Policy Writing Workshop: Clips

Interested in policy writing but not sure where to start? We cover the basics below!

Determining the Scope of Your Piece

Many policy issues exist and present differently across the country. We take you through questions to start with, like:

• Why is your policy needed?

• How will your policy address the problem? 

• Who or what is impacted by your policy?

• Where would this take effect and who has jurisdiction to make changes?

• What would be required to implement your policy?

Identifying Stakeholders

Those who are impacted by an issue are not necessarily those who present, influence, and decide upon solutions. Here, we take you through categories of stakeholders such as:

• The media

• The public

• Businesses

• Regulatory bodies

• Elected officials

• Scientific community

Reviewing Relevant Legislation

Here, we review some basics of legislative procedure and questions to ask as you study the legislative landscape surrounding your issue

• Does your policy require passing legislation?

• What solutions have been previously proposed? What evidence is there of their effectiveness? What further evidence is needed?

• Has a similar policy to the one you are interested in been introduced in other states/municipalities?

Shaping a Policy Recommendation

After researching your issue, you may be faced with some difficult decisions on which policy recommendations to present and ultimately choose. We cover questions that will help inform your decision:

• What are the possible options? (Are you going to give multiple options?)

• What is the status quo? What will inaction look like?

• What is feasible? Are there compromises or incremental changes that are preferable over inaction?

• What are the pros and cons of each possibility? (What are the cons of your recommendation? What are the pros of inaction?)

Relaying Relevant STEM Research

We cover some tips to translating STEM research to a lay audience, like:

• Establishing baseline knowledge of the subject. 

• Explaining necessary STEM concepts, acronyms, and key terms that are critical to the discussion. 

• Communicating conclusions from research by avoiding qualifiers, and indicating what they results mean for your audience’s lives and concerns.

• Date visualization through figures, tables

Structuring a policy memo

• Executive summaries: Short and summarize the whole memo, including the policy recommendation

• Background: What is the central issue? Why should the intended audience care and how does it affect them? Use data, statistics, and real world examples to build your case. 

• Policy Options & Recommendation (see above)