Ethn

Ethnography
Ethnographyof
ogra
an Audit Writer
By: Lauren Black, Ellie
Wikner and Jenna Gekas

By Ellie Wikner, Lauren

Black, and Jenna Gekas

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 Table of Contents
Introduction 3

Research Subject and Location 3

Data Collection 4
Pre-Interview 4

Interview (adapted from Laurens field notes) 4

Levis Professional Development: From Undergraduate to Audit Writer 6

First Encounters as a Student 6
Practitioner Challenges 7

The Audit Report Genre 7

Genre and Purpose 8
Genre and Relationships 8
Genre and Document Characteristics 8
Learning Genres 8

Audit: A Collaborative Endeavor 9

Interactions and Goals 9
Collaborative Tools 9

Conclusion 10

Works Cited 11

Appendix A 12

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Introduction
In a society increasingly mediated by technology, working professionals have had to
learn to communicate effectively across several virtual platforms. The proliferation of
computers in the workplace have accelerated the development of technical
communication into a thriving profession. However, because the field of technical
communication is so broad, it can be difficult to provide an accurate description of what
a technical communicator does on a day-to-day basis. One might be able to describe
the role of a mechanical engineer, but what about a technical communicator?

For Levi Gayatao, an audit writer and the subject of our ethnographic report, his role as
a technical communicator is to produce written reports that summarize the results of an
internal financial audit. An audit report is a unique document in that it presents
quantitative data in a written format. Because an audit report is such a fascinating
example of technical communication in practice, our group was excited to learn more
about this genre by studying Levis work.

To answer our overarching research questionhow does Levi embody the role of
technical communicator as an audit writerwe interviewed our informant and analyzed
different artifacts that he shared with us. In the following ethnographic report, we
summarize our results by presenting a comprehensive, detailed portrait of this technical
communicators role in a professional environment.

Research Subject and Location

Levi Gayatao is an audit associate at KPMG. KMPG is a multi-billion-dollar company
that provides financial audit, tax, and advisory services to public and private companies
across the world. The firm belongs to a group known as the Big Four accounting firms
that also includes Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young.

Levi graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) in the spring of
2017 with a B.S. in Accounting and a minor in Business Analytics. He currently lives in
Riverdale Park but was born in the Philippines. During his tenure at UMCP, he joined
Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity that focuses on professional development. His
involvement with this chapter allowed him to take part in various resume-building
business activities like externships and internships.

Levis first encounter with KPMG was during his sophomore year of college when he
participated in an externship, an opportunity that allowed Levi to shadow company
employees for three days. Through this externship, Levi was exposed to KPMGs work
environment and culture well before he started his official job search. Moreover, this
externship experience paved the way for Levi to land an extremely competitive summer

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internship at the firm during his junior year; in 2016, KPMG received around 27,000
applications for summer internships in the United States alone (Butcher). While KPMG
only accepts about 11 percent of these applicants, about 90 percent of these interns will
receive full-time offers post-graduation (Butcher).

Data Collection
Pre-Interview
Lauren and Levi are both members of the professional fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi.
Because they were already fraternal colleagues, the process of identifying Levi as our
informant for this report was relatively simple. After formally reaching out to Levi via our
Letter of Inquiry, we scheduled an interview with him at a coffee shop near KPMGs
location in D.C. Levi suggested the coffee shop because it is a location that he works at
on weekends when he needs to work outside of regular business hours. Because he is
a new associate at KPMG, Levi was eager to speak to us about his new job, allowing us
to learn more about his position and what it entails.

To ensure that our interview with Levi provided answers to our overarching research
question, we categorized our questions into different sections: professional
development, genre and collaboration. We wanted the interview to remain open and
conversational while adhering to the structure and professionalism of a formal interview.
We thought that having a member of our group who knew Levi personally would
contribute to the overall comfort of the interview and allow the conversation to flow
honestly and organically.

Levi explained to us that as an auditor, he works on site at his specific clients building.
Because he works on another propertys company rather than at the KPMG building, we
were not able to visit him while he was working in an office. However, Ellie and Lauren
were able to meet Levi for coffee in Washington D.C. at La Colombe where he was
working for a couple hours on a Saturday morning.

