This past week Cara did a lot of interviews. Because her schedule is more flexible than mine, we have agreed to have her conduct the interviews and I will do the transcribing. Through this process I have also been helping Cara come up with questions for the different people she has been interviewing. We’ve created a Google doc that holds rough questions that we have for different people. This doc started when I interviewed Eric Grant and we have also used it to create a list of questions for others that we will be interviewing.  My interview with Eric Grant happened via email throughout the last couple of weeks. On our google doc Cara and I wrote out all the information that we wanted to get from Mr. Grant I then wrote him the following email:

We are mostly interested in the process that a book goes through when being challenged, and specifically what that looked like in the case of The Bluest Eye. We’d also like to know about your role in this process  as well as other people who played instrumental roles.  We’d also love to hear your opinions on the book, the challenge, and the process.
We’d also be very appreciative of any materials or paperwork related to the case that you could give us copies of.
Sorry for being so slow to email you back, I came down with the flu last week and am still recovering.
Thank you for all your time and help, and I look forward to hearing from you,
Rosanna
He replied with a two page document that we will be adding to our website along with other transcripts as we finish them.
If there is one thing I realized  when writing this email, its that there phrasing these questions requires time and planning. Though our main goal is to just figure out what happened and why, we have to be very particular about the way we pose some questions. There is a fine line between asking the right question, and asking a leading question. While drafting the email, I first wrote out exactly what I wanted to ask, the first way that popped into my head. I then realized that the way I phrased some of my questions were not only leading, they were also combative. Mr. Grant agree to help us and didn’t have to be as cooperative as he was. I had to make sure I didn’t sound accusatory in any way. After editing and revising I came up with the email above. We knew that Mr Grant, as the curriculum specialist for 6-12 English Language Arts, would possibly be the most willing to speak openly with us and we are glad that he did. Though we still can not get any information about the complaining parent, he gave us a great deal of information about the specifics of the case.