Ending an Interview With Room for More
Launch library · evergreen read
Closing an interview definitively, treating it as a complete, finished document that requires no further additions, can discourage a speaker from ever returning to add detail. They might later remember something worth including, or want to correct something they feel they explained poorly the first time around during the original conversation.
Ending instead with an explicit invitation, letting the speaker know the door remains open for further conversation whenever they think of something else, keeps the relationship genuinely active. This is rather than treating the recording as a one-time, fully sealed transaction that cannot be revisited or expanded upon later.
Many of the richest additions to an oral history project come precisely from these later, informal follow-ups, prompted by nothing more than a speaker remembering. Days or weeks afterwards, they recall one more detail they genuinely wanted to include in the record. An open door like this one costs nothing and occasionally returns far more than expected.