POLICY WRITING GUIDELINES

Transcription

1 POLICY WRITING GUIDELINES This is a resource for you as you develop your task. It focuses on key components of an effective policy document, including the elements of a policy memo, the principles of persuasive policy writing and tips for how to structure your argument. INTRODUCTION : WHAT IS A POLICY DOCUMENT? The documents you will be writing during the first Challenge exercise are one of the most commonly used policymaking tools. They are employed to communicate information to states leaders and decision makers information that drives the choices and compromises that define modern governance. Modern governments are equipped with hundreds of advisors across a range of disciplines. Whenever a crisis hits or a decision is needed, these experts will help the government to determine its response. Interest groups such as think tanks and lobbying organisations also produce advisories, white papers and other types of policy document. Persuasive, structured writing of this type represents one of the most powerful ways of influencing the policy-making process. Irrespective of the form that they take or who produces them, most policy documents share certain key features. All policy documents attempt to describe a problem or a set of contestable issues that a modern state should respond to (i.e. a rise in violent crime; an economic crisis in a neighbouring state; a new international treaty). Most policy documents also review the responses available to a state. Many policy documents recommend a particular course of action- the policy itself- and support this recommendation by citing evidence linked to key aspects of the problem. Policy papers may also try to dissuade a state from using a particular approach to resolve a problem. This document will show you how to start composing short policy papers known as memoranda. It will help you to describe the problems hinted at in the first task briefing, and design policy responses to those problems. THE STRUCTURE OF A POLICY MEMORANDUM The policy documents that you will write during the Challenge take the form of memoranda. The structure of these can be broadly divided into two halves. 1

2 The first half of the memo describes the issues that a government must address. These are not always problems or threats to a state. They may simply be novel events that could affect the affairs of a government and the society is serves in any number of ways. The first half of the document also describes how a government should respond to these issues the policy or position itself. A policy may take the form of a complicated piece of legislation designed to close a legal loophole or it may consist of choosing to sign or reject an international treaty. The second half of the memo supports the first. It consists of argumentation aimed at proving the effectiveness of the policy. These arguments are backed up and confirmed by evidence drawn from studies and sources relevant to the policy paper s subject matter. The also reviews arguments and evidence against adopting the policy and either tries to prove that these counter-arguments flawed or that the policy will be an exception to their reasoning. The process of drafting a policy memorandum can be broken down into four stages. 1. Define the problem or issue the government must address. Explain any specialist terms used in the description of the problem. Describe the people and organisations affected by the issue. Describe the government s current stance on the issue and any previous attempt to resolve it. 2. Create a policy or position for the government to adopt. Explain both the broad, principled approach that the government should take, but also detail the practical aspects of the plan. Consider how much innovation and disruption the plan might require. Discuss your plans feasibility and the institutions that will be involved in realising it. Discuss the plan s time-frame and scale how long will it take to implement and how many people will it affect? 3. Discuss the impact of the plan and described, in detail, how it would address the issues you set out at the start of the document. Introduce strong, objective evidence alongside this information and evaluate its reliability and applicability. 4. Finally, look at alternative proposals and examine the weaknesses of your own policy position. Defend your arguments against contradictory evidence where necessary. WHAT IS AN EFFECTIVE POLICY MEMORANDUM? These key components are a critical part of creating an effective policy memo: PERSUASIVE: This means developing a strong, clearly stated and well-argued position which demonstrates your understanding of and critical thinking on the issue from a global perspective. You are not just presenting facts, but rather your argument should drive the memo; hence, all sections of the policy memo need to build the pieces of your case which together convince your target audience of its merit. You have to promote your ideas, especially considering this topic is controversial and you cannot assume readers will share your opinion, take the same stance, or automatically agree with your proposed solution. EVIDENCE-BASED: It is more than rhetorical skills that make a policy document effective, and a key component in being persuasive is effective use of evidence to demonstrate that your claims are well-founded, i.e. not just based on your opinion but rather based on evidence from secondary sources. So, use of a 2

