Teaching Development Award Project – Written Assignments for the

Teaching Development Award Project – Written Assignments for the
Real World: Policy Briefings
Report to the Teaching & Learning Committee
Dr Antje Brown [email protected]
Teaching Fellow, Department of Geography & Sustainable Development
Project funding awarded 27th June 2014
The purpose of this project was to explore and develop a new, complementary form
of written assignment for students that adds to their transferable skills and enhances
their employability post-graduation.
Intended outcome:
Following consultation with teaching staff from other Schools and dissemination of
data, the aim was to provide  a written report summarising key findings, to be presented to University’s Teaching
& Learning Committee,
 a piece of media suitable for the new Learning & Teaching website.
Research for this project involved the following:
 preliminary consultations and the setting up of a research plan;
 ethical approval (Ref. GG11170);
 the setting up of Bristol Online Surveys; these involved 3 separate surveys
engaging - teaching staff across the university,
- a small group of students with policy briefing assignment experience (all
attended IR4552),
- a range of employers contacted via the University’s CAPOD and Careers
Office;
 consulting colleagues in the Department of Geography & Sustainable
Development as well as the School of International Relations;
 background documentary research (collecting and comparing similar
assignments available online);
 conducting interviews with 4 individuals working in different sectors (financial,
oil & gas, local government, health research);
 dissemination and analysis of data;
 writing up results & preparing documents for the Learning and Teaching
Committee.
After consultation of online survey findings, interviews and conversations with teaching
staff, students and employers, the project’s key findings can be summarised as follows:

There is general interest and support in innovative assignments such as policy
briefings; this interest was expressed by all participant groups. However, while
wide support was evident in all groups, some teaching staff and employers
pointed out that policy briefings should not be considered as a substitute for
conventional essays but rather as complementary additions. Respondents
added that students (and, indeed, new employees) should learn how to
thoroughly construct an argument in essay-form first, before attending to other
forms of written assignments. It would therefore make sense to introduce policy
briefings at honours level as useful additions to other forms of student
assessment.

While all groups acknowledged the merits and benefits of policy briefings and
similar innovative assignments, some reservations/ potential problems were
raised; these reservations cannot be confined to one participant group but are
shared across the groups.
In essence, the reservations relate to two issues:
1) The first concerns students’ potential perceptions that this somewhat
innovative tool represents ‘unfamiliar territory’; students might feel that they
require extra guidance and may query their grades at a later stage not on the
basis of actual performance but on the basis of this assignment being ‘unusual’;
2) The other issue concerns the question whether a standard template (as
initially intended for this project) can be put forward which meets all
disciplines’/ modules’ expectations & criteria and can be applied across the
University. In short, a standard template may not suit all needs and expectations
across disciplines.
The first issue can be addressed by setting clear safeguards that guide &
reassure both teaching staff and students throughout the assignment process;
the second issue can be addressed by offering a general framework whilst
highlighting those optional, ‘discretionary’ areas where staff/ departments/
disciplines could adapt or change the template in such a way to suit their
particular assignment needs. Both student-reassuring safeguards plus optional
elements for staff are incorporated in the guidance sections below.

In view of the diversity of assignment needs & criteria, it was interesting to see
that staff participating in the online survey came from a wide range of
disciplines covering study areas such as music, divinity, IR, computer science,
psychology, social anthropology, and geography. Their interest in this Teaching
Development Project demonstrated that colleagues were not only interested
in sharing their experiences but were also interested in exploring different
innovative assignment tools. The researcher would like to take this opportunity
and thank colleagues for taking the time to contribute to this project.
Colleagues listed an interesting range of assignment tools, including –
- lab notebooks (mathematics & statistics),
- learning journals (theology),
- knowledge quizzes,
- professional publicity packs for musicians,
- field trip reports (geography),
- social accounting assignments,
- reflexive essays.
The diversity of assignments demonstrates a creative (and passionate) side for
teaching at this University. And while this project’s chosen assignment format policy briefings - may not be compatible with all schools and disciplines, insights
gained from this project may still be of interest to colleagues across the
University who wish to explore different teaching/ assessment avenues. The
survey responses from colleagues across the University are certainly
encouraging as they suggest a general interest in innovative teaching; this
project may incentivise others to think outside the conventional assessment
box.

