transcript
- Slide 1
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional
Style
- Slide 2
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Introduction Last
week, we talked about the unique environment of government
communication. Two guiding concepts: Transparency Openness
Information in the governments possession is presumed to be public
information, unless made confidential by law. Goverments have a
responsibility to provide the public with clear and informative
communication. This week, our focus is on something more basic:
writing in a professional style. I emphasize this because writing
on behalf of the government is a very serious activity, whether it
is the United States or a tiny town with population of 50
people.
- Slide 3
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Introduction Of
course, all professional writing is serious. When you write for a
company or other organization, your supervisor will expect your
document to be neat and organized. The quality of a companys
written product affects its reputation and publics perception of
the company. This also applies in the context of government
writing. Not only are you represeting your entity to the public. In
many cases your document is an expression of sovereign power the
power of the state over persons and things. It is a very serious
responsibility that should be exercised with a good deal of care
and prudence. This mindset should inform your communication
style.
- Slide 4
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional Style
This doesnt mean that government communicaiton should be stuffy,
overly-formal, or bombastic. Rather it is about being professional:
adopting a tone and attention to detail that shows you have given
the matter your serious attention. Professional style is a term we
are going to use to describe the style of writing used in
professional, business, and public-policy situations.
- Slide 5
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional Style
All writing to and from the government is written in a professional
style. Even if what you are writing doesnt feel very important or
formal, you are writing on behalf of the sovereign. Even if you are
a lowly clerk in some obscure government office. Even if you are
writing a routine letter which your office sends out hundreds of
time per month. Writing in a professional style is important for
all types of writing we talk about this semester.
- Slide 6
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional Style:
Some General Points Professional style requires a higher level of
formality than most people are accustomed to. We live in an age of
informal communication: email Twitter Facebook Because informality
is the norm, you have to consciously adopt a more formal tone in
professional writing. Almost like you are speaking another
language.
- Slide 7
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional Style:
Some General Points Professional style also matters because of the
Public Information Act. If you work for the government, you have to
imagine your emails displayed on a billboard over Interstate 35.
Would you be embarresed?
- Slide 8
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Some Elements of
Professional Style We are going to talk about four elements of
professional style: Maintain a professional tone. Avoid laying
blame unless you must. Focus on facts, not assumptions or opinions.
Learn the art of effective briefing.
- Slide 9
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional Tone
Professional tone means a level of formality and professional
distance. Talk about people by using Mr. or Ms. rather than their
first name or nickname. (Exception of inter-office communications
and email). First person is usually ok. Keep personal information
to a minimum for your own protection. Assume that whatever you are
writing is open to the public. Always keep it polite. Never put
anything down in writing that you would want to take back later.
You cant! Avoid slang on one hand and unnecessarily stuffy words on
the other. No: Whats up? No: What is the subject-matter of this
inquiry? Ok: What is this about?
- Slide 10
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional Tone
Resist the temptation to Say anything sarcastic Make any jokes,
especially about anyone Say anything crude or in poor taste Adopt
shorthand: incomplete sentences, typos, texting speak. Email is
generally understod to be a less formal medium than a business
letter. So you can get away with things like incomplete sentences
in email. But remember, email is a permanent record with your name
attached to it. You will be judged by your style and tone.
- Slide 11
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Professional Tone
Suppose the following email were retrieved from archives three
years after it was written because the company was the subject of
an investigation. The email was read by the writers boss and was
released to the press. How might the author and his company be
judged by this document three years later?
- Slide 12
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012
- Slide 13
- Avoid Laying Blame This is another tip for your own protection.
Police maxim: Anything you say can be used against you. Dont be
overly paranoid, but there is some truth to this. Think very hard
about creating a document that expresses your opinion on fault.
Find ways to address a problem without throwing jabs at those you
believe are responsible. Usually, assigning blame does not help
solve the issue. It is more about making the writer feel better. Of
course there will be situations where you have to assign blame. My
advice is simply to try to avoid it whenever you can. And when you
must, make sure you have the facts to back you up. Speaking of
facts
- Slide 14
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts As a
general rule, professional writing is about facts and what
conclusions should be drawn from those facts. Most everything you
will write in a professional context will boil down to these two
concepts. Facts as opposed to the writers own personal feelings on
the subject. Thus, professional writers must resist the urge to
editorialize in their writing. This is especially true in the
public-policy or business context. If you are writing under a
government or business letterhead, you are speaking for that
organization. Whatever you say will be attributed to it. Thus,
professional writers must filter their writing through a work
persona who doesnt express the same views as the person their
friends or family knows. Skilled professional writers learn how to
take on multiple personalities.