Interview (adapted from Laurens field notes)

Levi was at La Colombe prior to our arrival because he wanted to work from 10 a.m. to
12:30 p.m. on that particular day. When we arrived, we noticed that the coffee shop was
relatively large and noisy. There were few tables that lined the windows with two stools
per table. Most people were sitting alone at their tables; all but one of them had their
laptop out. The lighting in the coffee shop was bright due to the large windows that
acted as a wall. The rest of the walls were covered in white paint or were constructed
out of brick, which gave the atmosphere a very rustic feel. One of our initial thoughts
upon arrival was that it might be hard to work at a location like La Colombe since the
other peoples presence would be distracting.

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Upon walking in, we immediately searched for Levi and saw him sitting at the table in
the corner. He was wearing jeans and a University of Maryland sweatshirt with tennis
shoes. Because Levi and Lauren knew each other well prior to the interview, they
hugged before sitting down. He shook Ellies hand after Lauren introduced her. Levi had
an iced coffee. He offered to buy us coffee and Lauren accepted his offer while Ellie
said that she was not thirsty.

Levi explained how an audit report is a document where the audit writing team
summarizes the audit results and then proposes their recommendations based on the
results. We asked what the main aspects of an audit report might include and he
explained that:

the main questions you need to answer are what is wrong, why is
it wrong, how do we correct it and what actions need to be taken
to correct it.

To gain as much information about audit writing as possible, we asked Levi to show as
an example of a audit report. While Levi was unable to provide current audit reports as
they are confidential until published, he was allowed to show us an audit report that he
had worked on in the past. This artifact served as a looking glass into the everyday
writing style that Levi employs in his reports, allowing us to analyze the ways that Levi
uses language in his field. We learned that audit writing is extremely concise as it must
answer the four questions above in the fastest and clearest way possible. The audit
reports purpose is to explain the findings in the audit, so it includes many technical
terms that refer to the companys financial status.

In our interview, we also learned that a lot of Levis professional communication takes
place over email. The communicative texts that he composes and disseminates via
email include memos, information about reports, and responses or inquiries to
employees, clients and others interested in learning about KPMG. To gain insight into
this particular style of writing and compare it to the other writing styles that he uses, Levi
also showed us a few emails that he had sent in the past. As previously mentioned, this
helped us pinpoint the writing techniques that Levi uses in his work environment. Of
course, we were not able to keep copies of these texts because Levi wanted to maintain
the other individuals privacy. From observing these emails, we saw a trend similar to
the audit report, as Levi focused on writing concisely rather than writing a longer email.
He explained how emails are seen as an introduction to a conversation, and how actual
content is usually discussed in person or over the phone.

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During our hour-long interview, we learned more about Levi, his experience as an
auditor/writer, his time with KPMG and his transition from student to full-time employee.
From analyzing Levi during his interview, and re-reading his answers afterwards, we
furthered our understanding of what it entails to be an audit writer at KPMG. He also
brought up a number of topics that we had not mentioned in our prepared questions.
This helped us to get an even more comprehensive idea of his role as a technical
communicator.

Levis Professional Development: From Undergraduate to Audit Writer

Chapter 4 of SPTC focuses on how technical communicators can develop as both
students and as professionals. The chapter defines professional development as
actions an individual takes to establish, strengthen, or maintain knowledge and skills
that are necessary to perform a job well or to advance ones position or status in an
organization (98). Beginning in his sophomore year, Levis experience with KPMG has
allowed him to develop professionally through the firm for over two years, and he will
continue to grow with the support of the firm.

Levis experience mimics the professional development lifecycle heuristic in SPTC since
he went through various cycles to get to the job he has now. The chapter emphasizes
the different stages people go through to get into their positions, including being a
student and developing their learning skills, being a job seeker and applying their skills,
and being a practitioner where they maintain and expand their skills.

First Encounters as a Student

Levi received KPMGs official offer of the audit associate position the summer after his
junior year; however, he explained that KPMG had begun recruiting him as early as his
sophomore year. During this time, he was exposed to KPMG employees and was
introduced to the firms workplace culture. Levi made sure he focused his academics on
classes he felt would be helpful in his future job, and evidentially picked up a Business
Analytics minor to learn more about analytics before starting at a large firm with a
growing technological dependence. The skills he developed in both his Accounting and
Business Analytics courses were immediately put into practice when he was
participated in KPMGs internship. He felt like he fit in well with the firm, inspiring him to
accept a full-time position at KPMG.