Looking specifically at the employers’ contributions to this project, an
interesting (and for the researcher - unexpected) finding was the specific
mentioning of interpretative and management skills that follow on from policy
briefings. Employers stated that yes, indeed, they were using briefing-type
documents on a daily basis, however, they considered the skill of interpreting
and utilising briefing documents once received equally as important as the
actual writing of such a document. In other words, apart from communicating
findings of an analysis, it is also important to learn the skills of processing – and
acting upon – often-complex information. While this consideration is not within
the remit of this particular project, colleagues wishing to conduct similar
teaching development projects in future may want to explore this notion of
information management further. It could be argued that the process of essaywriting covers aspects of data analysis and information processing. However,
there may be other practical aspects of engagement and analytical as well
as managerial aspects that could be explored, for instance, the question of
how to proceed with recommendations as a team of policy practitioners.
Overall, respondents appreciated the potential and value of innovative,
employment-oriented assignments; they felt that these complemented existing
assignments and contributed towards the wide range of students/ graduates
transferable skills as well as their overall employability. The participants’ responses
were encouraging and confirmed that assignment types such as policy briefings
could be used more widely across the University, particularly at Honours level.
Furthermore, having browsed the internet for other policy briefing guides, it is
apparent that some individuals and organisations (e.g. FAO and CEPS) offer some,
albeit limited, guidance online; these online sources do not offer, however, a guide
that incorporates assignment design and marking criteria. This project fills the gap by
not only evaluating policy briefings for the use of written assessments, but also provides
tailor-made guidance on how to present the assignment to students and how to
evaluate and mark the students’ scripts later on in the assessment process.
The following sections of this report offer –
-
a definition of policy briefings,
an explanation regarding the purpose and intended outcomes of policy
briefing assignments,
a possible assessment format (which includes optional components to suit
individual modules’ needs & criteria),
followed by a template grading proforma that colleagues may or may not
wish to adopt.
Finally, the report includes 5 examples of policy briefing assignments already used by
colleagues across the University. These offer the reader some further pointers on how
written assignments could be adapted to resemble ‘real world’ working scenarios.
A policy briefing is a document that is used to inform or advise a person (or group of
people) in an organisation on a current policy issue which may be in need of an update or may require a strategic shift/ policy change (although in some cases the issue
may require affirmation/ continuity rather than change). Whatever the intended
direction, the author would make a compelling case as to why an issue requires further
attention and why a certain set of action should be considered by a selected/
identified person or group of people.
It is not a research paper of historical events or a comparison of basic facts. While
properly referenced, structured and analytical, a policy briefing is not a conventional
essay analysing a prescribed question or discussion topic. Instead there is a strong
element of empirical and critical analysis paired with a degree of creativity with the
aim to convey a practitioner-friendly analysis followed by a set of policy
recommendations.
The assignment requires students  To utilise empirical & conceptual knowledge as well as analytical,
organisational and communicative skills.
 To demonstrate a clear/ logical reasoning process, from identification of a
compelling current issue, to data gathering, critical analysis and presentation
of findings, which includes policy-oriented recommendations tailored towards
a target audience.
 To communicate findings in a condensed, succinct, practitioner-friendly
format, conveying carefully reasoned persuasive arguments to a target
audience.
The above components feed into existing transferrable skills sets and particularly
add to students’ communicative and analytical skills through the use of quasirealistic work documents; these not only include pure analysis of a policy issue/
problem, but also include a pro-active/ creative element of policy
recommendation & outlook.
To ensure that students are provided with clear, logical and transparent assignment
framework, the following three steps are recommended:
1) Proposal: students are asked to provide the tutor/ module coordinator with a
chosen topic/ title and specify their target audience; the information should
be considered and approved by module coordinator/ tutor. This initial step in
the process ensures that students identify a feasible, realistic and logical
briefing project as coordinators/ tutors will have an opportunity at this early
stage to steer students in the right direction if necessary. At this early stage, it
would be advisable to make proposal submissions compulsory but not graded.