3 range of relevant sources to build up and support your argument for why the position and solution you propose are better than others. POLICY-ORIENTED: An effective policy position paper is practical and action-oriented and definitely not an academic essay or philosophical musings on the topic. The issue in focus is a real-world problem and the discussion should be centred on the practical and political dimensions of the issue, as well as the practical solutions you propose. BALANCED AND MEASURED: An effective policy position considers the issue from different perspectives, weighs up the positions in a reasonable and rational manner, and in this way comes to an informed decision on the position to support and solution proposed. Although you may not present this information in detail in your memo, considering other approaches shows you have researched the topic thoroughly, are well-informed about major approaches and strategic options discussed and have come to a rational decision about your position. WELL-STRUCTURED AND COHERENT: You need to guide your target audience through the paper by ensuring all sections and arguments are well-structured, logically developed and focused on the topic. The overall argument needs to work as a whole text, and also and specific elements of each argument need to be well-structured and flow well from each other. It is a short paper, so every word matters and it s your job to make sure they make sense and fit together to make a strong case. UNDERSTANDABLE: Because your audience may come from a different backgrounds or not be an expert in the field, an effective policy position paper uses clear and simple language (i.e. not the jargon and concepts of an academic discipline in an attempt to impress), and has clarity of ideas by providing a wellexplained, easy to follow and succinct argument. You may need to give explanation so that those not familiar with your context or examples you draw on from real life can follow and understand. Some of these elements are further detailed below. STYLE AND STRUCTURE: KEY PRINCIPLES OF PERSUASIVE POLICY WRITING When completing each part of your policy memorandum, ensure that you follow these four key principles. Testing each draft of your proposal against the ideas and advice in this section will help to ensure that your final proposal is accessible, persuasive and factually accurate. 1. Make it Simple Simplicity should be your top priority when drafting a memorandum. Policy memoranda are documents used by governments to inform decisions on a wide range of issues, in an equally wide range of contexts. More often than not, the officials responsible for these decisions will have no specialist knowledge of the facts relevant to a particular controversy. Challenge tasks put you in the position of someone who is responsible for providing this information. Your memorandum should explain technical terms and key background information as clearly, plainly and concisely as possible. Do not assume that your memorandum's audience will have read as widely on its subject as you have. Your memorandum should not use over-elaborate language. Although you will need to explain some concepts in greater or lesser depth, depending on the audience that your memo is targeting, never assume that complex vocabulary will make your paper more compelling. 3

4 Avoid sensationalising the descriptive content of your piece by over-using adjectives. Challenge tasks assess your writing skills, but they also assess your ability to gather and evaluate evidence. The outcomes of the policy you are proposing, or your responses to others policies should always be phrased in terms of the evidence you are presenting to support your arguments. Focus on explaining why the evidence you have selected proves that the government should adopt your policy. 2. Consider your Audience Although the first Challenge task asks you to pitch a policy to representatives of a theoretical government, you must remember that this government is still made up of people with differing expertise who fulfil different roles. A memo on internet governance is likely to be of interest to the people responsible for a state s foreign policy, for its domestic policies, its science and technology policies and its security policy. A memo on prison reform may only be read by personnel working for a state s ministry or department of justice. A policy memo on joining a currency union might be sent to a wide range of government officials and also to an independent central bank. Thinking about your audience will help you to determine which types of evidence and which style of language they are likely to find persuasive. The chief economist of a central bank is more likely to find information about state-level spending more persuasive than a consumer preference survey. If your memo discusses banning alcohol or cigarettes, you might assume that a minister of health will be as concerned with preserving individual s liberty as he will with cutting the cost of treating lung disease or alcoholism. A surgeon-general may regard information taken from one or two highly regarded medical journals as being uniquely valuable. However, a senior diplomat with intimate access to other states diplomats might not much trust in the opinion of an analyst working for an NGO, because he has easier access to a more direct source of information. Always write clearly and simply, but also take the time to think about who will read your memo and what their priorities, prejudices and perspectives will be. 3. Use Comparative Discussion You may want to balance providing your audience with simple explanations of complicated ideas and events with giving equally clear explanations of others ideas. The goal of your memorandum should be to persuade a decision maker to implement the policy that you have devised. Using a few sentences to contrast your perspective on the task with alternative responses and opinions can be helpful. Your recommendations should take centre stage, but you can also try to show your memo s audience why those recommendations are better than alternatives might be proposed Writing in a comparative way means researching alternative approaches to each task alongside working out the details of your own policy. A lot of this work may already have been done for you. In most modern states, policy documents such as white papers are made freely available to the public. Reading through papers that cover issues similar to those involved in your own policy can give you clues that help to focus your writing on key concerns and controversies. Links to a number of states and political parties stationery offices and publication archives can be found at the end of this guide. You can enhance the persuasiveness of your own proposal by briefly explaining how your response to each task fits in alongside other responses to the same problem. 4. Use Evidence The briefing for the first Challenge task contains a list of hyperlinks to important background material covering the themes and controversies that will feature in this year s competition. (Please also see: Related Links and Background Materials.) These sites and documents are the best place to begin the process of learning about the research and evidence that underlies the policies you will be creating. The claims you make in your policy memorandum should be based on evidence produced by reputable experts in relevant fields, which is available for peer review. The descriptions of specific issues or problems that you provide should be confirmed by the assessments of experts in the field. If, for example, you want to argue that rates of drug addiction are increasing, you must cite surveys by sociologists or health professionals that explain this. Evidence can help to identify the cause of social problems. Evidence can also be used to make a case for addressing problems in a new way it can prove why existing methods of resolving conflicts or controversies cannot be applied in new 4

