{"id":176,"date":"2021-09-25T12:34:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T16:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/publicdiscourse\/?p=176"},"modified":"2025-10-08T10:38:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:38:47","slug":"policy-briefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/publicdiscourse\/policy-briefs\/","title":{"rendered":"POLICY BRIEFS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Policy briefs allow students to consider a topic from the perspective of its public importance. They are asked to consider both the needs and perspective of their audience, such as a legislator or the public, and the needs of the population affected by the topic.<\/span><\/p>\n

A policy brief presents a concise summary of information that can help readers understand, and likely make decisions about, government policies. Policy briefs may give objective summaries of relevant research, suggest possible policy options, or go even further and argue for particular courses of action.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/span>The Writing Center, UNC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Methods<\/b><\/p>\n

A short policy brief might summarize the findings of a single research paper. Such reports can be useful short assignments for early in the semester.\u00a0 Longer policy briefs present findings from a broad swath of scholarly research, and may include figures, economic analyses, more extensive background, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

An abundance of guidance may be found online by searching for \u201cwriting a policy brief\u201d or \u201cguide to policy brief.\u201d Some useful sites follow.<\/span><\/p>\n