- Slide 15
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts
Consider this situation: Sue is an employee of BP. BP was the
operator of the notorious Deepwater Horizon oil rig. In April 2010,
an explosion on Deepwater Horizon resulted in an enormous oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico and the loss of several lives. BP fell under
intense public scorn. Many people believe that the spill was caused
by BPs negligent operations. Sue is part of the environmental
compliance team at BP and must correspond with the Federal Minerals
Management Agency, Coast Guard, and other governmental entities on
a regular basis.
- Slide 16
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts Even
though she is a BP employee, Sue personally dislikes BP and thinks
the spill could have been prevented. Sues environmental team has
received a letter from the Coast Guard requesting documents related
to operations on another oil rig called the Deepwater Nautilus. Sue
is responsible for responding to this request. In her response, Sue
concludes with the following comment:
- Slide 17
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts What
do you think? Do you think Sue could get into hot water over these
comments? Do you think it is fair? Is she being paid to express her
opinions about the spill? Shouldnt Sues bosses at BP be able to
control the views expressed by the company? Would this comment be
appropriate to a friend written with her private email
address?
- Slide 18
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts
Focusing on facts also means writing in a way that avoids making
assumptions. An assumption is a conclusion you make without having
the facts to back you up. This is especially important in
investigative writing. Government agencies often write
investigation reports. The purpose of these documents is to collect
and record facts and conclusions. These documents are important
because they can become evidence in a trial. Millions of dollars
may hang in the balance. We will talk more about
investigative-report writing later in the semester. Investigators
must be very careful to report on only those matters they observed
rather than assumptions. Why? Assumptions are sometimes wrong.
Thus, they can undermine a writers credibility and can be
misleading.
- Slide 19
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts Paul
is an investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Paul inspects commercial aircraft to ensure that the airlines are
complying with FAAs safety regulations. Paul records his findings
in investigation reports. These reports cover a variety of checks
Paul performs on each aircraft. Some of the items Paul checks
include the landing gear tire pressure, the integrity of fuel and
hydraulic lines, window and door seals, and the integrity of the
aircraft body. On one occasion, Paul was assigned to inspect twenty
aircraft in one day. Because he was in a hurry, Paul took some
shortcuts that, in his mind, were entirely sensible and justified.
For example, Paul observed several fresh drops of fuel in the area
of the fuel lines on one aircraft. He didnt have time to crawl into
the space with a flashlight to see if the drips were actually
coming from the line. Paul thought a leaking fuel line was the only
possible explanation for the presence of fuel outside the fuel
lines. Thus, Paul recorded a violation of FAA rules for leaking
fuel lines.
- Slide 20
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts As a
result of the violations Paul recorded, the FAA initiated an
enforcement action against the airline and sought a substantial
fine. Leaking fuel lines are considered a major violation of
aircraft safety rules. The airline denied that there was any leak
on this aircraft. The FAA agreed to re-inspect the aircraft with
safety personnel from the airline. When investigators actually
looked at the suspect fuel line and tested it, they found no leaks.
It turns out that the fresh drops near the lines were a result of
refueling the plane. As the fill hose was disconnected, some excess
fuel escaped from the hose and left the drops around the fuel fill
port. This occurred just prior to the investigator's arrival.
- Slide 21
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Focus on Facts Moral
of the story? The investigator made an assumption about what he was
seeing rather than relying on observations. His assumption caused
the FAA to pursue an frivolous enforcement action against the
airline. Thus, time was wasted and the FAA looks bad.
- Slide 22
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Learn the art of
effective briefing Managers and decision-makers in both government
and private industry have the difficult job of making decisions
based on complicated or confusing matters. Often these issues are
tangled up in thousands of pages of documents. Thus, there is a
need for someone to make sense of all this information and condense
it into a more digestable form. This is the art of briefing.
Briefing means taking a long document and providing a concise
summary that focuses on the relevant facts and conclusions. What
facts and conclusion are relevant depends on the situation and
audience.
- Slide 23
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Learn the art of
effective briefing People who work in professional settings have to
write some form of briefing all the time. Sometimes these are very
informally done in an email. Sometimes they appear as more formal
reports or briefs. The purpose is often to give a decision-maker
the essential information they need to make a decision. There is an
art to this. You have to learn to sift though, in some cases,
mostly irrelevant information and find the facts that matter to
your audience. And you should present them in a narrative fashion.
You have to understand and concisely explain technical concepts
that are involved (unless you are sure your audience already
understands them). You must decide how much background information
is necessary to provide a coherent mental picture of the
situation.
- Slide 24
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Finding Facts that
Matter It is difficult to understand a complicated situation
through a dry recitation of facts or a chronology. The mind has
trouble connecting a series of seemingly unrelated facts. Thus,
good briefs extract relevant facts and weave them into something
that resembles a story. I dont mean telling it as a gripping
thriller novel. Rather, employ stratigies like these: Make the
focus of your story people or other actors, rather than events.
Stories are about people doing things. Also, the actors and actions
usually convey the essential meaning of sentences. Use transitions
that show relationships. He did this. As a result, that happened.
