For example, if you’re writing for a nonprofit organization, your audience may be supporters of your organization. On the other hand, your audience may be government officials who are potentially antagonistic to your message. If you’re writing your policy brief for a class assignment, ask your instructor to identify the audience for the policy brief, if this information isn’t included in the information about the assignment.
Because of their nature, policy briefs typically don’t include a lot of background information. Your thesis statement should be related to a present issue or situation. For advocacy briefs, your thesis statement will present a way to resolve the issue the brief discusses. The thesis statement for an objective brief will present the issue itself and describe the motivation for differing approaches to addressing the issue.
Use reliable sources, preferably objective academic studies or government data and statistics. These will make your policy brief more reliable. Make sure the data and information you find is directly related to your thesis. With only a few hundred words, you don’t have a lot of space to go into detail about studies in the field.
Don’t worry about length at this stage either. Write what you think you need to include. It’s easier to remove pieces than it is to add.
Take a look at your reverse outline and move paragraphs around as necessary. Your narrative should flow logically from one paragraph to the next. Use transitions where necessary to make your brief a cohesive unit, rather than simply a collection of paragraphs or sections.
For example, suppose you’re writing a brief on voluntary euthanasia, and taking the position that it should be legal. For your summary statement, you might write: “People who are terminally ill want to die in a way that preserves their dignity and respects their autonomy. Voluntary euthanasia provides the opportunity for them to control their death. "
For example, suppose you’re writing a brief on voluntary euthanasia that will be distributed to lawmakers who are against legalizing the practice. For your introduction, you might write: “All humans deserve to die with dignity. For people with terminal illnesses, this is only possible if assisted euthanasia becomes legal. Support for this is support for someone’s autonomy in their final moments. "
For example, if you’re writing a policy brief on voluntary euthanasia, you may have section headings such as “Respecting Autonomy,” “Preserving Dignity,” and “Controlling Costs. " For a policy brief, section headings allow for multiple points of entry. Rather than reading from beginning to end, your reader can focus on things they’re interested in first.
For example, if you’re writing a policy brief on voluntary euthanasia that will be distributed to government officials, you might encourage them to write or promote legislation to legalize voluntary euthanasia. On the other hand, if your readers were voters, you would want them to vote for representatives who supported legalizing voluntary euthanasia.
Use phrases such as “a study found” or “statistics reveal” to introduce conclusions. Include your sources at the end of your brief. Your readers can look up the actual studies if they want to understand more about the methodology.
Avoid technical terminology wherever possible. If it is unavoidable, provide a brief description or definition after the word or phrase.
Any figures should relate explicitly to your thesis statement. Imagine that someone who’d read nothing but the title and subject headings could understand your brief from the figures alone.
For example, if you’re writing a policy brief about assisted euthanasia, you might mention that terminally ill patients leave behind massive medical bills that could be controlled if assisted euthanasia were an option.
A policy brief is short by its nature, which means any errors will stand out. Spelling and grammatical errors will make your brief far less reliable.
