Abby Adams

Jessica Cooper
Megan Samuels

I. Introduction

This research project will study the Millennium Water Alliance in order to answer how nonprofit
and advocacy writing functions within nonprofit organizations. I will employ surveys,
interviews, and observations in order to gather ethnographic data about this research subjects
writing practice, and I will analyze this data in particular by focusing on the documents produced
and the day-to-day activities in the workplace. My answers to this research question will help us
to understand how nonprofit and advocacy writing functions within a non-profit organization.

II. Research Questions

Our project is an ethnography of nonprofit technical writing. The purpose of the study is to
understand the process of nonprofit writing as well as the benefits, challenges, and everyday
tasks that the profession involves. To do this, we will focus on Millennium Water Alliance and
the technical communication that occurs within the company. The overarching research question
that the ethnography will address is how nonprofit and advocacy writing functions within
nonprofit organizations.

An ethnography of nonprofit writing is important to us because we are interested in nonprofits

and the work that they do, because of their desire to make a difference without having a number
one concern of the profit that they are making. Specifically, Jessica works with Millennium
Water Alliance, so having a firmer and better understanding will help her in her workplace goals.
For the course, it is worthy to investigate Millennium Water Alliance and their communication
because they are a small, cooperative company that is willing to work with us and let us take
time to interview them and observe them. Ultimately, this will help us understand ethnography,
and technical writing as much as possible.

This topic relates to our academic and professional development. All three of us are interested in
professional writing as a career, and this project is helping us to learn through first hand
experience. Going directly to a nonprofit writing organization will help us to determine whether
our professional goals are aligned with the job that technical communicators at a nonprofit
organizations complete each day.

III. Research Subject

For our research project, we will be focusing on John Sparks, the communication and advocacy
director at the Millennium Water Alliance, a D.C.-based nonprofit. Jessicas work experience
with Mr. Sparks should mitigate any risks of unresponsiveness. Mostly, working as
communication director means he is constantly writing press releases, posts for the
organizations website, and advocacy letters and emails. He also works on larger projects like
MWAs annual report and program brochures. Mr. Sparks works mainly with three different
audiences: the public, other organizations associated with MWA, and donor organizations. Each
audience has a unique set of needs. Part of Mr. Sparks daily tasks is to tailor each written piece
to fit the audience its meant for. This requires changes of tone and language. For example, a
press release informing the public of an upcoming senate vote wouldnt use the same industry-
specific jargon as a letter to the senate advocating for a budget that favors foreign assistance.
This writing circulates mainly among his selected audience.

Since MWA is an international nonprofit, Mr. Sparks often collaborates with program directors
in MWAs Ethiopian and Kenyan offices. By working with the community he advocates for, he
is better able to assess their needs and promote MWAs work. He also works with government
officials and directors of other nonprofit organizations, attending and directing meetings. We do
not know much about Mr. Sparks educational and writing background at the time, other than
that he attended the University of Miami, Ohio and has worked for several government and non-
governmental organizations before assuming his current position with MWA.

With Mr. Sparks extensive experience and writing-heavy responsibilities, he is an excellent

choice for studying how nonprofit and advocacy writing function within nonprofit organizations.
Not only that, but as an organization with programs in different countries, MWA provides a
platform through which to explore how international relations can affect technical writing.

IV. Data Collection Methods

Our research question is how nonprofit and advocacy writing functions within nonprofit
organizations. Our data collection strategies are interviews, observations, and surveys.

Chapter 13 of Solving Problems in Technical Communication recommends spending 30% of a

project planning the actual project. Thus, the schedule, interview letter, proposal, and other
assignments that are due before the assignment is due are helpful to plan the
ethnography. Solving Problems in Technical Communication also recommends to compile as
much information as possible to decide what types of products to deliver. Thus, we are planning
to do two or three interviews rather than just one, and several hours of observations to make sure
that there is enough information to fall back on if a surplus is needed.

Surveys, observations, and interviews are appropriate for an ethnography of nonprofit writing
because they will allow us to gather an abundance of information from different people and in
different ways. We can distribute surveys to people across the Millennium Water Alliance office,
to gather information from more than one person about how technical writing for a nonprofit
really is. This also gives the respondents the opportunity to remain anonymous if they so choose,
so that they can explain their honest opinions. If the surveys go unanswered, we can potentially
call five to seven employees at Millennium Water Alliance and ask for five minutes of their time
to ask them a few questions. Observations will allow us to be in the office for an extended period
of time without necessarily speaking with anyone or participating in anything. We will have the
opportunity to see how the people in the office use new media, technology, work with one
another, and look over the documents that are produced. Interviews allow more extensive
questions and better understanding of what a person does in their day to day work life, as well as
the positives and negatives of those activities. Each of these data collection methods will
ultimately allow us to understand how nonprofit writing functions with nonprofit organizations.
V. Data Analysis

Together as a group we will interpret and analyze the data by collaboration and through other
methods that we have explored throughout our class discussions and class materials we
have. We will ask questions in order to explore the thought process behind a certain decision or
action that is made. We will use this information to formulate answers that explain how
nonprofit/advocacy writing is related to other types of writing. For example, in professional
writing in psychology, there is generally more emphasis on document, published based artifacts
than in this particular project where our artifact is the interview that we have with John Sparks.

We chose to focus on chapter 15, What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about
Writing for this section in order to analyze our data. There is a major emphasis in this chapter
on how technology and organizations change so frequently, and how technical communicators
must be strict about learning new software and techniques to be appropriate for the workplace
and the current year. This relates to our project because we expect our research participant, John
Sparks, to be able to email us and access skype or facetime as a mean of communication if
necessary.

Since our goal is learning how Millennium Water Alliance writes, compared to other writing
styles, it is important for us to take into consideration the companys target audience, cause,
variety of work staff, etc. Specifically, what do Millennium Water Alliances technical
communicators need to know about writing in order to complete tasks and run their business.