2) Short plan/ abstract: again, this measure is intended to ensure that students are
on the right track; it can be combined with the above proposal or processed
separately as the next step in the assignment process. At this planning stage
students can be given further guidance and/ or (if necessary) reassurances by
the coordinator/ tutor. The grading of short plans is optional, a specified
deadline would be advisable.
3) Policy Briefing Document: in the ‘real world’ policy briefings are short &
succinct, yet their actual length can vary depending on subject, purpose and
addressee. Applied to our University context (and honours modules in
particular), a word limit of 3500 – 4000 words would be a realistic length for such
an assignment. Longer or shorter versions are possible and the actual word limit
can be left to coordinators’ discretion. As a general guide, briefings should
(preferably) include the following components -
-
A Title page: title, author, date, target recipients/ audience (NB: the title should,
ideally be ‘short, catchy and to the point’ (FOA).
An Abstract or executive summary: this short section should state topic, choice
justification and intended outcome.
An Empirical Analysis: a summary of relevant facts to date, this section should
offer the target recipients an overview/ assessment of the situation/ chosen
issue. It constitutes the empirical element of document = what is the issue here?
Further, this section could look into why recipients should consider the issue and
why it is necessary to consider strategic/ policy change. As an optional
element, the empirical section could also include a chronological overview of
the policy, statistics, and/ or a summary of key facts in a separate information
box.
An Assessment/ analysis of empirical evidence: this section offers space to
develop an argument and lays the foundation for recommendations. This
section represents the normative, analytical element of the document = how
can the facts be interpreted and what conclusions can be drawn regarding
the way ahead?
Students could consider questions such as –
What are the key discussion points?
What are the pros & cons of various policy options (for instance, in the
form of a cost-benefit analysis)?
o What are the possible/ potential implications of certain steps?
A Conclusion, recommendations and outlook: this concluding section should
offer a short, succinct commentary tying the previous elements together
before turning specifically to a set of recommendations for target recipients.
These should be based clearly on the empirical and analytical parts of the
briefing and constitute a recommended plan of action or solution to a
problem/ issue. To give this document credibility, the conclusion and
recommendations should be realistic, plausible and feasible.
Having identified the favoured policy options (and, where applicable,
excluded or ranked other, alternative options), the final section could also
consider further details on the implementation of the recommendations.
Appendices: are useful tools for both authors and recipients in both study and
work contexts. Their use and assessment could be made optional or
compulsory depending on module requirements.
References/ bibliography: this should be a compulsory component as proper
referencing is absolutely essential in any academic work and is part and parcel
of a good analysis, be it in a University context or ‘real world’ work environment.
o
o
-
-
-
Ultimately, all sections listed above should be presented in a practitioner-friendly
format: they should be short, to the point, concise and clear.
Optional: To make briefings even more ‘realistic’ and perhaps more fun for the
student/ author and the marker/ recipient, students could be encouraged to consider
including the following:



Information boxes, sidebars and any other illustrative tools e.g. graphs,
diagrams, pictures, caricatures, tables. Where applicable, these should be
clearly referenced.
Small, supportive/ complementary/ illustrative case studies
Footnotes and/ or endnotes.
There is a concern that students’ marks may be influenced by their IT & design skills.
While an attractive layout may be an incentive for both student author and marker
(for the author to explore layouts and enjoy putting together a ‘realistic’ document;
for markers to engage with a refreshingly different format), it should not influence the
final mark. The emphasis should be on the content rather than visual impact of the
assignment. It would be advisable to make this emphasis clear to students from the
beginning.
The above three stages (proposal, short plan, final briefing document) plus the above
individual briefing components should pre-empt any concerns that students may
have regarding the ‘unknown territory’, ‘novelty’ aspect of such an assignment; the
above guidance should offer enough pointers to complete the assignment task
successfully.
As with essays, it is important that policy briefings are researched and presented with
the same academic and analytical rigor as conventional essays and comply with the
Department’s/ School’s referencing rules.
