Writing Guidelines for Policy Memos
MAT 117-01
January 31, 2007
1 Requirements
The first and most important requirement of a policy memo is that it make an
actionable recommendation. The reader should be able, if persuaded by your
arguments, to easily implement precisely what you recommend, with practically
no details remaining to be filled in.
Of course, since you know more about voting methods than a randomly se-
lected citizen, I will expect you to have a tolerably broad selection of methods
to consider, and you may even wish to construct your own method (e.g. use this
method, and use that one for a runoff/tiebreaker/etc.) You should also explain
why your method — whatever it is — is superior to a tolerably broad selection
of others. Of course, any such judgement will be subjective in that two people
may differ on whether one particular advantage outweighs one particular disad-
vantage. Still, you should be acquainted with the advantages and disadvantages
of your chosen method, and ready to say why you think the advantages are good
and the disadvantages are acceptable.
Your tone and language throughout should be appropriate for a memo from
a staffer to the majority and minority counsels. This means that usage of
language should be literate (that is, standard grammar and spelling should be
used, and words should be well-chosen and communicative), respectful (but not
servile), and efficient. With regard to efficiency, the advice of Strunk and White
(Elements of Style, 4ed) is to be followed religiously:
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnec-
essary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same
reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a ma-
chine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make
all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in
outline, but that every word tell.
In formal writing, the third person is usually preferred over the second,
and slightly over the first, but avoiding artificial language is more important.
Also, the active voice is usually preferred over the passive, but again, good
expression is paramount. For instance, I could not figure out an equally honest
and expressive way to write the last two sentences in the active voice. It is
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