Camila Morales, Denise Restum, Emily Ceron, Sydney Roston

University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742

19 February 2018

Evelyn Canabal-Torres
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742

RE: Research Project

Dear Dr. Canabal-Torres:

We are writing to you as students currently enrolled in an ENGL297 Introduction to Professional Writing
course at the University of Maryland. Our final project, an ethnography report, involves the examination
of a professional writer and how they write within their field of work. As a group, our common interest is
to gain an increased understanding of what it takes to become a successful translator in the medical field.
Sydney, a current student in your SPAN371 class, suggested that you would be the ideal person to
interview if we wanted to learn valuable information about medical translation. An opportunity to work
with you would help us draw connections between language and medicine as well as provide you with
ideas for your future coursework.

Our aim is to bridge the gap between the medical field, an area typically seen in terms of science and
research, and professional writing, an area considered solely as belonging to the humanities. We plan to
collect data in multiple ways in order to have a well-rounded ethnography report. For example, we will
be taking field notes in hospital settings and collecting documents such as journal articles and health
pamphlets that have been translated into Spanish. Finally, we will be conducting interviews with
individuals, such as yourself, who are knowledgeable about the topic.

We plan to collect all of our on-site and research information between February 22nd and March 16th.
We will send you progress reports throughout the project as well as the a final copy of our completed
report on April 20th for review before our final submission on April 23rd. During this time, you may
make suggestions if we have incorrectly used any information from the interview. We will not use your
real name in any of our reports or assignments throughout this project. Please feel free to share any
further ethical guidelines with us in advance of the interview if you have anything to add.

We would like to formally meet with you, discuss any questions or concerns, and interview you on your
role as a translator in the healthcare profession. Please do not hesitate to reach us through email if you
have any immediate questions or concerns. We are available Monday through Friday from 9am. to 5pm.
Our emails are listed below. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to hearing back from you
soon.
Sincerely,

Sydney: sroston@terpmail.umd.edu
Emily: e.ceron428@gmail.com
Camila: camila26morales@gmail.com
Denise: restum.denise@gmail.com