5 circumstances. Similarly, you should also look for evidence that supports the outcomes that you claim your policy will produce. The evidence that you select should back up the image that you create of the status quo- the problem or issue as it exists now- and the image of the world that will exist after your policy has been implemented. Evidence can help you to understand how likely your policy is to succeed, and what costs and barriers a government will encounter while attempting to realise it. You should explain all of these factors, in clear, simple terms, in your memo. Evidence helps to show that your ideas are supported by a broad consensus of specialists, and that there is enough expert knowledge underlying the area you are discussing to make implementing your policy a possibility. However, your arguments will be weakened if you use evidence from the source that is unaccountable and biased. Wherever possible, review evidence from a primary source. If a newspaper article quotes a particular scientific study, look up that study and read its abstract. Doing so will help you understand the importance and limitations of surveys, experiments and studies. Mainstream media such as newspapers often give over-simplified explanations of research work and rarely distinguish between editorial conjecture on its significance and scientists discussions of their own conclusions. Other publications, such as New Scientist, Wired or the technology section of the Economist may have a more measured approach to publishing news about research in the physical and social sciences. When you are surveying possible sources of evidence, you should consider its source and any attempts that have been made to duplicate or disprove its claims. Review reactions to particular findings in the mainstream press, but be aware that science reporting in newspapers is often highly inaccurate. Think-tanks and political parties support their own policy claims by using statistical data and the results of surveys. Such information is potentially very useful, but you should be very wary of the ideological biases that might affect evidence published by these sources. Scientific journals often offer the highest degree of impartiality and independence, but the methodologies used in social sciences frequently overlap with important and ideologically charge philosophical and political positions, and this is another potential source of bias you should be alert to. 5. Create a Sense of Completeness Finally, try to ensure that your memorandum feels complete. After completing each individual component of your policy memorandum, summarise the document as whole. Re-introduce the problems or issues that you have explored; re-state your policy; re-examine your evidence and show your readers why it is relevant to your argument. Conclude your memorandum by bringing the problem full-circle, demonstrating to your readers that your response to the issues that feature in the task is logical, relevant and complete. POLICY DOCUMENT RESOURCES List of defence and international relations white papers and memoranda, published by the defence and foreign affairs departments of a number of states. Curated by the USA s National Defence University. The UK National Archives repository for UK government Command papers policy memoranda, white papers, legislative consultations, the reports of committees and reports compiled by experts. As above an archive covering all consultation and policy proposal documents published by the European Union during the last ten years. 5