Communications & Policy Writing Analyst Intern

COMMUNICATIONS & POLICY WRITING ANALYST INTERN

ABOUT MORSBY, GORMAN, MCCARTHY LLC

Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC is developing Project Guardiannodes as a multidisciplinary, project-based initiative focused on infrastructure planning, implementation readiness, policy research, partnership development, evidence management, risk analysis, communications, and program coordination.

Project Guardian’s initial work centers on a proposed Kenya-focused infrastructure pilot. Participants will contribute to research, planning, analysis, documentation, and professional-quality project materials intended to help clarify the pilot’s feasibility, evidentiary foundation, funding requirements, implementation conditions, and potential pathways toward responsible replication or expansion.

Participation does not represent employment by, appointment to, or endorsement from any government, university, funder, diplomatic mission, development institution, community, or prospective partner. Project Guardian is an independent initiative of Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC unless a separate written agreement states otherwise.

PROGRAM TERMS

• Program dates: October 19, 2026–January 29, 2027
• Holiday pause: December 19, 2026–January 3, 2027, during which no routine work is expected
• Fully remote and asynchronous-first
• Normally 5–10 hours per week
• Work exceeding 10 hours in a week requires advance written approval
• Participants should not ordinarily exceed approximately 15 hours in any week
• Unpaid educational internship
• Academic credit may be available only when approved by the participant’s institution
• No promise or expectation of future employment
• Reasonable academic and accessibility accommodations will be considered
• Participation is subject to applicable confidentiality, data-handling, authorship, attribution, acceptable-use, and release requirements

EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE

This is a structured, project-based learning experience. Participants receive defined learning objectives, supervised assignments, written or documented feedback, revision opportunities, and exposure to policy writing, research communication, infrastructure, public administration, international development, editorial practice, and multidisciplinary program work.

Assignments are designed to develop transferable professional competencies through applied work of educational value. Participants may produce portfolio-appropriate materials, excerpts, or descriptions subject to confidentiality, intellectual-property, authorship, attribution, data-protection, and release requirements.

Inclusion of any project brief, report section, presentation text, communications plan, screenshot, editorial record, or deliverable in a portfolio requires prior written authorization. Authorized portfolio materials may require redaction, excerpting, modification, delayed release, or explanatory limitations.

Academic credit may be available only when approved by the participant’s institution. Participants are responsible for initiating and satisfying their institution’s credit-approval process. Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC will reasonably cooperate with legitimate institutional documentation, learning-agreement, supervision, evaluation, and verification requirements when provided with sufficient notice.

Academic credit is not guaranteed and is not required for participation. The availability, amount, classification, and conditions of credit are determined solely by the participant’s institution.

The internship is intended to complement academic study and professional development. Participants will not displace regular employees, act as official spokespeople or lobbyists, or independently perform functions requiring licensed legal, engineering, financial, regulatory, public-relations, or other specialized professional judgment.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Communications & Policy Writing Analyst supports Project Guardian by translating approved research, policy, technical, funding, risk, and implementation information into clear, accurate, well-structured written materials.

Assignments may include policy briefs, research summaries, backgrounders, executive summaries, explanatory materials, frequently asked questions, presentation text, stakeholder-oriented drafts, internal updates, report sections, and plain-language adaptations.

The analyst will help ensure that communications remain faithful to the underlying evidence, appropriately qualified, suited to the intended audience, and respectful of Kenya-specific institutional and community contexts.

This is a hands-on contributor internship, not an official spokesperson, lobbying, public-relations, journalism, legal-writing, or independent publication position.