To achieve a top grade, both student and marker could consider the following criteria
which are particularly relevant for the briefing exercise -
Evidence of thorough data collection and careful research of the topic;
Formulation of a clear objective with matching outcome;
Clarity in structure, analysis and communication;
Awareness of the wider context and - where appropriate – a clear reference
to relevant theories and disciplines;
Careful consideration of different sides or arguments to a given debate/
discourse;
Clear and plausible progression of the argument towards a (policy)
recommendation;
Although optional, a briefings may benefit from supportive graphs, tables,
pictures;
Last but not least: proper & professional referencing.
In line with employers’ expectations, policy briefings should, ideally, be –
-
Short & concise (within the word-limit)
Clear & readable
And, most of all, reliable and feasible in outlook. In the ‘real world’, recipients
of policy briefings need to rely on the author’s professionalism and expertise
and expect feasible and well-informed recommendations.
The above criteria can be incorporated into existing Departmental grading &
feedback proformas. The following proforma (please see below) was put together as
a possible feedback template. Colleagues should feel free to adopt, adapt, or
compose their own grading/ feedback proforma.
Policy Briefing – Feedback Form
Module Number/Name ……………… Marker(s) Name(s) ………………… Date …./…/…..
Student’s Name …………………………..
Briefing Title …………………………..
Summary Comments: The comments below related to the general Grade Related Criteria
Overall
Grade:
Optional check list: Staff may fill in the grid below to give you a general impression of the
strengths and weaknesses of your Briefing. The tick boxes are for guidance only and will not
be used mechanically to calculate the final grade.
Exemplary
Excellent
Merit
Adequate
Pass
(higher)
Pass
Fail
Evidence
of
empirical
data
collection, research of the topic
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
Formulation of a clear objective with
matching outcome
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
Clarity in structure,
communication:
and
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
Awareness of wider context, relevant
theories and inter-connections of
various aspects:
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
Consideration of different sides/
arguments to a given debate/ issue:
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
A clear and plausible progression of
the argument towards a strategic/
policy recommendation:
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
Presented in a clear, readable and
practitioner-friendly format:
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
Properly and reliably referenced:
Exemplary
Excellent
High Merit
Adequate
Pass
Pass
Fail
analysis
The following five examples of briefing-type assignments were selected very carefully
to ensure comparability and compatibility with the project’s focus. Many other
assignments similar to the ones listed below exist across the University and the
examples below only offer a glimpse into colleagues’ assignment ideas and are by
no means representative of all the initiatives out there. The examples have been
included in this report in order to give interested parties a sense of what briefing
assignments entail and offer a flavour of how this type of assignment can be applied.
The examples were included in this report with kind permission of the module
coordinators for which the project author is most grateful.
IR4552 The Politics of the Environment (the author’s own module)
This honours module asks students to write a 3500-word ‘policy briefing’ on an
environmental issue of their choice for a specific target audience. Students should
notify the module coordinator of their issue and audience choices before starting with
the project. The module guide provides the following information in an Appendix (see
below).
HOW TO WRITE A BRIEFING
A BRIEFING is a “document that is used to inform or advise a person in an organization,
usually a decision-maker. A briefing note could provide good news, bad news or
understanding of an issue. It could advise the reader to make a decision that will guide
the writer's actions. It could advise the reader to take action. Or it could advise the
reader to sign a document”.
CHARACTERISTICS FOR A GOOD BRIEFING
An efficient Briefing note should present the following characteristics:
1. short: be as short as possible (in our case: 3,500 words).
2. concise: be direct in answering the question and avoid unnecessary
digressions. Words and sentences must be used in the most efficient way.
3. clear: focus on what the reader needs and knows, then explain ideas such that
every concept is clear to the addressee.
4. reliable: be accurate in reporting information.
5. readable: structure your briefing for maximum readability and logical
understanding.
BASIC STRUCTURE
A Briefing note should follow this basic structure:
- Title, author, date, target recipient.
- Purpose: the introduction should give background information, then concisely state
the issue, proposal or problem and the way it is attacked in the briefing.
