Writing Skills for Public Sector Professionals

Plan for your reader

Slides 2–8.

The course opens with one question: what do you know about your customer?

Design for users

Slide 3 (sometimes skipped in class).

Customer focus tools help you get your key message to the right people at the right time, in ways that work best for your customers. Four questions guide the work:

• Who uses what you write?
• What do they do with it?
• When and where?
• What info do they need to succeed?

Discover and define

• Learn about those who will read and use what you write.
• Discover information needs.
• Identify important actions and outcomes.

A few helpful tools: customer focus sheets and planning checklists

Customer focus sheets ask three questions:

• What do you want users to do? Lead users to understand and act on key points after one reading.
• What do customers expect? Know what users want to do, and what they want to find in your key points.
• What must they know and recall? What key points must users find, understand, trust, and remember?

Form a plan: the planning checklist

Now we know our purpose and the readers’ information needs. We can select and convey useful insights and information. Next, we consider how to group and present info in ways that work well for many people.

Back to top

Choose the right order

Slides 9–17.

Descending order: bottom line up front

BLUF—bottom line up front—is descending order. The first statement summarizes the message, section, or paragraph in one statement. Supporting details follow and support the main points.

A BLUF example: virtual currency

The summary leads. The details follow it.

A BLUF example

In Washington, the existing definition of money transmission in the law includes virtual currency.

Transmissions occur in many different digital currencies, including a common cryptocurrency named Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency uses cryptography to validate and secure transactions recorded on a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain.

You can find the definition of money transmission in Washington in the Uniform Money Services Act (UMSA), chapter 19.230 RCW.

A BLUF example: school staffing funds

A BLUF example

The intent of this additional funding is to assist school districts with hiring additional support staff or providing the staff they already employ with better wages.

The Superintendent of Public Instruction must develop rules that require school districts to use the additional funding to support increased staffing, prevent layoffs, or increase salaries for paraeducators, office support, and noninstructional aides in the 2024–25 school year.

Breakout: writing letters for the regulated public

In breakout groups, you revise a letter so its readers can find, understand, and act on the key points. Here is the letter as it stands. Try your own revision first, then open the reveal.

The letter before revision

Subject: 2024 Annual Report/2023 Regulatory Fees

Enclosed is your 2024 Household Goods carrier annual report form. This annual report details gross interstate operating revenue for the preceding calendar year. Regulatory fees based on that revenue are collected for the current year per RCW 123 and RCW 456. Every company subject to regulation by us must file an annual report. The regulatory fee order and annual report forms are available on our website.

Perfunctory extensions will not be granted. If you need an extension, please file prior to May 1, 2024, giving a reason for requesting an extension. You must file your annual report and pay regulatory fees by May 1, 2024. In granting an extension, we will consider whether application of the rule imposes undue hardship on the requesting person, different from hardships imposed on similarly situated persons per WAC 789.

The citation numbers in this exercise, such as RCW 123 and WAC 789, are placeholders, not real laws.

Chronological order: shows sequence

Chronological order shows sequence. It suits instructions and processes, where readers follow steps through time. Here is a passage that wants time order:

Original

What happens next?

After your application is approved, you will receive packets of information from the Department of Revenue.

• File an excise tax return monthly, quarterly, or annually, even if you have no business to report for a period. The department will assign you a filing frequency when you apply.
• You will receive a Unified Business Identifier (UBI) number that you will need to use when you file your taxes or make changes to your business. You need the UBI to file an excise tax return.
• You will receive your business license, with any endorsements listed. Do not begin any business activity until you receive this license. Post the license at each business location.

Practice: put it in time order

Your turn to try it. Revise the passage above so events unfold in the order the reader will live them. Then open the reveal.

Back to top

Getting to the point

Slides 18–39.

Powerful writers make their points in as few words as possible. Four habits get you there:

• Use simple, clear words to convey each message.
• Make every word count.
• Use only the active voice.
• Use structure to lead users through your message.

Use simple, clear words

Convey your message in simple, clear words. Try a clearer, plainer swap for each word below, then open the reveal.

• demonstrate
• implement
• subsequent
• initiate
• detrimental
• pertaining to
• consequence
• cognizant
• antithesis
• verification

Free the verbs

Some nouns hold a verb captive. Free the verb inside each noun below, then open the reveal.