The role is distinct from the Communications and Design Integration Lead, who coordinates the broader communications and visual-design system. It is also distinct from the Chief Research and Editorial Director, who maintains higher-level research and editorial integration. This analyst contributes assigned writing, research translation, fact-checking, and revision work under supervision.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the conclusion of the internship, the participant should be able to:

• Translate complex research and policy information into clear audience-appropriate writing
• Distinguish policy analysis, explanatory communication, advocacy, lobbying, public relations, and institutional representation
• Develop briefs, summaries, backgrounders, and report sections using logical information hierarchies
• Identify the intended audience, purpose, required action, evidence base, tone, and approval status of a communication
• Distinguish verified facts, source claims, analysis, assumptions, scenarios, recommendations, and aspirations
• Preserve material qualifications, uncertainty, and limitations when simplifying complex information
• Apply plain-language principles without distorting substantive meaning
• Use citations, quotations, paraphrases, attribution, and supporting links responsibly
• Identify unsupported, exaggerated, ambiguous, inconsistent, or potentially misleading claims
• Apply editorial review, revision, version-control, and approval processes
• Write respectfully about Kenyan institutions, communities, infrastructure, and stakeholders
• Recognize when legal, technical, statistical, financial, cultural, accessibility, or policy review is required
• Apply confidentiality, intellectual-property, and responsible-AI practices
• Receive, evaluate, and incorporate substantive editorial feedback

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Audience and Purpose Analysis

• Identify the intended audience, purpose, decision context, expected use, and approval status of each assigned document
• Clarify what readers should understand or be able to do after reviewing the material
• Distinguish internal working documents from academic, technical, partner, funder, stakeholder, and public-facing communications
• Determine the appropriate level of detail, terminology, structure, tone, and sourcing
• Identify material assumptions about audience knowledge or interests
• Avoid drafting external-facing language before the underlying purpose, evidence, and authority are sufficiently clear
• Document unresolved audience, purpose, or release questions
• Revise communication choices when the intended audience or use changes

Policy Briefs and Backgrounders

• Draft supervised policy briefs, backgrounders, issue summaries, and institutional-context materials
• Define the issue, relevant context, evidence, affected parties, policy considerations, options, tradeoffs, and unresolved questions
• Distinguish enacted law, regulation, policy, strategy, guidance, proposals, political statements, and third-party commentary
• Use current and authoritative sources where reasonably available
• Avoid providing legal advice or making unsupported predictions about governmental action
• Avoid presenting policy aspirations as funded or implemented programs
• Identify questions requiring qualified legal, regulatory, procurement, diplomatic, or local review
• Maintain neutral and precise language for politically sensitive subjects

Research Translation

• Convert approved research and analysis into concise, understandable written materials
• Preserve the original research question, source context, methodology, key findings, and material limitations
• Distinguish correlation, causation, projection, scenario, estimate, and qualitative interpretation
• Avoid expanding conclusions beyond what the evidence supports
• Define specialized terminology or replace it with accurate plain-language explanations
• Retain qualifications that materially affect interpretation
• Coordinate with research contributors when the meaning of a finding is unclear
• Identify where simplification would create a misleading impression
• Maintain traceability from major written claims to their supporting sources

Executive Summaries and Decision Materials

• Prepare supervised executive summaries, decision briefs, key-point summaries, and briefing notes
• Prioritize information according to the intended reader’s decision needs
• Distinguish background, findings, implications, options, recommendations, risks, and requested decisions
• Avoid introducing conclusions that are not supported in the underlying material
• Clearly identify unresolved questions and required next steps
• Preserve material limitations, dependencies, and dissenting evidence
• Use concise language without omitting information necessary for responsible interpretation
• Submit summaries for substantive review by the relevant workstream

Plain-Language and Accessibility-Minded Writing

• Apply plain-language principles to approved documents
• Use clear organization, informative headings, manageable sentence structure, and consistent terminology
• Explain abbreviations and specialized concepts where appropriate
• Avoid unnecessary jargon, vague abstractions, and unexplained technical language
• Support accessibility through meaningful headings, descriptive links, useful captions, logical reading order, and text alternatives where assigned
• Coordinate with design contributors when writing will appear in visual or presentation formats
• Avoid claiming formal accessibility compliance without appropriate review and testing
• Preserve substantive precision while improving readability

Report and Presentation Support

• Draft or revise approved report sections, captions, callouts, presentation text, speaker notes, and explanatory copy
• Maintain consistency in project names, dates, definitions, units, geographic references, and status language
• Integrate assigned research into the larger document structure
• Avoid duplicating or contradicting approved material elsewhere in the document
• Coordinate with the Communications and Design Integration Lead on visual hierarchy and presentation needs
• Coordinate with the Chief Research and Editorial Director on document structure, tone, citations, and final integration
• Clearly label conceptual, illustrative, preliminary, and unverified information
• Avoid implying that proposed infrastructure is funded, engineered, approved, built, or operational

