Policy Memo Instructions

General Instructions: This document provides the exact template for the policy memo assignments. Your memo should include a memo header, executive summary, background summary, analysis of the issues, review of options, recommendation, arguments and counterarguments, and conclusion. You are limited in length to four double-spaced pages, excluding source citations. You should use four pages–no more, rarely less. Because you are limited to four pages, consider the most efficient methods to convey necessary information: charts, bullet points, tables, graphs, text. Please use a consistent citation style–given the page limit, footnotes or endnotes are best. Use 1 inch margins and 12 point font.

In preparing your memo, consider your reader. What does the reader already know? What does your reader need to know to understand your analysis and recommendation? Because policy memoranda are brief–no more than a few pages–avoid restating the obvious or discussing at any length that is well known or well understood by your reader. Your job is not to tell the reader everything that you know on the issue; it is to tell the reader what they need to know to make a policy decision.

Policy Memo Template

TO: Political Science 272 Students, Fall Term 2017
FROM: Devin Judge-Lord
DATE: March 1, 2020
RE: Policy Memo Template

Executive Summary: Your executive summary should be brief. It should state the problem, provide an overview of your memo’s organization, and summarize your recommendation.

Background Summary: Your background summary should provide a brief history and context of the problem addressed. It might include a few facts to lend a sense of magnitude/scope of the problem, and some discussion of stakeholder interests. Background summaries generally answer who, what, and when questions.

Issue Analysis: Your memo must include an analysis of the problem. How did it come about? Why is it important to develop strategy and policy around this problem? Who are the stakeholders, and what positions have they taken? You may include charts, tables, bullet points – whatever most concisely lays out information about how the problem came to be (its causes), and the likely consequences of maintaining the status quo and of making change.

Options: In this section, briefly present the top policy options, along with a concise discussion of pros and cons, costs and benefits, or arguments and counterarguments for each. Don’t include ridiculous options or straw persons that are easily dismissed–these are not helpful. The options that you do not recommend should be the next best things the policymaker might do. You may use bullets, charts, tables, whatever format conveys viable options with an assessment of each.

Recommendation: This is the heart of your memorandum. Argue for the option that you believe presents the best strategy. Be clear in discussing strategy implementation: are you proposing a multi-step strategy/solution? Are there unknowns or contingencies that might arise in a way that may alter the course?

Conclusion: Here is your one brief opportunity for rhetoric. A conclusion should not rehash of what you’ve written. You might, in one sentence, summarize your recommendation. This is your opportunity to leave your audience with some compelling impetus to act on the problem by adopting your strategy. A quote, a statistic, a brief parable: Use the conclusion to catalyze your audience.

Tips for writing policy memos:

1. Structure matters: Every year, brilliant 272 students do a ton of good research but still write ineffective memos because they did not follow the template. A policy memo is not a research paper. A memo is the result of taking a 14-page research paper and refining it into 4 pages that a policymaker can digest in the 10 minutes they have before their next meeting. The template forces you to refine your writing to its essential points. This does not diminish the importance of research; good research is critical. A policy memo conveys the essential points, citing the research in which it is grounded.

2. Know your audience: First, they must have the authority to take the actions you propose. Be very explicit about what authority you are expecting them to use and how. Second, all policymakers have passions, priorities, and stakeholders that affect the relevent facts, framing, and recomendation. To influence people, you must know what they care about and believe.

3. This is not a campaign memo: You are helping policymakers make policy, not write a speech. They want solid evidence from reputable (ideally peer-reviewed or government) sources. The goal is to help them make effective policy, not accrue power.

This class is in the Political Science department because public policy is inexorably linked to questions of power. Other political science classes cover how power shifts through campaigns and elections. This class is about policy, “statements of what the government intends to do.” Of course, policy emerges from politics, but it also involves evidence. Political debates define problems, goals, and agendas, but to achieve any goal through policy, evidence about the effects of different policy tools is indispensable. Evidence must come from a source that your audience will trust. Good evidence also ought to be convincing to reasonable opponents of one’s policy goals. Your aim is to win over the policy wonks.

4. How to distinguish background facts from issue analysis: We might distinguish evidence about the state of the world (problems and conditions) from evidence about causes (see Bardach on causal models and Stone on causal stories). Both types of evidence are needed to assess options against evaluative criteria (the real policy analysis that gets us from options to a recommendation). In a good policy memo, there is very little room for evidence that is not essential to the ultimate analysis (even if it is super interesting!).

5. Take advantage of free help: Librarians have superhuman abilities to find good sources for you. The UW writing center can help you better communicate your points (writing can always be clearer). Free spelling and grammar checkers like Grammarly can help you avoid silly mistakes that can make your writing hard for others to read.

Advice from past students

Start early.

Narrow your focus.

Study the structures and authorities of municipal and state governments.

It takes a lot of research, most of which won’t make it into the final memo.

Resources

Writing theory-driven policy analysis by Paul Cairney

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. 1995. The Craft of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Chapter 7: “Making Good Arguments: An Overview,” pp. 88-93.

From Electronic Hallway: “Memo Writing”; “Brief Guidelines for Writing Action Memos”; “Writing Effective Memoranda: Planning, Drafting, & Revising.”