This is a course about language and public policy. The primary emphasis is on the role of communication in the policy process. Writing Public Policy is intended to provide at Masters level the necessary advanced analytical and communication skills for public policy practitioners, and is aimed specifically at those who are required to engage in high-level written work for public communication.

Public policy is about solving problems affecting people in society. Effective communication produces useful information and also makes information intelligible in context.  Practitioners require analytical and communication skills of a high order, and the aim of this course is to provide practical experience and understanding of key aspects of public and political communication, especially how to recognise and write effective English. The course teaches public policy work through practice in discursive governance as a means of highlighting and demonstrating the difficulty and general untidiness of democratic public policy processes. 

The broad area of public communication as a distinct field will be traversed, and students will work with key texts with a view to understanding how and why they are effective. Hands-on workshops will introduce students to a range of analytical and critical skills, and students will be required to use this knowledge in practical writing and critical exercises.  .

This is not a course about writing internal bureaucratic minutes and memos for ministers, but rather with a focus on preparing public documents for public consumption. It is not a course in 'writing for the public service'. What it does is seek to identify the role of communication in public policy and policy advocacy, analyse the key elements of communication and provide experience of the dynamics of public policy discourse through simulated events of governance.

On completion of this practical, experiential and interactive course students will:

• Be familiar with the principles of clear writing
• Understand more clearly the role of communication in public policy
• Have a general ability to evaluate a communication’s potential impact
• Have developed an ability to consider contexts rhetorically, strategically and ethically
• Have acquired a critical ability to  distinguish good writing from bad
• Have learnt critical analytical skills in evaluating writing and communication
• Have been required to demonstrate effective writing
• Have acquired an understanding of the uses and purposes to which writing is directed, and
• Have honed skills in practical writing exercises.

Students will be required to submit a short 1000 word paper before classes begin (20%), an article will be distributed for critical analysis (20%), a short reflective paper on the course (10%) and a major paper (either a speech or a submission to a parliamentary inquiry or a critical research essay on agreed topic, 50%)  

The course requires 30 contact hours.

5000 words of assessable written tasks.

A Bachelor degree.

Catherin Smith, Writing Public Policy, OUP.

George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" (essay)