Fact-Checking and Claim Review

• Verify material names, dates, figures, quotations, institutional descriptions, policy status, and source references
• Trace important statements to appropriate underlying evidence
• Distinguish direct quotations from paraphrases and summaries
• Check whether a source supports the proposition for which it is cited
• Identify outdated, incomplete, contradictory, inaccessible, or weak supporting evidence
• Flag claims that use superlatives, guarantees, causal language, or unsupported certainty
• Coordinate with the Evidence and Quality Assurance Lead on material claim concerns
• Document corrections and unresolved questions
• Avoid treating successful citation formatting as proof that a claim is accurate

Editorial Consistency and Quality

• Apply approved terminology, style, citation, capitalization, abbreviation, number, date, and formatting conventions
• Identify inconsistent names, figures, status descriptions, definitions, and claims across project materials
• Correct routine language and formatting issues through authorized review processes
• Distinguish stylistic edits from substantive changes
• Avoid changing technical, financial, legal, policy, or stakeholder meaning solely for readability
• Escalate substantive inconsistencies to the appropriate workstream
• Maintain clean and clearly marked versions where required
• Preserve reviewer comments, revision history, attribution, and approval status

Communications Ethics and Accuracy

• Ensure that assigned writing accurately reflects Project Guardian’s status, evidence, authority, relationships, and limitations
• Avoid unsupported promotional claims, guarantees, false urgency, misleading comparisons, or exaggerated descriptions of impact
• Distinguish proposed, planned, under review, approved, funded, committed, implemented, and completed activities
• Avoid implying governmental, university, community, funder, investor, partner, or stakeholder endorsement without written confirmation
• Avoid using communications to conceal material risks, uncertainty, limitations, or unresolved concerns
• Flag language that may be defamatory, stigmatizing, discriminatory, culturally insensitive, politically partisan, or reputationally risky
• Present preliminary analysis as preliminary
• Escalate material ethical or representation concerns through designated channels

Kenya and Stakeholder Representation

• Write about Kenya, its institutions, communities, geography, infrastructure, and stakeholders accurately and respectfully
• Prioritize credible Kenyan, regional, African, governmental, academic, professional, and locally grounded sources where available
• Distinguish national, county, municipal, community, sectoral, and site-specific conditions
• Avoid treating Kenya or Africa as a uniform political, cultural, economic, or infrastructure environment
• Avoid deficit-based, paternalistic, extractive, stereotypical, or decontextualized framing
• Avoid implying local demand, consent, endorsement, participation, consultation, or partnership that has not been established
• Identify where wording requires local, cultural, technical, or institutional review
• Preserve legitimate stakeholder authority and differing perspectives

Citation, Attribution, and Intellectual Property

• Use quotations, paraphrases, summaries, citations, and links in accordance with approved standards
• Preserve author, publisher, date, title, page, link, and retrieval information where required
• Distinguish original language from source-derived or collaboratively developed content
• Avoid excessive quotation or reproduction of copyrighted material
• Identify content with unclear ownership, permission, licensing, or attribution
• Respect applicable confidentiality, copyright, trademark, database, and licensing restrictions
• Coordinate with the Knowledge and Data-Room Manager on approved source and document records
• Obtain authorization before reusing project or third-party material externally or in a portfolio

Revision and Editorial Collaboration

• Receive and organize feedback from authorized reviewers
• Distinguish mandatory substantive corrections from optional stylistic preferences
• Resolve routine edits while preserving source accuracy and intended meaning
• Ask for clarification when feedback conflicts or could materially change a claim
• Maintain version and change records
• Identify unresolved comments and required approvals
• Avoid accepting or rejecting substantive changes beyond the analyst’s authority
• Prepare orderly handoffs for additional editorial, evidence, design, legal, or leadership review

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Support writing needs across research, policy, funding, risk, operations, data, visualization, technical, and engineering workstreams
• Clarify the intended use before drafting or revising material
• Coordinate with subject-matter contributors to preserve technical meaning
• Coordinate with evidence contributors to verify material claims
• Coordinate with design contributors to align writing and visual communication
• Identify contradictions among workstreams and refer them for resolution
• Communicate delays, missing information, and editorial risks promptly
• Maintain usable source and handoff documentation

SUPERVISION, FEEDBACK, AND REVISION

The Communications & Policy Writing Analyst will receive assignments, guidance, and feedback from designated project or workstream leadership.

