Will Teston and Tim Alfieri

Introduction:
Our ethnographic research project is going to focus on the writing and editing process of Jay
Teston, the director of [redacted]. Research will focus on how writing and editing for a
multilingual staff is done in order to find out how to better write clear and concise documents.
We will be examining and analyzing drafts and their revised forms to find what makes up a
document that can be easily understood and translated into multiple languages.
Research Questions:

The objective of our ethnographic project is to observe the writing process that is necessary to
successfully convey messages to a diverse and multilingual staff. During our interview of Dr.
Teston we will ask him questions such as...
What is the writing process like when creating documents for the staff?
To what extent do you oversee the writing and editing process of important documents?
What is the translating process like and what role do you play in it?
For the most part do you write the majority of the documents that are sent out to your staff or
do you mainly oversee and edit them?
What are some of the major issues and challenges that you face when creating documents for
a multilingual staff?
Is there any special software that you use to aid you in writing these documents?
What does it take to create a document that is easily understandable across so many different
languages?
These questions will be able to help fulfill our goal by providing us information on the writing
process and the process through which documents are translated.

Research Subject:
Jay Teston is currently the director of [redacted]. As the director, Jay Teston is in charge of
virtually everything in the school. He plans and coordinates the curriculum, plans the budgets,
keeps the staff in check and much more. Dr. Teston works with a staff that is comprised of
teachers and workers from many different countries that speak different languages and must
work to keep them all on the same page.
Data Collection Methods:
We will collect our data through samples of writing from Dr. Teston and any assistants he has
helping to translate or revise any documents. The documents and the edits being made
between revisions will be analyzed in order to find what can be changed to make documents
more easily understood. Due to our subject residing and working in China, we will be collecting
most of our data through this method. We also plan on collecting data through interviews over

the phone or Skype in order to get a first hand account on the subject and to have some of our
questions answered. As we will not be able to visit Dr. Teston in order to observe how he and his
team work together, all of our data will be obtained from interviews with Dr. Teston and any
documents that he is willing to share with us. We will also ask Dr. Teston if there is anyone on
his staff that would also be willing to interview with us. Conducting extra interviews would help
compensate for the fact that we cannot take any field notes due to Dr. Teston working in China.
Data Analysis:
Our research and analysis will be focused on our goal of learning how to effectively write when
writing for multiple languages. We will be focusing on what must be done to make sure that a
piece of writing is understandable when translated into other languages. With the help of Dr.
Teston, we hope to better understand the writing and translating processes when writing for a
diverse group.
Schedule of Work:

10/24/2016
Submit first draft of our Ethnographic Research Proposal
10/26/2016
Submit our peer review of the Ethnographic Research Proposal
10/31/2016
Submit final draft of our Ethnographic Research Proposal
11/14/2016
Submit our Annotated Research Portfolio
11/23/2016
Submit our first draft of our Ethnography of a Professional Writer
11/30/2016
Submit our Ethnography of a Professional Writer
12/12/2016
Submit our Annotated Research E-Portfolio and Reflective Essay
TBD
Skype interview with Dr. Teston
As it is not possible for us to meet with him in person we can be much more flexible in when the
interview takes place as it will either be online or over the phone. The vast time difference
however will create a bit of a challenge for us. We do not have a potential date established yet
but we will email Dr. Teston this week to try and arrange a date that we can interview him.