Download Lecture 1c

PPA 503 – The Public
Policy Making Process
Lecture 1c – The Basics of
Good Writing
Basic Structure of a
Memorandum
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Background – What problems prompted the
development of this memorandum?
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Only include the material relevant to the subject
of the memorandum.
Issues – What critical issues does this
memorandum intend to discuss?
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Only include those issues for which you intend to
develop arguments.
Basic Structure of a
Memorandum
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Stakeholders – What individuals,
groups, or organizations can affect the
policy or are affected by the policy?
– Include only those stakeholders that have
a significant impact.
Basic Structure of a
Memorandum
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Discussion, argument, evidence – What
arguments or evidence do you wish the
reader to consider in analyzing the policy?
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Include only those arguments that concern the
critical issues identified in the earlier section.
Always consider the potential counterarguments
of competing stakeholders. What rebuttal might
they make and how would you combat it?
Basic Structure of a
Memorandum
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Conclusions, recommendations.
– Based on your argument and evidence
and given the problem definition, what
conclusions would you reach, and, more
importantly, what recommendations
would you make?
Basic Structure of a Policy Paper
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Introduction – What policy do you intend to discuss?
Problem Definition:
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What conditions exist that suggest that there is a problem?
Why do the conditions represent a public problem rather than a
private problem?
Who are the stakeholders who will affect the definition of the
problem?
What competing problem definitions might the stakeholders
have?
What problem definition appears to dominate your policy and
why?
Basic Structure of a Policy Paper
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Agenda Setting:
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What problem definition appears to dominate your policy and
why?
Relying on Kingdon, what combination of problems and politics
has brought the issue to public attention?
Who are the key stakeholders? Did anyone act as a policy
entrepreneur to get the policy on the government agenda?
What was the issue attention cycle (i.e, did the issue rise and fall
in public attention by producing a solution or without producing a
solution)?
What was the outcome of the agenda setting process?
Basic Structure of a Policy Paper
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Policy Formulation:
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Who are the stakeholders?
What are the competing definitions of the policy problem?
Which definition is dominant?
Relying on Kingdon, what combination of problems,
policies, and politics produce the alternatives?
What are the competing alternatives?
What are the likely outcomes from the implementation of
each alternative?
Basic Structure of a Policy Paper
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Policy Legitimation:
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What competing values must policy-makers
maximize for this problem?
Which values dominate the decision?
Who must make the decision?
Is the policy arena for the decision primarily
executive, legislative, or judicial?
What is the decision?
Basic Structure of a Policy Paper
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Policy Implementation:
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What is the policy decision?
What organization or agency must implement the
decision?
What resources (human, financial, and organizational) will
the organization need to carry out the decision?
How will the agency verify that the implementation was
successful?
Basic Structure of a Policy Paper
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Policy Evaluation:
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What are the goals and objectives of the policy program?
What are the characteristics of the program that will
achieve the goals and the objectives?
What methods will evaluators use to assess whether the
program achieved the goals and objectives?
Will the evaluator assess the success of the
implementation, the impact of the program, or both?
What conclusions has the evaluator reached about the
program?
Basic Structure of a Policy
Argument
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Outline of a problem
Argument
Conclusions.
Tell them what you are going to tell
them, tell them, and tell them what you
told them.
Writing Style
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Ultimate goal – clear communication.
– However, good judgment should balance
the use of rules.
Writing Style
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Orderly presentation of ideas.
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Continuity in words, concepts, and thematic development
from the opening statement to the conclusion.
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Punctuation.
Transitional words (pronouns that refer to the previous
sentence, time links (then, next, after, while, since), causeeffect links (therefore, consequently, as a result), addition
links (in addition, moreover, furthermore, similarly), and
contrast links (but, conversely, nevertheless, however,
although, whereas).
Writing Style
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Smoothness of expression.
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Scientific prose and creative writing serve
different purposes. Avoid creative writing
devices that deliberately introduce ambiguity.
Have someone else read the document or set it
aside for several days and reread it.
Writing Style
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Smoothness of expression.
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Use consistent verb tenses to avoid abruptness.
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Use past tense (Smith showed) or present perfect tense (Smith has shown) for
literature review and description of procedures if they happened in the past.
Use past tense to describe results.
Use present tense to discuss results, reach conclusions, and make
recommendations.
Avoid noun strings.
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Poor: Commonly used investigative expanded issue control question
technique.
Better: a common technique of using control questions to investigate expanded
issues.
Writing Style
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Economy of expression.
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Say only what needs to be said.
Avoid jargon.
Avoid wordiness.
Avoid redundancy.
Unit length.
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Varied sentence length.
Paragraphs longer than a single sentence, but shorter than a
page. Paragraphs should cover a single topic.
Writing Style
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Precision and clarity.
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Word choice – every word should mean exactly what you intend it to
mean.
Avoid colloquial expressions and approximations.
Avoid ambiguous pronouns (this, that, these, those, it) when the refer to
a previous sentence. Specify what this, that, these, or those are.
Avoid ambiguous or illogical comparisons because of omitted verbs or
nonparallel structure.
Avoid inappropriate or illogical attribution.
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Do not use the third person to indicate yourself and your fellow researchers.
Do not attribute human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects.
Only use “we” to mean yourself and your fellow researchers.
Writing Style
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Three strategies for improving writing
style.
– Write from an outline.
– Set aside the manuscript and reread it
after a delay.
– Have a colleague critique it.
Grammar
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Verbs.
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Prefer the active voice.
Use the past tense to indicate an action taking place at a
specific time in the past.
Use the present perfect tense to express a past action that
did not occur at a specific time or to describe an action
beginning in the past and continuing to the present.
Use the subjunctive to describe only conditions that are
contrary to fact or improbable.
Grammar
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Agreement of subject and verb.
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A verb must agree in number with its subject.
The plural form of some nouns of foreign origins may be appear
to be singular when they are plural.
Collective nouns can be either singular (if referring to the
collective a unit) or plural (if referring to the individual members).
If a subject is composed of a singular and a plural noun, the verb
agrees with the closer noun.
If the number of subject changes, retain the verb in each clause.
Grammar
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Pronouns.
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Each pronoun should refer clearly to its
antecedent and should agree with the
antecedent in number and gender.
Pronouns can be either subjects or objects.
“Who” is a subject. “Whom” is an object.
Substitute “he” or “she” or substitute “him” or
“her” to determine the correct word.
Grammar
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Misplaced or dangling modifiers.
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Misplaced modifiers introduce ambiguity.
Put “only” next to the word or phrase it modifies.
Dangling modifiers have not referent in the
sentence.
Adverbs can be used as introductory or
transitional words, but must be used precisely
and sparingly.
Grammar
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Relative pronouns and subordinate conjunctions.
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Relative pronouns (that and which).
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Nonrestrictive (which).
Restrictive (that).
Subordinate conjunctions
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While and since (restrict to temporal meanings).
While versus although (use while to link events occurring
simultaneously; otherwise, use although, whereas, or but.
Since versus because (restrict since to time; use because
otherwise).
Grammar
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Parallel construction.
– To enhance the reader’s understanding,
present parallel ideas in parallel or
coordinate form (use the same tense and
structure).