FYS157 Canada, the U.S., and Kentucky: What defines a good policy brief?

What defines a good policy brief?

The following are characteristics of a good policy brief:

It targets the appropriate audience

It is focused – every sentence is the brief is focused on the issue at hand.

It is concise - every sentence in the brief is necessary to support the recommendation of the brief.

It does not contain academic analysis –The readers of a policy brief are not interested in analysis of the research methodologies used to produce the evidence. They are interested in the evidence itself.

It does not use jargon - it uses clear, understandable language. Look at this example:

Note that the policy brief replaces industry vocabulary like "agronomic" and "vegetative" with explanations that are more understandable to the intelligent non-expert..