- Summary of the facts: the body of the briefing should contain an assessment on the
current situation (what has happened that requires action or a decision now, or
requires the recipient to be updated)
- Assessment/ analysis: based on the earlier summary, the next part comments on
observations, if necessary adds other aspects and develops a proposal/
recommendation.
- Conclusion/ recommendation: the conclusion should summarise the main findings
of the briefing and give a succinct recommendation/advice on what the recipient
should do. If there are several possible options to choose from, the author of the
briefing should highlight them e.g. in a table.
Feel free to use boxes, figures, graphs etc. in text and attach appendices with
supporting material at the end of the document.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU START WRITING
- Which is the objective of the document you’re writing?
- Who is the addressee of the document?
- What does the addressee already know? What information is available to him/ her?
- Which are the main points I’m going to cover? Am I going to make
recommendations? If so, will I offer a number of options to choose from?
- How am I going to structure my briefing and what will the key features/ selling points
be?
SOME FINAL TIPS:
-
many recipients e.g. government ministers are looking for clear, user-friendly
briefings;
they rely on the author’s objectivity, professionalism & expertise (so do your
homework);
they tend to look for feasible recommendations or recommendations that fit
their remit & overall policy style/ paradigm or (depending on objective) new,
innovative ideas.
CAPOD offers a practical skills session in ‘Communication’ which takes students
through the different stages on how to construct an efficient briefing document for
other team members (see slide below). Students then have to work on a practical
exercise to write a specific brief on an aspect of an historical commentary (see
below).
Activity – A Historical Commentary
Below is an article about Elizabeth 1. In pairs, read, digest and prepare a short brief (approximately
30 – 45 seconds) to deliver on one of the four themes of the article.
The themes are:
1)
Elizabeth’s route to Rule. What is her family history which led her to the throne?
2)
Elizabeth the person. As queen, what sort of a character was she?
3)
The Elizabethan Era. What historical events occurred during her reign?
4)
The people in Elizabeth’s life. With whom, and why, will Elizabeth be ever associated with?
Article (Adapted from Wikipedia)
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17
November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess,
Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was
born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth,
and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and her title was reduced to ‘Lady’. Her half-brother, Edward
VI (son on Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour), bequeathed the crown to Lady Jane Grey (his
first cousin once removed and granddaughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor), cutting his halfsisters out of the succession. His will was set aside; Lady Jane Grey was executed, Mary 1 (Elizabeth’s
half-sister, and Henry VIII’s daughter with his first wife Catherine of Aragon) ascended and in 1558,
following her death, Elizabeth succeeded Catholic Mary I, during whose reign she had been
imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.
Elizabeth set out to rule by good counsel, and she depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers
led by William Cecil, Baron Burghley. One of her first moves as queen was the establishing of an
English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious
Settlement later evolved into today's Church of England. It was expected that Elizabeth would marry
and produce an heir so as to continue the Tudor line. She never did, however, despite numerous
courtships. As she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity, and a cult grew up around
her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, and literature of the day.
In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father, brother and sister had been. One of
her mottoes was "video et taceo" ("I see, and say nothing"). In religion she was relatively tolerant,
avoiding systematic persecution. After 1570, when the pope declared her illegitimate and released
her subjects from obedience to her, several conspiracies threatened her life. All plots were
defeated, however, with the help of her ministers' secret service. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign
affairs, moving between the major powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported
a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France and
Ireland. In the mid-1580s war with Spain could no longer be avoided, and when Spain finally decided
to invade and conquer England in 1588, the defeat of the Spanish Armada associated her with what
is popularly viewed as one of the greatest victories in English history.
Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan era, famous above all for the flourishing of English
drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for the
seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake. Some historians are more
reserved in their assessment. They depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive
ruler, who enjoyed more than her share of luck. Towards the end of her reign, a series of economic
and military problems weakened her popularity. Elizabeth is acknowledged as a charismatic
performer and a dogged survivor, in an age when government was ramshackle and limited and
when monarchs in neighbouring countries faced internal problems that jeopardised their thrones.