Research and editorial standards may be coordinated through the Chief Research and Editorial Director. Communications and presentation integration may be coordinated through the Communications and Design Integration Lead. Overall operational coordination remains with the Deputy Program and Operations Manager.

The educational workflow is expected to include:

• Initial orientation to Project Guardian’s scope, audiences, research standards, style expectations, authority limits, and confidentiality requirements
• Defined assignments connected to the role’s learning objectives
• Access to appropriate templates, examples, sources, and project context
• Scheduled or milestone-based supervisory review
• Written, annotated, recorded, or otherwise documented feedback
• Opportunities to ask questions and clarify expectations
• Reasonable opportunities to revise substantive work
• Progressively more complex assignments where supported by demonstrated readiness
• Periodic reflection on professional development and learning progress
• A final review or evaluation where appropriate

Feedback may address audience awareness, structure, accuracy, clarity, source use, policy reasoning, plain-language effectiveness, tone, contextual integrity, attribution, editorial judgment, collaboration, and the participant’s ability to incorporate revisions.

EXPECTED EDUCATIONAL OUTPUTS

Depending on project needs, participant readiness, source availability, workstream placement, and supervisory direction, outputs may include:

• Policy briefs and backgrounders
• Research summaries and evidence explainers
• Executive summaries and decision briefs
• Institutional and program profiles
• Frequently asked questions
• Plain-language adaptations
• Report sections and supporting appendices
• Presentation text, captions, callouts, and speaker notes
• Internal program updates
• Stakeholder-oriented draft materials
• Fact-checking and claim-review records
• Citation and attribution documentation
• Editorial-consistency guides or checklists
• Correction and revision records
• Source-supported briefing materials
• Handoff and unresolved-question records
• Substantive original research, writing, editing, and analysis

Outputs are educational and developmental materials. Their production does not guarantee that they will be adopted, externally distributed, published, implemented, or used as official project communications.

PERFORMANCE AND LEARNING ASSESSMENT

Progress may be assessed according to:

• Clarity, organization, and audience appropriateness
• Accuracy and faithfulness to approved sources
• Ability to translate complex material without distorting its meaning
• Appropriate distinction among facts, analysis, assumptions, scenarios, recommendations, and aspirations
• Preservation of material qualifications, uncertainty, and limitations
• Quality of citations, quotations, paraphrases, and attribution
• Ability to identify unsupported, exaggerated, ambiguous, or inconsistent claims
• Appropriate treatment of policy status and institutional authority
• Respect for Kenyan institutions, communities, knowledge, and stakeholder authority
• Compliance with confidentiality, intellectual-property, responsible-AI, and release requirements
• Ability to receive, evaluate, and incorporate feedback
• Reliability in meeting agreed milestones or communicating constraints early
• Effectiveness in multidisciplinary collaboration
• Growth against the stated learning objectives

Assessment is intended to support learning and program administration. It is not a journalism, lobbying, public-relations, legal-writing, policy, editing, or communications credential.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Candidates may be undergraduate or graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, recent graduates, alumni, or early-career professionals. Relevant classroom, volunteer, internship, military, community, entrepreneurial, or professional experience may be considered. No single academic major is required.

Relevant academic areas may include communications, journalism, public policy, political science, public administration, international relations, international studies, English, professional writing, technical writing, development studies, economics, sociology, or related interdisciplinary fields.

