02 - 08 September Reflections

Last week we read Chapter 8 and Appendix A in Writing that Works, a PPT on policy writing, the description of Project 1, and some OWL resources on short reports.

Chapter 8 discussed writing e-mails, memos, and letters. I learned that what we write should be tailored to the audience, and when writing for professional purposes we need to use professional style and tone. I found especially useful the section on designing memos, as we will be designing a lot of memos for our projects, in which we will need to demonstrate our understanding or the project requirements and propose solutions.

The PPT on policy writing discussed how to research for policy and talked about different types of research, such as investigative journalism, examples from similar organizations, legal requirements, and existing reports. We learned policy report genre requirements and typical format of a report. What I think I still need more info on is under what circumstances we chose to write a report versus paper.

We also performed a policy research activity and a short report activity. All these readings and activities provided theoretical and practical background we need for the upcoming policy research project.