Such was the case with Elizabeth's rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, whom she imprisoned in 1568 and
eventually had executed in 1587. After the short reigns of Elizabeth's brother and sister, her 44
years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of
national identity.
The Department of Geography & Sustainable Development offers a module - GG3234
Migration and Transnationalism – which asks students to write a ‘policy report’ as part
of a ‘mini conference’ (see information below).
MODULE MINI-CONFERENCE
The module mini-conference will be held during the normal lecture slot on XXX.
All students must participate in the conference. Students will give a joint group
presentation (up to 20 minutes) on one of the topics listed below and will then
write a short (maximum of 4 sides of A4) individual policy report on that topic:
due midday XXX. Examples of policy briefings are available at the Publications
section of the Centre for Population Change website:
http://www.cpc.ac.uk/publications/cpc_briefing_papers.php
Policy report for Scottish government
Link between international migration and Scottish economic growth
Report for UK government
Policy implications for the UK of international environmental mobility
Report for Local Government Association
Best practice responses to immigration at the local scale in England and Wales
Report for Office for National Statistics
Policy implications of changes in the life course and residential mobility
Report for Equality and Human Rights Commission
Ethnic segregation and models of national citizenship and belonging
Report for the Home Office
Policies to address the issue of irregular migration
As part of their Museum and Gallery Studies, History of Art students are asked in
module AH5505 Theory and Practice of Museums, Art Galleries and Related
Organisations to write a ‘management report’. Students can choose and sign up for
a title (see below).
Assignment 3: Management report - deadline XXX
The idea of this piece of work is that you think about what is required for a report and
prepare a document that looks like a report. This will mean collecting your information
and then thinking about how to structure it to make the report very clear and logical
and the language very straightforward. Useful guides are:
Bowden, J. How to Write a Report, Plymouth 1996
Moore, N. & Hesp, M. The Basics of Writing Reports Etcetera, London 1985
http://www.bolton.ac.uk/bissto/Study-Skills/Report-Writing/Home.aspx
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/reportsguide.pdf
Look also at reports you may have looked at during the course and at the Report
Writing PowerPoint on MMS. You may wish to use numbered paragraphs or simply to
have headings and sub-headings, but please ensure that you do not just produce an
essay in continuous text. Reports can include charts and tables, and supplementary
material in an appendix.
Please think about what you would do in a particular museum or gallery, not what
they do already. Do collect information from comparable institutions if you can, but
please do not ask the named museums for their policies. You can get a lot of this type
of information from the websites of the museums or local authorities or other institutions
and by searching the web using terms such as ‘education policy and museums’.
Please ensure you do not just copy an existing policy but that you take the best
features of several to make your own. The aim is to read the latest thinking on the issue
you are looking at and then apply it to a specific type of museum and gallery service.
The named examples below are local because this helps to focus your research, but
if you wish to deal with a comparable overseas museum and there is enough
information available this will be fine.
Reports do not usually include footnotes and bibliography, but please append a note
of all sources used, including websites. Remember to look in general works and
journals listed in the Course Guide as well as the books listed below - this is meant to
start you off, not to be comprehensive. Note that Museum Practice and Museums
Journal are searchable on the web, so it is easy to find relevant articles.
Length to be about 3000 words.
This piece of work counts for 40% of the marks for this module.
1. Prepare a report for the committee of a large local authority (or former local
authority) museum service (such as Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh or Glasgow)
proposing the employment of a marketing officer (full-time or part-time or
freelance) for the museum service. Justification for your specific proposals
should be given.
2. You are a keeper in a large local authority museum service in Scotland. As part
of a general review of policy you have been asked to think about the impact
of introducing charges to your main museum. Write a report for your director
as a discussion document assessing the implications of such a change and
making your own recommendations.
3. As part of a five-year forward plan, prepare a display and exhibitions policy for
the McManus in Dundee or Perth Art Gallery & Museum given the current levels
of staffing (see Museums Yearbook) and a proposed annual exhibitions budget
of £25,000. Please do not contact the curators in Dundee or Perth to obtain
their current policies!
