A policy brief is a form of policy analysis which integrates three important objectives for environmental policy: analyzing, formulating, and influencing policy.

Your policy brief should be written in a different “voice” than your normal research/ student papers as it designed to inform and influence key individuals and organizations. Think of yourself trying to educate and influence a group of decision makers, like a governing board or government committee, about why a new policy is needed and why the policy you are proposing is a good idea.

The policy brief should be written with a recipient in mind, such as one of the persons on your list of key individuals/organizations or a legislator whose support you seek for your proposed solutions.

This assignment uses a methodology developed at the Youth Policy Institute, part of the Bonner Foundation. It has the following seven sections.

1. Goal Statement
2. Scope of the Problem
3. Past Policy
4. Current Policy
5. Proposed Solutions
6. Key Organizations/Individuals
7. Glossary
8. Bibliography

If you need more detailed help with these individual sections, see the links below: http://policyoptions.pbworks.com/w/page/35966535/Guide%20to%20Issue%20Brief%20Content (Links to an external site.)

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/policy-briefs/

The assignment will be 5-7 pages in length, not including glossary or bibliography, double-spaced.

tips

1. Try writing one paragraph for each sentence and then edit it down.
2. Start with the sentence you know best.
3. Look for organizations which have already identified solutions.
4. You need to have a logical relationship between the problem and the solution.
5. Pay attention to the size or scale of the problem as it is related to the solution. Is it a big problem and focused solution or vice versa? You can do that but it’s trickier. Ideally, the problem and solution are the same size.
6. Write goal statement last.
7. Think of the goal is something you would like to see in place, and the proposed solution as the things which need to be done in order to have that in place. For example: the goal is to substantially reduce water pollution in the Miami River, and the (partial) solution is to identify, monitor, and ultimately eliminate both point and non-point sources of pollution.