The structure must be specific to the target group and reflect the interests of each audience. For example, the focus on evidence is relevant to researchers, but a government official may appreciate the brevity and a clear analysis of the policy implications. This last section of the guidance note should describe in detail the actions recommended in the research results. For your readers, link the search results to your recommendations. Use persuasive language to present your recommendations, but make sure that all arguments are firmly established and clearly anchored in the evidence provided by the research. You want your readers to be fully convinced that your advice is the best. Guidance notes are characterised by the fact that they focus on communicating the practical implications of research to a specific audience. Let`s say you and your roommate are both writing research papers on global warming. Your roommate writes a research paper for an environmental science course, and you write an orientation dissertation for a public policy course. You can both use exactly the same sources when writing your articles. So how might these documents differ? Knowing the extent of the problem can help you define the policy problem for your reader. Is the problem national, national or international? How many people does this problem affect? Daily? Annual? It`s a great place for all the statistical information you`ve been able to gather through your research.
Who is affected by this problem? Adult women? Men with a college education? Children from bilingual homes? The main group that is affected is important, and knowing who that group is can give the reader a face on the policy issue. Keep your message simple and easy to understand, and think about how the terms you use will be received by someone outside your industry (think lawmakers, activists, journalists). Throwing complicated jargon and acronyms can confuse your reader, spoil the message, and make it difficult to connect with your audience. If possible, ask someone outside your industry to inform once and label unknown terms that may need explanation or simplification. Guidance notes are an important tool for presenting research and recommendations to a non-specialist audience. They serve as a means of providing evidence-based policy advice to help readers make informed decisions. A title should serve as a point of reference for readers and encourage them to read the letter. A good policy brief should also include subtitles or headings to break down the text and draw the reader`s attention to the main topic of each section. The use of verbs can make titles more dynamic, while formulating them as questions can pique the reader`s curiosity. The best titles contain relevant information without being too long or cumbersome.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to writing guidance notes, as the topic and audience will shape each of them. However, effective guidance notes usually contain the same key elements and therefore have similar structures: a summary, an introduction, an overview of the research or problem, a review of the results, and a final section explaining the policy recommendations and implications of the research. Before you create your guidance note, you need to understand your target audience. The more you know about the people who will read your briefing, the more you can customize it for them. Policy issues can involve a complex network of stakeholders. Check if you accidentally excluded any of them from your scan. For example, a child nutrition policy obviously involves children, but it can also include food manufacturers, retailers, parents and nutritionists (and other experts). Some stakeholders may be reluctant to accept your policy change or even acknowledge the existence of the problem, which is why your mandate must be persuasive in its use of evidence and clear in its communication. This is one of the most important sections of the briefing, as it explains the reasons for your policy recommendations. This section describes the issue that you want to resolve with your policy recommendations. Policy Implications – You should conclude your letter with a brief discussion of the policy implications of your research. This section is a link between your research findings and your policy recommendations.
You need to explain what your research means for existing policies and what impact your recommendations are likely to have. If you want to place your recommendations at the end of the guidance note, they can be integrated here. Acne is the most common chronic disease among adolescents in Outlandia (Outlandia Department of Health, 2010). Acne, long considered a benign rite of passage, actually has far-reaching effects on adolescent health and well-being, having a significant impact on academic achievement, social relationships and overall quality of life. Yet a large portion of the state`s population does not have access to acne treatment. .