April Writing Program NewsletterWelcome back! Policy Memo Tips of the Month Check out this New York Times opinion piece called "Keep it Short" for

April Writing Program Newsletter

Welcome back!

20130723 Architecture City

Policy Memo Tips of the Month

Check out this New York Times opinion piece called "Keep it Short" for a nice summary of our two policy memo tips of the month:
1) Keep it short. "In writing, brevity works not only as a function of space on a page, but the time that an audience is willing to spend with you."
2) Refine drafts. "To shorten my articles, I often worked through several versions, and with a merciless finger on the delete button I could surgically reduce my first draft by half."

Policy Memos in the Real World

Adding a figure to a policy memo? The National Center for Educational Statistics requires all figures submitted to have 1) a title, 2) labeled axes, 3) proper scaling, 4) legends or labeled data, and 5) a source. Check out their style guide for sample visuals that meet their standards and step-by-step guidelines to produce reader-friendly visuals. Even if education policy is not your area of focus, these rules are useful across the board.

Screen Shot 2014-03-30 at 5.33.26 PM

Apply to be a Writing TA for the 2014-2015 school year.

Stay tuned for an email from us early this quarter for details about the application process.

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!

1px