www.cde.state.co.us/action/curric/pdf/alma/legacy12.pdf
This American project outline provides a comprehensive set of resources, including possible questions, tips on conducting and transcribing interviews, and examples of students’ completed oral histories.

Local Heroes, an oral history of World War Two
http://www.localheroes.8m.com/
Here are examples of interviews with ordinary people about their experiences in Australia and overseas. The interviews are presented in question - answer format with little editing so reading through a few will help students to see what kinds of questions are most effective.

American Slave Narratives
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.html
The subjects here are elderly people who used to be slaves. Their stories make fascinating reading.