Strong candidates will demonstrate:

• Strong research, writing, editing, organization, and critical-reading skills
• Ability to explain complex information clearly and accurately
• Interest or experience in policy writing, research communication, journalism, technical writing, public-interest communications, or editorial work
• Ability to adapt tone, structure, and detail for different audiences
• Ability to identify unsupported claims and preserve material qualifications
• Familiarity with citations, collaborative documents, tracked changes, or editorial workflows
• Sound judgment concerning confidentiality, attribution, public communication, and political sensitivity
• Respect for local knowledge, cultural context, and legitimate stakeholder authority
• Willingness to document sources, accept feedback, and revise substantive work
• Reliability when collaborating across disciplines and time zones

Prior experience relating to Kenya, Africa, infrastructure, international development, public policy, or research communication may be helpful but is not required.

Applicants are not expected to possess prior professional journalism, lobbying, public-relations, or government-communications experience.

APPLICATION MATERIALS

Applicants should submit through Handshake:

• A current résumé
• A cover letter explaining their interest in Project Guardian and describing relevant communications, policy, writing, editing, research, academic, or transferable experience
• One relevant writing sample, such as a policy brief, research summary, analytical essay, article, report section, backgrounder, technical explainer, presentation narrative, or comparable academic, professional, volunteer, or independent work

Applicants should submit a sample that reasonably reflects their own analytical and writing ability. Short excerpts are acceptable when accompanied by enough context to evaluate the applicant’s contribution.

Applicants should remove or redact confidential, proprietary, personally identifiable, restricted, privileged, licensed, or third-party information from submitted samples.

If the sample was collaboratively written or substantially edited by another person, the applicant should briefly identify their individual contribution. Applicants should also disclose material use of generative artificial intelligence in the submitted sample when applicable.

A prior professional writing sample is not required. Academic, volunteer, independent, simulated, or appropriately redacted work is acceptable.

SELECTION PROCESS

Initial screening will be asynchronous. Applications will be assessed based on demonstrated alignment, writing quality, analytical reasoning, source judgment, audience awareness, learning potential, and the relevance of submitted materials.

Finalists may be invited to complete a brief, time-limited educational evaluation exercise using hypothetical or publicly available information. The exercise may ask the applicant to summarize a short source, revise an unclear paragraph, identify unsupported claims, or convert technical material into a concise policy-oriented explanation.

Any selection exercise will be designed solely to evaluate the applicant’s reasoning and communication. It will not involve confidential project information, be used as uncompensated production work, or be incorporated into Project Guardian deliverables without separate written permission and appropriate arrangements.

Live conversations will be limited to finalists or circumstances requiring clarification. References may be requested selectively. Reasonable accommodations are available during the selection process.

Priority application deadline: October 2, 2026. The posting may close earlier or later based on application volume, institutional review timing, or program needs.

PUBLICATION, LOBBYING, AND EXTERNAL-COMMUNICATION LIMITATIONS

Unless separately authorized, the analyst may not:

• Publish, post, distribute, transmit, or release project materials externally
• Operate public-facing accounts or communicate with the media on behalf of Project Guardian
• Contact governments, officials, political parties, diplomatic missions, communities, funders, partners, universities, or other external stakeholders
• Lobby or attempt to influence legislation, regulation, procurement, or official action
• Present personal opinions as Project Guardian’s institutional position
• Represent draft materials as approved statements
• Attribute quotations or positions to individuals or organizations without an appropriate basis
• Imply endorsement, partnership, funding, consultation, consent, or governmental support that has not been confirmed
• Promise impact, funding, implementation, academic credit, employment, publication, or any project outcome
• Respond publicly to criticism, controversy, inquiries, or media requests on behalf of the project

Nothing in these limitations restricts a participant’s lawful personal expression conducted independently, provided it does not use confidential information, project resources, or imply Project Guardian’s endorsement.

CONFIDENTIALITY, ATTRIBUTION, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AND RESPONSIBLE TOOL USE

Participants may encounter confidential, preliminary, proprietary, sensitive, licensed, or access-controlled information. Such information may be used only for authorized program purposes and handled according to applicable instructions.