Internship to Full Time

Technical communicators must be able to continue learning within their field whether
they are a student, a job-seeker or a practitioner. Levi explained how the internship
helped familiarize him with the firms policies and procedures, culture and expectations.

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Moreover, he was able to learn about the audit software that the firm uses on a regular
basis; this helped prepare him for his duties as a full-time employee.

The transition from student to full-time employee was a drastic change, Levi explained.
He became much more involved with the overall audit, whereas as an intern he only
worked on individual work papers or specific accounts. He was also given a lot more
responsibility right away. Because he held an internship as an undergraduate, the firm
had much higher expectations for him than a completely new hire. Levi is currently
assigned to a small engagement where the only team members are him and the project
manager. Consequently, on most days, he is directly working on most, if not all, of the
work papers. He is a primary contact for his client and if there are any issues with
documentation, support or anything else, he is the one who makes the first attempt at
resolving it. He was surprised to see that the learning never stopped even though he
was no longer a student. Currently, Levi is expected to do trainings assigned to him
while studying for the CPA (certified public accountant) exam.

Practitioner Challenges
Despite the various on-the-job training Levis done, he explained that there are still
some difficulties with his work. Levi stated that the most challenging aspect of being an
auditor is having to apply professional judgement on grey area portions of the audit.
Sometimes Levi has to make judgement calls on deficiencies, estimates, non-GAAP
policies, etc. However, he is confident that this skill will continue to develop as he gains
more years of experience. As a technical communicator, Levi has to avoid conveying
bias through his writing. He is expected to be able to impartially support and document
conclusions while gathering sufficient and appropriate evidence.

The Audit Report Genre

Chapter 14 of SPTC addresses how technical communicators can use the conventions
of genre to simplify their writing process. For example, an employee in a workplace
would know not to send a 5-paragraph essay in an email to their coworkers because the
genre of email dictates that communication is short and to the point. Because the
employee is familiar with the email genre, he immediately knows how to compose a text
that aligns with the genres conventions.

In a similar manner, because Levi is an audit writer, he is expected to compose reports

that meet a particular standard. This standard is set by the needs of the audience, or
client, that Levi writes for. However, audit reports are not the only types of
communication that Levi produces at KPMG. He also writes emails and engages in
conversation with coworkers, superiors and clients. Examining these types of

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communication using the following categories allowed us to understand how these texts
accomplish Levis goals as a technical communicator.

Genre and Purpose

As previously mentioned, Levi was introduced to the audit genre during his sophomore
year when KPMG began to recruit him. This genre was quite different than the
academic genres he was used to as an undergraduate Accounting major. Although Levi
was already familiar with the financial skills that auditors would use to conduct the
actual audit, he had never seen the results transformed into writing. As he quickly
learned, audit reports must be written in a way that clearly induce a particular action or
result. While college papers are quickly submitted, graded and forgotten, a well-written
audit report achieves real-world results.

Genre and Relationships

An important relationship in the audit genre is the one between client and auditor. The
client expects the audit team to produce a comprehensive, actionable report that allows
them to identify weaknesses and implement recommended remediation. One of Levis
coworkers once told him that many audit reports fail because they dont take the
audience/clients point of view into account as much as they should. Levi took this
observation to heart, and seeks to always place himself in his clients shoes while
writing up their audit report.

Genre and Document Characteristics

As our audit report artifact in Appendix A shows, audit reports are not visually flashy.
Much of the document consists of written text summarizing the findings, but there are
also a number of tables that present the financial data. Levi informed us that these
documents lack elements of visual design to emphasis KPMGs professionalism and
reliability. Once completed, these reports are submitted electronically to the client. Upon
receipt, the client will read through the whole document to identify areas in need of
improvement.

Learning Genres
Although Levi was already somewhat familiar with the audit genre from his externship
and internship experience, when he joined full time, he was required to take a KPMG
audit writing training course. Levi was in training for two weeks before he was
encouraged to take the information he learned and apply it to real reports. While this
transition was swift, Levi found that the on-the-job, practical training was more effective
at familiarizing himself with the audit genre. KPMG also uses a standard audit template
that made it easier to Levi to quickly adapt to the genre conventions.

