Writing Program: December Newsletter Policy Memo Tips of the Month ▪ Try to start sentences with words instead of numbers. It will help the readabil

Writing Program: December Newsletter

Policy Memo Tips of the Month

▪ Try to start sentences with words instead of numbers. It will help the readability of your piece.
▪ Use words to explain numbers. Simple words like these can go a long way: a majority, many, few, some, nearly all, etc.
▪ To save space, look for "hanging" words: single words that are "hanging out" on their own line, taking up quite a bit of valuable space. If you find one, try to find words to delete earlier in the paragraph.

Policy Memos in the Real World

Check out this memo from the Paulson Institute called "BIT by BIT - A Path to Strengthen US-China Economic Relations." Though longer and in a different format than the memos you've written in your Statistics class, this memo does a nice job of using simple, easy-to-understand language.

Grammar Refresher

▪ Percent versus percentage: The word "percent" should be accompanied by a number. "Percentage" is used without a number.
▪ Want to check if you are correctly using commas and semicolons in a sentence? How about colon usage?
▪ Does the period go inside or outside quotation marks? What about parentheses?

Check out the links to learn more!

Grammar Tips for Internship and Job Applications

▪ Review these helpful grammar rules for your CV.
▪ Read more about some of the grammar mistakes to avoid throughout your job search.

Have questions? Email us!

Director of the Writing Program

Felicity Vabulas fvabulas@uchicago.edu

Writing TAs -

Emily Modlin emilymodlin@uchicago.edu
Sarah Sibley ssibley@uchicago.edu
Matt Smith matthewrsmith@uchicago.edu
Meagan Smith meagans@uchicago.edu
Brielle Treece btreece@uchicago.edu

Write on!

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