scope of policy memo

[lp224]

I know there is already a thread discussing policy memos but I have a question specific to the scope of the memo. I have a background in health policy research and I'm wondering how technical to get in the policy memos. Does anyone have a sense if it's better to write a broader, less technical memo (that's probably easier for most people to understand) or something that's probably more original but also more compliated? I'm really wondering who our audience is: should we write for a general audience or for someone well-versed in our policy topic?

[goingback]

I'm debating the same thing, though my field in housing policy which it seems everyone is an expert in these days! I can't make it too general, or else I sound like half the talking heads on CNN. But the alternative is to hammer on some detail, which mostly means some administrative element that is not very interesting.

If it helps, this is a link to a sample policy memo from the HKS website - not meant for the admissions process but rather for students to demonstrate how to include citations in a brief policy statement, but it might help give some flavor for the level of specification and formality they are looking for.

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site ... y-memo.pdf.

Good luck.

[Cornell07]

I just took a shot at the policy memo for the Princeton application. I'll probably revise my memo for the Harvard app as I give it more time to let it gestate. In short, I wrote about the complex role and effects of cotton subsidies on the war on terror, my recommendation for their immediate removal, and potential impacts both good and bad.

Actually I arranged it a bit like a policy debate affirmative constructive speech

- Plan - What you advocate to solve a given problem

- Inherency - Issue in the status quo preventing the problem from being solved

- Advantage 1 - A supplementary benefit of the plan additional to solving the problem which shows why the world under the plan is better than status quo

- Advantage 2 - Another supplementary benefit of the plan

- Solvency - Specifically how the plan solves the problem