This article is written by James Pares, Performance Analyst, Islington Council.

  • The problem: Writing in government is difficult.
  • Why it matters: Effective writing is crucial to effective governance.
  • The solution: Understand your context and deploy appropriate techniques.

Writing well in government requires skill. It is crucial to understand your audience, the political climate and the operational context. Whether you're writing policies, proposals, speeches or even emails, you need to know when to be vague, when to be specific, how to keep a consistent message, when to use humour and even how and when to employ AI tools. This article will explore these points further and offer some insight into the world of government writing. 

Walking the tightrope between specificity and vagueness

Not unlike lawyers drafting contracts, an effective government writer must use their understanding of the political context to decide when it’s necessary to divulge specifics and when prudent enigma serves a better course. High-level strategy documents are one instance where such openness may be preferable. Here, government writers must be cautious about promising implementation dates or putting a figure on the output or impact of a policy. This can be frustrating and appear dishonest but the complexities of the government environment, rightly or wrongly, make the delivery of specifics difficult to manage. Tactful writing is therefore critical to safeguarding against costly backtracking and disillusionment. 

A good heuristic is never submit something you have generated using AI that you would not submit if you had written it yourself.

This is not to say that all government writing is woolly and abstract. Quite the opposite. As you draw closer to the realms of implementation, specificity is critical. A finance team may need to review spending on an underperforming department, or perhaps there is a proposal to be written regarding a new piece of technology being procured to help boost social care outcomes. Writing on these issues needs to be specific, accurate and contain a good amount of reliable evidence. It is fair to say that these issues are the majority and internal communications are best served by specificity, so long as you are confident that what you are saying is accurate.

The power of simplicity

Something else to bear in mind when writing in government is that the scale and diversity of departments give messages an arduous journey, from which they often emerge altered. This is particularly true during cross-departmental projects where there is a diverse pool of stakeholders with different reporting lines. If complex messages are used in these environments, they are often paraphrased or repurposed and the scope of the project can creep wider and wider until it becomes very difficult to manage. Ensuring project descriptions and any written messaging relating to projects remain simple and consistent will reduce the likelihood of these issues. This is true also at the highest strategic levels: policies with the simplest and most consistent aims will travel the furthest unscathed. You may cringe but think of the Brexit campaign and the UK government’s approach with “Take Back Control” and “Get Brexit Done”. Ruinous by some accounts, but undeniably effective.

Approach AI with consideration

The biggest development for government writing recently has surely been artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT. These tools have myriad uses. They can be used to summarise long and complex reports into briefings for ministers or senior staff. They can be used to adapt speeches to certain audiences and to certain tones or styles. They can even be used to sketch out the structure of important proposals or reports if the right information is inputted. However, despite their superpower status, AI tools are not infallible. The information they are trained on is often incomplete and the evidence they provide is not always reliable. It is therefore important to use these tools with these considerations in mind. A good heuristic is never submit something you have generated using AI that you would not submit if you had written it yourself. Editing is key.

Employ humour carefully

Humour can be a powerful tool in government writing. The seriousness of government work and its highly procedural nature makes humour scarce. This scarcity often gives it an oasis-in-the-desert effect. Indeed, a well-placed joke or wordplay during a project description or team email can cause staff to rally and can help to create engagement and receptivity, ultimately bringing better results. Satire is perhaps the most effective type of humour to employ in these situations since it treads the line between acceptable and inappropriate so deftly. Publications like Private Eye are a good example.

Final thoughts

Government writing is a multifaceted art. Mastering its key elements is essential for effective communication, cooperation and policy implementation. By exploring the elements of writing described above, government writers can enhance the impact of their work and contribute to more successful outputs in the public sector. This has been a very slight glimpse into the complex world of government writing but hopefully an insightful one.

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