The author found that a core set of practices which incorporate positive communication and time-tested learning theories promote audience enjoyment, provoke thought and inquiry, support important messages and themes, and relate to individual visitor interests. These techniques are explored in detail with many examples of interpretive strategies and philosophies, and descriptions of body language and interpreter-visitor dialogue.

PIP synthesizes and builds on existing works on interpretation, tourism, learning theory, and both verbal and non-verbal communication, but it also includes features found no where else: a thorough glossary that establishes a vocabulary of historical performance terms; a history of first-person development; a unique, sphere-based model for developing a historical character and suggestions for conceptualizing how "facts" are transformed into interpretive material; chapters devoted to adapting first-person for diverse audiences, various age groupings, social units, and disabled visitors; and an exploration of how interpreters and historic sites present and edit difficult topics and conflict situations, including a thorough discussion of the newsworthy 1994 auction of slaves at Colonial Williamsburg.