A Public Policy Guide to Style for authors of policy memos, theses, and reports Mark Henderson and Carol Chetkovich Mills College Public Policy Program, Fall 2008 As with any genre, writing for a public policy audience is expected to follow certain norms of style. Mastery of these norms will make your written products more effective in both the academic and the professional spheres. Compared with other styles of academic writing, the public policy style is distinguished by a more concise, action-oriented form. This Guide to Style is based on general principles of clear and effective writing as well as the specific formatting requirements of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the leading academic publication of this discipline. 1. General Writing Style Guidelines Above all, be clear and concise. Your prose style and formatting should be professional rather than academic. Do not include extra verbiage, even if it seems interesting, elegant, or entertaining. Target your writing to your main audience (typically, a public-sector agency or decisionmaker) but ensure that your message will also be comprehensible to the interested general public. Limit the use of technical jargon and clearly explain complex topics that must be understood for a reader to follow your argument. Focus the paper clearly so that it achieves its intended purpose. Define a well-bounded problem or question and address it (and only it). Your treatment of the problem should be comprehensive but within a limited domain. All sections of the paper must build upon and lead into each other, so that the reader is well prepared for your recommendations and conclusion. Organize your paper to make the material accessible. Readers should find it easy to follow and easy to locate specific topics. Make judicious use of subheadings, bullet points, and other formatting options to provide helpful guideposts to the reader. Base your claims and conclusions on the evidence and analysis you have presented, and make it clear to the reader how you have done so.

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2. Specific Points of Style for Public Policy Writing (adapted from APPAM 2006) Active/Passive Voice. The passive voice is weaker than the active, often making sentences wordy and unnecessarily complex. Try to avoid excessive use of "be" as your main verb. Also avoid starting sentences with "There are..." and "It is..."; these structures make reading tedious and decrease the impact of your work. Feel free to use "we" or "I" in those moments when you are clearly writing in the active voice of the first person. Acronyms. On first appearance spell out the words the acronym represents, followed by the initials in parentheses; thereafter you may use the acronym alone. Avoid, if at all possible, acronyms that are not widely known. (If more than a few acronyms are necessary in a lengthy paper, consider including them in a table of terms and definitions.) Footnotes. A substantive idea that seems worth presenting in a footnote is usually worth presenting in the text. When inclusion in the text proves difficult, that indicates a strong argument for dropping the point. If you decide that you must include certain ideas as notes, number them consecutively and place them at the bottom of the page. Do not use footnotes solely for citations in public policy writing (see Citing Sources below). Hyphens and Dashes. Properly distinguish between hyphens (used to join words, as in U.S.-British relations), en dashes (used to indicate a range of numbers, as in 2008–09), and em dashes (used to set off a parenthetical thought—like this). When typing, use two hyphens surrounded by spaces to insert an en dash. Use two hyphens between words with no spaces to insert an em dash. Tables and Figures. Tables or figures should be used when they can present data or concepts more clearly than plain text. Provide only data relevant to the textual argument, and never include a table or figure that you do not reference in the text. Tables and figures must be numbered and titled using a clear, consistent style. Create headings that communicate the argument under discussion. Always cite sources for information in tables or figures. Widows and Orphans. Avoid leaving single lines of paragraphs stranded at the top or bottom of pages. Ensure that page breaks do not separate headings from the text they introduce. Check your word processor for settings to correct these problems automatically.

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3. Citing Sources The academic taboo against plagiarism and the professional obligation to inform your audience require that you cite the source of all original ideas and evidence used in your paper, including but not limited to verbatim quotes and quantitative data. Referencing reputable sources can bolster your argument, allowing you to make claims of fact beyond your direct observation or common knowledge (indeed, you must cite sources for any such claims). However, you should generally emphasize the claim, rather than the source. Don’t say: A study done in 1998 by Cathy Krop and her colleagues at RAND found that students were less likely to drop out when they felt they could ask questions outside of class. Instead, say: Students who feel they can ask questions outside the classroom may be less likely to drop out (Krop et al., 1998). (If several studies find this effect, or one very solid study finds it, you may make the stronger statement that students are less likely to drop out.) To cite a direct quote, include the page number: Students who “feel they can ask questions outside the classroom” may be less likely to drop out (Krop et al., 1998, p. 333). The reference list would then include an entry for this study like this (in APA Author-Date style): Krop, Cathy, Stephen J. Carroll, and Randy Ross (1998). Effects of educational environments on graduation rates. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation. Determining the complete bibliographic information for online sources is often more difficult than for traditional print materials. When citing a web page, you may need to inspect other pages on the same web site to infer the full name of the author (often it will be the name of an organization, rather than an individual), publisher, or even the title of the page. Publication dates may be omitted from references if they are not shown on the web site The specific Author-Date formatting rules of the American Psychological Association (APA) or the Chicago Manual of Style are equally acceptable as long as you follow one style consistently within each paper.

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4. Checklist for proofreading and formatting Before delivering your paper to an instructor or clients, you must do a final proofread. Nothing makes a reader more immediately suspicious about the quality of a paper as misspellings, grammatical errors, and sloppy formatting. The automatic spelling- and grammar-checking tools of word processors can help but are not sufficient to correct all errors and may inadvertently introduce additional errors. Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar

 Computer spell-check finds no unexplained spelling errors  Acronyms are defined once, when they first appear  Hyphens and dashes are used properly  Closing quotation marks come after (not before) commas and periods  Footnote numbers or symbols, if any, follow all other punctuation  Non-sexist language is used (applies especially to pronouns)  Verbs are consistently in the right tense (past/present/future) and voice (active/passive)

 Every sentence is checked again for grammatical sense and spelling Formatting and Layout

 All parts of the paper are included, appropriately labeled, and in the correct order (e.g., Executive Summary, appendices, and references, as specified for the assignment)

 Pages are numbered consecutively  Italics or underlining (but not both in the same paper) are used as appropriate

 Headings and subheadings are formatted consistently throughout  No dangling headings or widowed/orphaned lines remain  Tables and figures are properly numbered and labeled  Every work cited in the text appears in the reference list  Every work in the reference list is cited in the text  All citations follow either APA or Chicago Author-Date formatting rules 4