Dont write a chrononlogy: On January 2, 2010, this happened. On
March 3, 2010, that happened. But do keep events in chronological
order unless there is a good reason to jump ahead or go back.
- Slide 25
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Finding Facts that
Matter In order to make your brief meaningful and concise, you must
focus on relevant facts. Not every fact is relevant. We talked
about the importance of audience in professional writing last week.
Here is a clear example. Not everyone is interested in the whole
story. In fact, with very complicated events, there is probably
nobody that is truly interested in every detail. Imagine all the
possible details one could preserve about some huge event like
9/11. What would you have to include in order to create truly
comprehensive telling of what happened? Background of the
hijackers? Air traffic control on that day? Physics of how the
planes caused the buildings to collapse? The personal stories of
the thousands of families affected? The difficulties faced by the
New York City government in cleaning up streets? Others?
- Slide 26
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Finding Facts that
Matter The point is that different audiences may care about only
one or two aspects of a very complicated, detail-rich event. Be
sensitive to this. Tailor your story to your audience. This is
where the work comes in. The decision-makers want someone to screen
volumes of information for the information they need. Example: The
following document is a timeline of events from the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill of 2010 (from offshore-technology.com.) Suppose
you are briefing your boss on this event. You work for an
environmental engineering firm hired to perform clean-up
activities. In order to prepare a response crew, your company needs
to know something about the volume of oil spilled. Your boss wants
you to give a brief run-down of the spill, focusing on this issue.
Which of these facts are relevant to the issue of how much oil was
released?
- Slide 27
- Slide 28
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Explain Technical
Concepts Reviewing technical information to prepare a summary or
brief usually involves technical terms or concepts. In some case,
the audience for your brief is already well aware of these concepts
and doesnt need them explained. But in many cases, the technical
issue will be novel or unfamiliar. In that case, your challenge is
to proivde a very clear and concise explanation. Consider these
examples: You are summerizing documents that refer to a chemical
compound called molybedum oxide. You may need to explain what this
is. You are summerizing a document about an accident on a piece of
equipment used in oil-drilling operations called a mud tank. What
is this?
- Slide 29
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Explain Technical
Concepts It is helpful to explain technical or obscure concepts
even if they are not central to your story. If there is an
un-explained object or concept in your story, it might raise
questions or leave the reader feeling like they dont really
understand the situation. You dont need to write a treatise on the
subject, or pretend to be an expert. But you might have to do a
little research if the document you are summarizing doesnt provide
enough detail. In such cases, you might need to include a caviat
that to the best of your knowledge, or from your quick research,
the thing is If the decision-maker thinks more research is
warranted, they can proceed accordingly. For example, consider the
accident involving the mud tank. Your brief of the accident might
be concerned primarily with the cost of the accident or the type of
injuries that resulted. But most readers will instinctively want
some kind of bare-bones explanation of what a mud tank is.
- Slide 30
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 Provide Relevant
Background Information Another important part of the art of writing
a brief is knowing how much background information to provide.
This, of course, depends on your circumstances. In some cases, you
are reporting on a familiar situation. Less background information
may be necessary. The audience might already know the basic
players, rules, or circumstances involved. But if the situation is
novel, you might have to back up quite a bit to provide a sense of
the big picture. This might involve descibing who the actors in the
story are or the rules that generally apply to the situation. The
art is developing a feel for how much background is necessary in
any given situation.
- Slide 31
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 An Example Suppose
you are back with the mud tank accident. You are briefing your boss
on an accident on an oil rig that occurred when a worker slipped
and fell off of a mud tank. In this case, your audience has no idea
what a mud tank is. But its not critical for your brief. It doesnt
involve the type of injury or the cost of the accident. In this
case, it might be helpful to provide at least a basic explanation
so that the reader can see a rational connection between this
device and the activity going on that day. If the reader sees that
a mud tank is critical to a drilling operation, then it make sense
that there was one in operation at this site.
- Slide 32
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 An Example A mud tank
is used at a drilling operation to store a mixture of mud and water
that is injected into the well. The mixture keeps the drill bit
from overheating as it grinds through earth and rock, and it also
carries away the material that the drill bill removes. The mixture
is continually recycled as it is pumped down into the drill hole
and is pumped to the surface. Assume for the purpose of this
example, that these tanks are usually very slippery and difficult
to work on.
- Slide 33
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 An Example FYI This
is a mud tank.
- Slide 34
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 An Example So how
could one incorporate this basic information into a brief on the
accident to explain the technical concept?
- Slide 35
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 An Example
- Slide 36
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 An Example Do you see
how the background details provide a rational connection between
the type of equipment at issue and the accident? What about more
background information? Suppose the audience is unfamiliar with
this companys operation.
- Slide 37
- Administrative Policy Writing Spring 2012 An Example