Myranda Hinkson

Elizabeth Geary
Christyana Wood
Molly Donald

Ethnographic Research Proposal First Draft

Introduction
Throughout this ethnographic research study, our group plans to analyze legal writings. More
specifically we intend to review the writings of a public defender as their work has the potential
to change the lives of many people. We hope to look at the everyday writing that public
defenders are typically responsible for through field notes within the office, interviews, and
gathering and analyzing artifacts.

Research Question
We will be exploring the tools and necessary information that public defenders use to write the
different kinds of legal documents, the ability to be precise as well as concise, rhetoric uses in
different cases and why and how they change, and the importance of writing as a public
defender. This group has a considerable interest in legal writing, with the majority having an
interest specifically in criminal law. The subjects that were asked are attorneys at the Office of
the Public Defender where Elizabeth is interning this semester. We are using this project to
analyze how public defenders write and what type of work is included within these writings and
what they consider when writing these documents. This is appropriate for this class because the
object of this assignment is to analyze how technical writers communicate and what information
and tools they use to complete these writings. Researching the specific tools and strategies used
in public defense will help to better inform group members as it will give us better insight as to
the details and work that goes into developing documents from the standpoint of a public
defender. All four of us plan on attending law school in one field or another with a focus on
criminal law. Being able to interview and study attorneys in the criminal field will help us
understand the requirements needed to be a criminal defense attorney

Research Subject
Our researching subjects are Laurielle Campbell, Maya Lentz, Devin Prater, and possibly others.
They works as assistant public defenders out of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender that
is located in Rockville, MD. They represent individuals in criminal and traffic court for jailable
offenses in Montgomery County. They also draft a variety of documents to include memos,
briefs, and requests for continuances and expungements. These documents are typically read by
other attorneys learning more about the case, the judge, and the client. They often interact with
both prosecutors and defense attorneys, judges, as well as the client and their family. They have
been working as public defenders for many years so they have a lot of experience and
qualifications that we hope to learn when we interview and observe them.
Data Collection Methods
We will be exploring the tools and necessary information that public defenders use to write the
different kinds of legal documents, the ability to be precise as well as concise, rhetoric uses in
different cases and why and how they change, and the importance of writing as a public
defender. We plan to do this by observing the different types of writing that our research subjects
create, edit, and read. We plan to use guidance from our textbook such as tips on taking field
notes, how to objectively observe while still placing yourself in the environment in order to assist
in our collection of data. Observing the environment, writing field notes, and studying artifacts
when possible are appropriate for this research project because they allow us to strive to be as
objective as possible while still immersing ourselves in the environment. We would like to
collect different types of writings conducted by the defense attorneys as they are legally available
to us. We also hope to conduct interviews and ask follow up questions both in their office and
via email.

Data Analysis
After gathering our artifacts, conducting our interviews, and asking any initial follow up
questions, our group intends to thoroughly read through all of these documents and analyze them
for style, patterns, and other noticeable information that may stick out to us. We intend to use the
interview to ask questions more so about the process of writing and how the author goes about
preparing to write and what they may do or look at to begin writing or do while writing. The
artifacts that we analyze will be used to look at how the steps explained to us in the interview
show in the drafts and final products. We plan to use of the knowledge and information gained as
a tool to analyze how public defenders write, what they write, and what other efforts are included
in their writings.

Schedule of Work
We have not yet heard back from our research subjects but we are planning to have all of our
interview dates finalized by October 25 and have the interviews completed by November 5.
Since Elizabeth is interning at the office with the public defenders, if only one attorney is
available she will complete the interview. She is available Tuesdays and Thursdays and the rest
of the group is available on Friday afternoons.