4. You work in a large museum that has taken few volunteers in the past. Your
head of department is particularly resistant to the idea because of security and
supervision issues but you want to recruit some volunteers to help you. Prepare
a report detailing the advantages and practical implications of a change of
policy.
5. You are the Keeper of Fine & Decorative Arts at a publicly funded museum with
a long-established collection (for example, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh City
Museums, Perth, or Stirling). You like the idea of creating ‘open storage’ displays
in addition to your galleries. Write a report for your Director outlining the
advantages and disadvantages and practical implications.
6. You are the new curator at a small museum of Local and Social History and you
are appalled by the large size of the collections and the inadequate space in
the store. There appear to be duplicate specimens and several bulky items
which you know are represented in other museums nearby, so you would like
to do some selective de-accessioning. Write a report for your trustees
recommending a course of action.
7. As Fife Council Museums adjust to becoming part of Fife Cultural Trust, with a
new range of partner organisations, you would like to stimulate the new body
to think more about ‘green’ issues and sustainability. As a curator at the St
Andrews Museum you decide to start with your own part of the service first, with
the aim of expanding to other areas later. Draft a sustainability policy for St
Andrews Museum for discussion with fellow staff and managers before this is
taken to the trustees.
For their IR3101 Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics module, IR students were asked to write
briefing papers. They were provided with the following guidance (see below):
In most spheres of work you are likely to be placed in a situation where your employer
asks you to prepare a briefing paper on a specific problem or issue. Your boss is likely
to be a busy person with limited time to read huge chunks of prose, so you need to
present material succinctly and in ways that address the main problems and point to
key solutions. You may have a favoured policy response, but must present the boss
with alternatives.
Task: you are a researcher in the Russian Presidential Administration. It is November
20XX and Vladimir Putin has asked the research Department for background briefs on
the following issues:
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The Commonwealth of Independent States,
Relations with the USA,
Relations with China,
NATO enlargement,
The crisis in the Middle East,
The state of the armed forces,
Russia’s response to domestic or international terrorism,
Relations with Ukraine or Central Asia,
The state of Russian agriculture,
The role of big business and the ‘oligarchs’ in Russia’s political economy,
The mass media,
The state of political parties,
The role of women,
The religious question.
You must pick one of these topics and prepare a briefing paper on the subject. In the
workplace you are unlikely to receive detailed guidance on how this should be
approached so you are on your own. However, certain guidelines must be adhered
to:
1. The paper should comprise 5 sides of A4 paper, including source references (a
cover page can be added to this),
2. The presentations should be attractive and gain attention of the president,
especially if you want your solutions or recommendations to win out over those
of other researchers in the presidential administration (remember the acting
president started out as a back room boy who came to the attention of his
bosses),
3. To that end you might like to employ a selection of the following: narrative
prose, bullet points, diagrams, flow charts, maps, statistics, biography etc.
4. It is important that the paper sets out:
 The context, historical background,
 The key issues and problem areas,
 Policy options and their pros and cons,
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Your recommended policy, whilst showing awareness of counter-arguments
that might be used by others.
To produce your paper you are going to need to makes use of library sources cited
in this course book, other library resources not cited but present in the library, the
internet, and newspapers.
Assessment of the briefing paper will focus on the quality of the presentation (easy
to comprehend, well set out, useful supporting material), the identification of the
key issues, evidence of wide bibliographical and electronic research, and the
ability to present options in a self-critical way.
Useful links:
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Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (no date) What are
policy briefs?
http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2195e/i2195e03.pdf
Centre for European Policy Studies (2010) A Guide to Writing a CEPS Policy Brief
http://www.ceps.eu/system/files/article/2010/12/Guide%20to%20writing%20C
EPS%20Policy%20Brief.pdf
Online surveys, interviews and consultations for this project were conducted
between September 2014 and May 2015. Respondents included – teaching staff,
students, employers, CAPOD and the University’s Careers Office.
Please do not hesitate to contact the project author if you wish to see • a selection of briefing assignments already used by colleagues across the
University,
• further information regarding the online surveys, interviews, participant
numbers, responses etc.,
• a detailed report submitted to the Teaching & Learning Committee.