Politics and the Environment

• What are policy briefs?

A policy brief is a concise summary of a particular issue, the policy options to deal with it, and some recommendations on the best option. It is aimed at government policymakers and others who are interested in formulating or influencing policy. Policy briefs can take different formats. A typical format may contain anywhere from one to ten pages. It typically has an attractive design and may have one or more photographs or charts. Longer and other formats are also possible.

• There are two basic types of policy briefs:
• An advocacy brief argues in favor of a particular course of action. 
• An objective brief gives balanced information for the policymaker to make up his or her mind
   

• What should a policy brief do?

A policy brief should:
Provide enough background for the reader to understand the problem. Convince the reader that the problem must be addressed urgently.
Provide information about alternatives (in an objective brief).
Provide evidence to support one alternative (in an advocacy brief).Stimulate the reader to make a decision.

• What should a policy brief contain?

To achieve its objectives, a policy brief should:

• Be short and to the point. It should focus on a particular problem or issue. Do not go into all the details. Instead, provide enough information for the reader to understand the issue and come to a decision.
• Be based on firm evidence, not just one or two experiments or a single year’s experience. It should draw evidence from various sources – preferably from several different areas or organizations.
• Focus on meanings, not methods.
• Readers are interested in what you found and what you recommend. They do not need to know the details of your methodology. Relate to the big picture. The policy brief may build on context-specific findings, but it should draw conclusions that are more generally applicable.
   

• Remember that...

Policymakers are busy people and are probably not specialists in your area. They are likely to read only something that...

- Looks attractive
- Appears interesting
- Is short and easy to read.

Ask yourself, "What are the main points you want policymakers to get - even it they read nothing else?"

Adapted from http://www.fao.org/3/i2195e/i2195e03.pdf, October 20, 2019
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• Writing effective policy briefs (UNC, Chapel Hill)

• Preparing policy briefs - FAO, United Nations

• Print book : A practical guide for policy analysis: the eightfold path to more effective problem solving / Bardach, Eugene.

• Print book:The big idea: a step-by-step guide to creating effective policy reports /Duitch, Suri.Writing public policy: a practical guide to communicating in the policy-making process / Smith, C. F.

• Policy Brief Series, Maxwell Center for Policy research

• ICPA policy briefs essential guide

• FAO Agricultural Development Economics Policy Briefs

• Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research - Writing a Policy Brief

• American Association of State Colleges and Universities, higher education state policy issues

• Policy Research on Legislative Issues - National Conference of State Legislators

• Rand Corporation - Energy and Environment Issues Briefs

• IPI (NYU School of Law) policy brief publications

• Tips for writing policy papers (Stanford Law School)

• How to write a policy brief (an example from (IDRC)

• National Council of Nonprofits, trends & policy issues

• Vanderbilt - public policy issues/groups

• National Council of State Legislators research

• Villanova Writing Center

HOW LITERATURE REVIEWS HELP WITH RESEARCH:
Literature reviews are helpful to better understand a topic, organize existing explanations, generate possible hypotheses for your research and serve as a gateway to high quality and relevant scholarly sources.

Literature reviews are data-gathering activities leading to a final synthesis of results.  You may need to conduct a literature review to:

• Justify funding or identify funding sources
• Degree requirements
• Describe and explain current knowledge to guide professional practice
• Identify effective and development methods
• Identify experts in the field or new sources of information
• Personal research

Adapted from: Fink, A. (2014). Conducting research literature reviews: From the Internet to paper (4^th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

HOW TO CONDUCT A LITERATURE REVIEW:

> Learning how to write a literature review - tips from the University of Wisc. - Madison Writing Center

> Types of APA Papers - Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab reviews general requirements for the literature review, experimental report and other types of papers. Sample APA paper that includes brief literature review.

> Example of energy policy article with literature review -
Generating a framework to facilitate decision making in renewable energy investments

How to article about conducting literature review with a social sciences example: Re-examining the Literature Review: Purposes, Approaches, and Issues

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES:

Writing annotated bibliographies - from the Purdue OWL


How to books at Falvey:
Doing Your Literature Review
The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students
The Literature Review Six Step to Success