Participants must:

• Protect confidential, personal, proprietary, licensed, and restricted information
• Use only authorized systems, accounts, storage locations, and transfer methods
• Access only materials reasonably necessary for assigned work
• Avoid uploading confidential, proprietary, restricted, stakeholder, or unpublished material to unapproved third-party platforms
• Preserve citations, source records, editorial notes, review history, and version information
• Distinguish original work from quoted, paraphrased, adapted, collaborative, translated, generated, or tool-assisted material
• Disclose material use of generative artificial intelligence, machine translation, or automated tools when requested
• Independently verify facts, quotations, translations, calculations, citations, summaries, and source interpretations
• Avoid fabricating sources, quotations, statistics, affiliations, partnerships, endorsements, events, or findings
• Obtain approval before externally sharing project materials or including them in a portfolio
• Report suspected confidentiality, attribution, copyright, integrity, or information-handling problems promptly

Automated tools may support learning, brainstorming, outlining, editing, translation, or drafting only when permitted. They may not replace source review, analytical judgment, authorship transparency, confidentiality obligations, or responsibility for submitted work.

Machine-generated citations, quotations, summaries, and translations must be checked against the underlying source. Restricted or unpublished information may not be entered into public or unauthorized artificial-intelligence systems.

PROFESSIONAL AND REGULATORY LIMITATIONS

This internship does not authorize the participant to provide or represent that they are providing legal, lobbying, public-relations, diplomatic, engineering, financial, regulatory, investment, or other licensed professional advice or services.

Policy briefs, summaries, explainers, presentation text, and stakeholder-oriented drafts are educational and developmental materials. They are not legal opinions, official policy positions, lobbying communications, engineering statements, investment materials, regulatory submissions, or guarantees of accuracy, approval, implementation, impact, or performance.

Questions requiring specialized professional judgment must be identified and routed for qualified review.

REPORTING AND AUTHORITY

The analyst will receive assignments and feedback from designated project or workstream leadership. Research and editorial standards may be coordinated through the Chief Research and Editorial Director. Communications integration may be coordinated through the Communications and Design Integration Lead. Overall operational coordination remains with the Deputy Program and Operations Manager.

The analyst may:

• Complete approved internal writing, research-translation, editing, fact-checking, and briefing assignments
• Develop internal drafts, summaries, backgrounders, policy briefs, and explanatory materials
• Request clarification and authorized project information
• Identify unsupported claims, editorial inconsistencies, source problems, and specialist-review needs
• Recommend revisions or additional authorized research
• Collaborate with assigned internal participants
• Revise work in response to documented feedback

The analyst may not independently:

• Publish, distribute, or release project communications
• Act as a spokesperson, lobbyist, journalist, public-relations representative, or government-relations representative for the project
• Contact external stakeholders
• Approve final policy, legal, financial, technical, or public statements
• Make legal, financial, political, employment, procurement, partnership, technical, or contractual commitments
• Represent the company, project, university, or any institution externally
• Promise funding, partnership, implementation, impact, academic credit, employment, publication, or any project outcome
• Authorize another participant to exercise any of these powers

Final decisions concerning publication, external communications, institutional positions, substantive claims, stakeholder engagement, and release authority remain with authorized program leadership and, where necessary, qualified reviewers.

All external outreach, advocacy, publication, representations, commitments, and releases require prior authorization.

ELIGIBILITY AND INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS

Applicants must be able to participate remotely during the stated program period and communicate reliably in an asynchronous-first environment.

Students seeking academic credit must contact their institution and initiate any required approval, registration, learning-agreement, or internship-verification process. Institutional approval and academic credit are not guaranteed.

Where required, participation may be conditioned on completion of appropriate institutional documentation, confidentiality agreements, information-handling acknowledgments, intellectual-property terms, contributor-attribution terms, conflict disclosures, acceptable-use requirements, or other reasonable program documentation.

International students and other applicants are responsible for confirming with their institution or qualified adviser whether participation is consistent with applicable academic, immigration, authorization, funding, or institutional requirements. Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC does not provide immigration, visa, tax, legal, or employment-authorization advice.

EQUAL CONSIDERATION AND ACCOMMODATIONS

Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC intends to consider applicants based on role-related qualifications, demonstrated readiness, learning potential, and program needs. Reasonable accommodations may be requested for the application process or internship experience.

Applicants are encouraged to describe relevant academic, professional, volunteer, military, community, entrepreneurial, caregiving, independent, or lived experience when it demonstrates transferable skills applicable to the role.