ACCORD FELLOWS PAGE

UC ACCORD Policy Brief Guidelines

The policy brief "translates" your research for a broad, general audience including policymakers and practitioners across California. The brief should tie your individual project to one or more of the larger questions addressed by ACCORD (look at the description of critical conditions and transitions in the RFPs on the ACCORD website). ACCORD scholars and staff will assist with editing and highlighting findings that are relevant to California policy once the first draft is sent to the ACCORD office. Below are some ideas to consider when writing your brief.

What is included in an ACCORD policy brief:

1. Policy Brief: The body of the policy brief should be no more than 1,200 words. The brief should address the following points:

2. Abstract: The brief should also include a 3-4 sentence abstract that states the policy issue addressed in your research, the principal finding(s) and recommendation(s) from your research that relate to the focal policy issue. The abstract should stand alone so that it can be used on our website and in other ACCORD publications that explain a range of studies. The Abstract is not the same as a dissertation abstract or a research abstract. Instead of summarizing your entire study, it focuses on an aspect of your research that relates to a specific, concrete policy concern.

Hint: Consider writing a draft of the Abstract soon after you begin working on the brief. Though it may change considerably as you construct the brief, it can help you focus on policy elements that the large body of your research data might otherwise obscure.

Develop a Policy Focus

Translate your research question into a policy question: Since most ACCORD research could support multiple policy issues, the first step is to choose one compelling issue, or more likely, an element of such an issue. Consider these questions: What compelling educational or social issue has made your research imperative? How can your initial, preliminary, or final research findings inform these issues?. To place your research in a policy context, it may be helpful to do some additional research about related policy and public policy debates. Sometimes brief email exchanges with ACCORD staff/scholars can help reveal promising policy connections.

Know your audience: Final products may be sent to a wide audience of people interested in education policy matters, including: legislators, senior legislative analysts and executive branch officials, University of California administrators and faculty, practitioners, school board members, educators, the press and non-governmental organizations. It may be published on the UC/ACCORD website, and/or in print. Think about the mindset your public audience already holds with regard to the issue you have chosen. How might these current conceptions hook your audience into reading about and understanding your research?

Language: Your audience does not require, in fact, will reject, the formal style and conventions that sometimes accompany academic reports. Avoid the passive voice, jargon, wordiness, excessive caveats and qualifiers, and other baggage that slows understanding. Yet, as you work to make your language more accessible, be careful not to water down the content and rigor of your research. The policy community is a sophisticated and pragmatic public audience that demands information and argument no less rigorous than that expected within the academy. Some examples of this type of writing can be found in the policy briefs on the California Policy Research Center website.
www.ucop.edu/cprc/publist.html.

Formatting and Style

Headings: Headings of several words each can scaffold the reader’s understanding. Avoid "neutral" identifying headings (ex: "After-school tutoring") in favor of brief capsule summaries (ex: "Students benefit from extra help").
Hint: In your early drafts, consider giving each paragraph a heading. These may be dropped later, but can help keep initial versions concise.

References: Do not include a lengthy literature review, but feel free to mention literature that you think is important for this audience, and to include a short list of recommended readings. ACCORD does not specify a particular citation style, but be consistent.
Notes: Use minimal notes, in the form of endnotes rather than footnotes. When referring to more than one source, include it all in one note instead of using a string of note numbers in one place. When in doubt, consult The Chicago Manual of Style (University of Chicago Press).

Tables and Graphics: A limited number of figures, tables, or maps are useful to express your primary findings. Other illustrative and methodological material may be placed at the end of the report as an appendix, or ACCORD may make it available as an unedited supplementary document on our website. Photographs can be especially powerful; so if you have ones that capture the substance of your work, please send them in an electronic format.
Formatting and Saving Files: Use a Times Roman font for text and tables. Tables in Word or WordPerfect can be included as part of the text. If you are using Excel for any figures and tables, please indicate their placement in the text and save each one as a separate file (instead of embedding them in the text).

Permissions: "Illustrative material in copyright, whether published or unpublished, requires permission of the copyright owner before it can be reproduced. It is the author’s responsibility, not the publisher’s, to make sure what is in copyright and to obtain permission to reproduce it." Use of others’ material requires a credit line at the end of the legend that identifies the source. "If most or all of the illustrations are from a single source, that fact may be stated in the preface or acknowledgments or on the copyright page." (Quotes are from The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition.)

Further Tips for Writing for a Policy Audience:

Link to CPRC:

http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/pipeline.html

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