Writing Policy Briefs: Distance Education Module
www.jhsph.edu/wchpc
Resources on Writing
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
See especially:
 Revision in Business Writing: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/648/01/
 Revising for Conciseness and Clarity:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/648/02/
 Audience Analysis: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/629/01/
 Eliminating Wordiness: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/6/9/
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
http://www.emcf.org/publications/other-resources/
In particular, the essays by Tony Proscio about jargon and effective communication:
 In Other Words: A Plea for Plain Speaking in Foundations
http://www.emcf.org/fileadmin/user/PDF/Other_Resources/jargon_inotherwords.pdf
 Bad Words for Good: How Foundations Garble Their Message and Lose Their
Audience
http://www.emcf.org/fileadmin/user/PDF/Other_Resources/jargon_badwordsforgood.pdf
 When Words Fail: How the Public Interest Becomes Neither Public Nor Interesting
http://www.emcf.org/fileadmin/user/PDF/Other_Resources/jargon_whenwordsfail.pdf
Resources on Communication with Data:
Anything by Stephen Few of Perceptual Edge
http://www.perceptualedge.com/
See especially:
 The library section of the website: http://www.perceptualedge.com/library.php
 Designing Effective Tables and Graphs:
http://www.perceptualedge.com/images/Effective_Chart_Design.pdf
 Examples of poorly-designed graphs with comments on the problems and suggested
solutions: http://www.perceptualedge.com/examples.php
The Gallery of Data Visualization: The Best and Worst of Statistical Graphics
http://www.datavis.ca/gallery/index.php
Making Data Meaningful by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
http://live.unece.org/stats/documents/writing
Using Graphics to Report Evaluation Results, by Ed Minter and Mary Michaud, Program
Development & Evaluation, University of Wisconsin-Extension, 2003.
http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/G3658-13.PDF