3 Important (and Quick) Questions to Ask Yourself when Writing for a Policymaker Audience

By Sheeva Azma

Sometimes the most difficult questions are the most important ones when it comes to developing a policymaker-facing messaging strategy.

I knew I had finally made it in the freelancing world when a client, who had recently hired me to do a thought leadership article to be read by policymakers, asked me to write a second piece as well. I love to apply my communications skills to improve policy, so I was really excited to get to work. The only problem was that I was doing way too much at that time – trying to balance my work as a freelancer with my SciComm and science policy education efforts, and my tutoring to pay some debt. 

Despite my lack of time, I said yes. I was determined to make it all work, especially since the client’s work was in a field that I really cared about and I wanted to make an impact. 

Uber-multitasking, I ate a waffle while housesitting as I reviewed the notes my client sent me. My smartphone read aloud the notes and articles that the client had sent me as I dunked my Eggo waffle in some syrup I had found. The client was an expert in their field, but they needed someone to make their message easily accessible and impactful. That person would be me, obviously.

Pressed for time before my initial call with the client, I decided I would ask my client some tough questions. Maybe it’s because I’ve been flexing – and improving – my journalism skills by interviewing people on the Fancy Comma YouTube, or because I enjoy challenging my English tutoring students to come up with the answers to their questions themselves, but on this day, I decided to see if asking a few questions could help the writing process become more efficient. The client wouldn’t find the questions difficult to answer, but I could not answer the questions at all myself without the client’s input.

So, I took a few seconds to come up with a list of questions to ask the client on our call. The questions were not related to the writing aspect at all, which felt really bizarre. I thought that my client might judge me for being nosy or overly inquisitive. They did not! We brainstormed for a good 45 minutes, just on messaging, and they hopped offline to jot down some notes for an outline. 

Just 30 minutes later, the client sent me the article outline, which was supposed to be my job. Thanks to our discussion, the client decided they could come up with the whole thing themselves, including both background information and specific policy asks. Wow! 

Not only did asking difficult questions save me time and work (which I probably could not complete myself anyway, as I am not an expert in the client’s field), it seemed to be the perfect complement to my client’s expertise. The end result was amazing!

So, for any other science and technology communicators working on policy issues requiring communication, below I share my three – perhaps difficult, but definitely important – questions to ask when writing policy-related thought leadership content. The difficulty in these questions is exactly why you should ask them. Suggesting policy recommendations is a holistic process – it requires understanding multiple perspectives and stakeholders’ needs. If you can’t grapple with that, maybe that means you need to revisit what you are trying to accomplish and why.

If you ask me, the below questions should be asked when writing any thought leadership, but policymakers are particularly stressed and overwhelmed. You should not ask policymakers to do the tough work of understanding your policy “ask.” They will not have time to do that, which means that your one-pager will get buried in the stack of all the one-pagers and letters they get every day. So, take the time to reflect on these questions to make your message as clear as possible – not just on paper, but in policymakers’ minds.

Without further ado, here are my three questions to ask when writing your next policymaker-facing communications:

Question 1: What is the overall point of the article?

Sometimes, you want to boost awareness of an issue so policymakers can tackle it. Other times, you may have specific policy solutions to be considered.

Question 2: If you could, in one sentence, summarize the article – what would that sentence be?

What is the main takeaway you want the reader to have after reading the article?

Question 3: What do you want this article to do in the real world?

This question sounds nefariously strategic, but maybe that’s why it’s so important – it forces you to grapple with the real-world impact of your communications. Let’s face it, the point of engaging in policy advocacy is to make things better. You have to be able to communicate what you want to do if you ever want it to have a chance of making it through the policymaking process. If that means acknowledging the barriers in your way, or the things that are and are not possible, so be it.

Clarity is key when communicating with policymakers

The bottom line is that, when working on policy issues, it’s important to be as clear as possible, and that clarity relates to both what your readers read – things like grammar, spelling, and flow – and what they take away from the article after they put it down. 

There’s more to it than that, especially for policy recommendations involving science and technology that require specific attention and skill in communicating complexity. Still, we hope that these tips, which we have used to help advocate for meaningful, bipartisan policy reforms, can help you in your policy aspirations. 

Remember, too, that you can hire Fancy Comma to write your policymaker-facing communications – get in touch today to see how we can support your policy work at the intersections of science, health, technology, business, and finance. We’d love to help!