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Audit: A Collaborative Endeavor

Interactions and Goals

In any profession, effective employee collaboration is essential. This is further reiterated
in Chapter 18 of SPTC. To gain further insight into how Levis collaborative habits
coincided with our readings, we asked him to describe his strategies and how he
implements them in the workplace. He explained that audit writing is inherently
collaborative because the report is composed by a team of writers. Usually in the audit
development process, different people are assigned to different sections of the report.
As writers develop their sections, they stay in contact with one another to make sure
that their message and writing style stays consistent. Levi also mentioned that the most
concentrated collaboration occurs during the review stages of the audit when the teams
work gets reviewed by the senior, the manager, the partner and the concurring partner.
If there is a deficiency in documentation or any issue with individual items, the reviewers
will leave a review note stating what needs to be modified or improved. Then, the team
must work together to update the report until the documentation is deemed acceptable
by writers and reviewers alike.

Undergoing the review process can be stressful for the audit writing team as they
frequently face criticism from superiors. This stress has the potential to degrade the
quality of collaboration as team members seek to revise the report by addressing
weaknesses or flaws. Levi has seen team members disagree about revision choices; he
has also witnessed when these debates turned into heated arguments as deadlines
approached. However, Levi noted that the overarching goal to produce an effective
audit report helps to unify the team with a common purpose, even when they are
divided by stress or criticism.

Collaborative Tools
Chapter 18 also discusses how technology provides technical communicators with tools
that facilitate collaboration. Levi identified that his laptop and email were his most used
collaborative tools. These tools allow Levi and his coworkers to quickly notify their team
members if aspects of the audit report need to be corrected or updated. They also allow
the team of writers to work side-by-side and ensure that they maintain a strong, unified
writing voice. When a member of the team is offsite and working remotely, laptops and
email are even more critical to successful collaboration.

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Conclusion
After studying Levis role as a technical communicator writing audit reports, we realized
how his tasks and activities were remarkably similar to our own as undergraduates.
Even though his communication takes place in a different environment and is intended
for a different purpose, our technical communication as undergraduates at UMCP
adheres to many of the same principles outlined in SPTC.

While Levi is at a more advanced stage in his professional development lifecycle, our
group members are all obtaining and improving the skills we will need once we enter the
professional workforce. Speaking to Levi and learning about his transition from
undergraduate to professional showed us how we might navigate our own transition
when the time comes. For Lauren, Levis testimony was particularly relevant as she
hopes to work at KPMG also. While Jenna and Ellie do not intend to pursue audit writing
as a career, both are graduating in the near future and were encouraged by Levis
success story as a young professional. Ellie also observed a number of similarities
between Levis experience and her own as she recently held a summer internship at a
government contractor that eventually lead to a full-time job offer. Like Levi, Ellie was
offered the position prior to graduation, and she will be undergoing the same transition
as Levi did at KPMG once she graduates in December.

The audit report writing genre was unfamiliar to our team at the beginning of the
semester. However, once we broadened our understanding of the genre by speaking to
Levi, we realized that many of the audit document standards he adheres to are the
same as the ones we have been taught in our Professional Writing classes. For
example, all of us have to recall the importance of audience while composing the
documents we write. Moreover, we have to focus on making sure our writing is clear,
concise, and practical. Levis experience in a real professional environment showed us
just how valid the Professional Writing Program learning outcomes are, and gave us
confidence that what we were learning in our courses would be applicable after
graduation.

As our group has worked together to compose this ethnography, we have used some of
the very tools and techniques that Levi uses at KPMG. While Levis team of audit writers
is much larger than our own group of three, we still had to implement the same
collaborative strategies to ensure that each group member maintained deadlines and
developed their sections. Avoiding heteroglosia was another important concern for both
Levis team and our group. One difference between Levis experience and our own, was
that our group never used email to collaborate. We mostly used text messaging and
group chatting as we did not have to uphold professional standards that Levi is
expected to maintain at KPMG.

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This study revealed how an audit writer and recent graduate successfully navigates
within a professional environment at KPMG. Thanks to Levi Gayataos participation, our
team was able to learn more about a fascinating genre of technical communication. Our
findings have already been of use to our group as students and aspiring professionals;
however, the research presented here can also be used to inform our peers about a
potential career path open to individuals that possess the skills and tools of a
professional writer.

Works Cited
Butcher, Dan. Everything you need to know to land a coveted KPMG internship in the
U.S. efinancialcareers, 7 Jul. 2016.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan, and Stuart A. Selber, editors. Solving Problems in Technical

Communication. University of Chicago Press, 2013.

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 Appendix A

Audit Report

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