• regulation
• comparison
• utilization
• presentation
• variation

Use a word, not a phrase

Try one word in place of each phrase below, then open the reveal.

• in order that
• due to the fact that
• in the event that
• in a position to

Use only the active voice

Watch for forms of the word be: be, am, is, are, was, were. When you see these words, revise the sentence to show who does what.

You can activate any statement. Ask:

1. What happens in this sentence? To find the verb.
2. Who or what makes it happen? To find the subject.

Let’s activate some sentences

Try each original yourself before you open its reveal.

Before Ensure internal controls are revised to include new equipment and procedures and are approved by the Tribal Gaming Agency and the Washington State Gambling Commission.

Before Please be aware that the earlier published data may have been updated, or superseded, by current reports.

Your turn: activate the sentence

Original The smoke wildfires generate is particularly dangerous for people who work outdoor jobs like construction, agriculture, roofing, roadwork, and certain other industries.

Frame sentences around a single point

Frame each sentence around a single point. Keep sentences clear and short: under 18 words. The course shows why with a chart of comprehension by sentence length. The data appears below.

What about paragraphs?

• If users read it in print: seven typed lines, max.
• If users read it on a screen: four typed lines, max.

Make every word count

Here is a wordy report opener. Try tightening it yourself, then open the reveal.

Original This report describes the access and utilization of family planning and family planning-related services, and how services are impacting maternal and child outcomes in Washington State.

Practice: make every word count

Your turn to try it. Make every word count in this sentence, then open the reveal.

Original Before the anticipated adoption of final rules in July, L&I will conduct six in-person public hearings in Spokane, Kennewick, Bellingham, Vancouver, Tukwila, and Yakima, and one virtual public hearing to take comments.

More practice: make every word count

Slides 38–39 (sometimes skipped in class).

Original When workers breathe in the tiny particles carried by the smoke, it increases the risk of reduced lung function, aggravated asthma, heart failure, and even early death.

Back to top

Grammar for clear writing

Slides 40–52. Most of this section is held in reserve and sometimes skipped in class.

Slide 40 (sometimes skipped in class).

When clearly stating who does what, grammar matters. Three skills carry the load:

• Choosing verb tenses. Choose the right verb form to tell when action occurs or occurred.
• Matching subjects to verbs. Match to the subject—not other nouns.
• Matching pronouns to verbs. Choose the right verb for the pronoun.

Choose clear, powerful verbs

Helper verbs like “have” often add words without adding meaning. The simple past is shorter and stronger.

Avoid Agents have seen a 25% increase in applications in 2021.

Better Agents saw a 25% increase in applications in 2021.

Avoid Agents have processed 350,000 applications in 2021.

Better Agents processed 350,000 applications in 2021.

Parts of speech: what do I need to know?

Slides 43–45 (sometimes skipped in class). Slide 43 revisits the grammar skills above to mark progress.

One example sentence shows the parts at work:

Designers use visual charts to help users see trends and patterns.

• The subjects and their verbs sit side by side: designers use, and users see.
• The direct objects receive the action: designers use charts; users see trends and patterns.

The 25 most common prepositions

Slide 46 (sometimes skipped in class).

of, into, for, with, on, at, from, by, as, to, like, through, after, over, between, out, during, without, before, under, around, among, against, about.

Practice: match the subject to its verb

Slides 47–49 (sometimes skipped in class).

Prepositional phrases can hide the true subject. Which sentence matches the verb to its subject?

• A: Each of the managers approve leave requests.
• B: Each of the managers approves leave requests.

Match pronouns to their antecedents

Slides 50–52 (sometimes skipped in class). Slides 50 and 52 revisit the grammar skills above to mark progress.

If you use personal pronouns, make them agree in number with antecedents—the words the pronouns stand in for. Four sound examples:

• Managers meet with team members weekly.
• Managers meet with their team members weekly.
• All managers meet with their team members weekly.
• Any manager in our company meets with her, his, or their team members weekly.

Back to top

Writing Lab: putting it all together

Slide 53.

The course closes with the Writing Lab. You put the day’s skills to work on real writing: plan for your reader, put the bottom line up front, and get to the point in clear, active sentences.

Back to top