Little Guide to Writing for Impact

Everyone who writes in the world of public affairs wants to make arguments that will move readers and shape policy. That world, however, is busy and noisy, and even the best ideas often get squeezed out in the frenetic pace of policy debates. No author wants that to happen to their hard work.
In this fresh and lively book, Barrett, Greene, and Kettl combine more than a century of experience in writing to present a series of guidelines that will enable readers to successfully frame a policy argument; pitch it to editors; organize the work so that the ideas have real impact; support it with data and stories; find the right publisher; and follow up after publication to ensure that the argument has enduring impact. These basic steps work well—but work differently—for a wide variety of policy writing, from short blog posts through an op-eds, commentaries and policy briefs, dissertations, articles for both the popular press and academic journals, and books.
The book is a handy manual for writers in the world of research who want to explore the start-to-finish process of writing for impact—and for authors who want to explore a single writing challenge in-depth. It is full of examples of both good and bad writing, as well as the authors’ own tales in navigating the road from a new idea to a written product that packs punch. It’s a fun and useful primer for steering the policy debate.

Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene are senior advisors and columnists for Route Fifty, senior advisors to the American Society for Public Administration, visiting fellows at the IBM Center for the Business of Government, special project consultants to the Volcker Alliance, editors at the International Journal of Public Administration, senior advisors with the Government Finance Research Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago, fellows in the National Academy of Public Administration and more.
Donald F. Kettl is professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Volcker Alliance and the Brookings Institution. Kettl is the author or editor of numerous books, including Bridgebuilders: How Government Can Transcend Boundaries to Solve Problems (2023) and Experts in Government: The Deep State from Caligula to Donald Trump and Beyond (2023).