Policy Brief
Using the research you did in week 2, and the feedback you received, you will prepare a policy brief for a group of legislators. Your goal is to convince policymakers to take action regarding the problem you described and researched in your week 2 policy brief worksheet.
This paper should be 1200-1500 words. Paper must be submitted to plagiarism checker and you need to include a PDF of the plagiarism report generated by Turnitin.
Your Paper will contain the following parts:
Executive Summary: Follow the executive summary description in the Center for Writing Excellence. Provide a summary of the policy issue and your recommendations that will follow. This really like an introduction–provide a brief overview of what your policy brief will cover.
Problem overview: Using specific data, explain why there is an issue that needs legislative attention. Consider the policy agenda process described in our course text, Longest, 2016. What causes an issue to become part of the legislative agenda? Make sure your problem overview includes enough detail to convince policymakers that the problem requires their action and attention. You should have some of the data you need from the research you did in week 2, but you will likely need to add more data and analyze the data that you previously found.
Potential policy solutions: Discuss possible solutions to the issue. You should include at least three different possible policy approaches. You can list past solutions that have already been implemented (and which you don’t believe are working). Here, you are going to discuss a few different ways to solve the policy issue. From this list, you will then choose one which you believe to be the best solution, but before you provide your specific solution, you will list other alternatives.
Recommended solution: From your list of possible policy actions, choose a specific and actionable solution that you will recommend to policymakers. When you think you have a possible solution, ask yourself, “Is this something specific a policymaker or implementing organization can do?” If not, then you have not provided an appropriate solution.
References/Resources: List all references and include any additional resources you think might be helpful for policymakers who would like to research the topic in more depth. You do not need to provide additional resources, but you must include a reference page with references in APA format.
Keep your content concise, specific, and make sure you are using academic sources to support any of your recommendations. Anecdotes and personal opinion should be minimal.
Use at least five sources.