Molly Donald

Elizabeth Geary
Myranda Hinkson
Christyana Wood

Ethnographic Research Proposal

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 because we are interested in
how their work has the potential to change the lives of many people. Public defenders protect
innocent people from being wrongfully convicted of crimes, and work to ensure that everyone
has their fair day in court. We hope to look at the everyday writing that public defenders are
typically responsible for through taking field notes while in and near the Office of Public
Defenders, interviewing lawyers at the office, and gathering and analyzing artifacts.

Research Subject
Our researching subjects are XXXX and XXXX. They work as assistant public defenders out of
the Maryland Office of the Public Defenders that is located in Rockville, MD. They represent
individuals in criminal and traffic court for jailable offenses in Montgomery County. While
completing their work, they must draft a variety of written documents. Memos, briefs, and
requests for continuances and expungements are all parts of the assistant defenders daily work.
These documents are typically read by other attorneys learning more about the case, the judge,
and the client. Assistant public defenders often interact with both prosecutors and defense
attorneys, judges, clients, and their clients families. Our subjects have been working as public
defenders for many years, so they have copious experience and qualifications.

Research Question
We will be exploring the tools and necessary information that public defenders use to write the
different kinds of legal documents. Our questions will target how lawyers write in a way that is
both precise and concise. For example, what rhetorical devices do they use in different cases?
Why and how do they change? What level of significance is writing in the world of defence?
This group has a considerable interest in the intricacies of legal writing, with the majority having
an interest specifically in criminal law. We are using this project to analyze how public defenders
write, what type of content is included within these writings, and what they consider when
writing these documents. We want to understand what goes into developing documents from the
standpoint of a public defender. What ways do client interactions influence their written work?
How can someone morally defend a person who they know to be guilty? Additionally, our group
has the goal of understanding the standards of practice within the field of public defence.
Lawyers often interact with other lawyers and judges, and we wish to better understand their
social cues and rules of communication. What are the rules and norms of such interactions? How
are they conveyed via text? All four of us plan on attending law school. Being able to interview
and study attorneys in the criminal field will help us understand the requirements needed to be a
criminal defense attorney.

Data Collection Methods

The main ways we plan on collecting data is through interviewing different defenders on how
they create their texts, and analyzing the texts themselves. By comparing both the techniques
used to create documents and the documents themselves, we will be able to understand how the
different methods function. We also hope to understand the culture of the office, and why
different subjects might employ different tactics. Through taking detailed field notes of the office
design and atmosphere, as well as employee interactions, we hope to expand our understanding
of how each employees duties affect their work. Our interviews will be discourse based as well
as in person in order to best understand how each public defender personally views their writing.
We may need further interviews after our initial interview with each subject, if we have
unanswered questions while comparing our field notes and documents with our original
interview notes. However, we plan to fill any gaps in our background understanding of law
practices through research and reach out via email if we have any follow up questions.

Data Analysis
After gathering our artifacts, conducting our interviews, and taking field notes, our group intends
to thoroughly read through our field notes and recognize any patterns of behavior, trends, and
customs inside the office. This information will be used to see to what extent office culture
influences writing habits. We intend to use the interview to ask questions about the process of
writing and how the author goes about preparing to write, as well as what information they need
to complete their documents. The documents, our artifacts, will then be analyzed for style,
patterns, and other noticeable information that may stick out to us. We then compare how the
steps explained to us in our interviews work to create the drafts and final products.

Schedule of Work
Elizabeth is meeting with both XXXX and XXXX tomorrow, October 19 to set up future
interview dates. We are planning to have all of our interviews completed by November 5. We
plan to have the data analysis complete by November 10 in order to give us some leeway if need
be, and additionally to have ample time to complete our ethnographic report rough draft. Since
Elizabeth is interning at the Office of Public Defenders, she will have the largest ability to take
field notes. However, we each will spend time taking field notes when we go to complete our
interview. Elizabeth is available Tuesdays and Thursdays and the rest of the group is available on
Friday afternoons. The rough draft of our ethnographic report will be complete by November 15,
and we will submit our final on November 20. Our annotated e-portfolio rough draft will be done
by November 28, and the deadline for our final e-portfolio is December 11.