Teaching Theory, Writing Policy: Integrating Lessons from Foggy Bottom into the Classroom

Abstract

This article describes guidelines for assignments designed to build and improve policy-oriented writing skills of college students. Based on our experiences as Franklin Fellows at the United States Department of State, we developed strategies for teaching writing skills that are transferable to the workplace. The pedagogical approaches highlighted in this article will equip students with the analytical and writing abilities needed in a variety of employment situations. First, we off er insights into the qualities that we believe are important for success in a policy-oriented work environment. Second, we link those skills to the challenges and gaps that students face. Third, we propose assignments that can address those gaps.

Finding Agency in the Margins: Lessons from Teaching as Immigrant Women of Color

“…Non-US teams reflect on how they exercised foreign-policy autonomy and challenged—or even ignored—the United States. Student feedback consistently notes the importance of learning the constraints of American power through this exercise (Biswas and Paczynska 2015). An essential way to make political theory accessible to undergraduates is by moving back and forth from the analytic practices of close reading to the lived experiences of cultural and political understanding.…”

Using Policy Briefs as Assessment to Integrating Research-Led Employability in Foreign Policy Courses

“…As a result, the policy brief is a commonly used tool in a range of jobs related to politics and IR, such as civil servant, lobbyist or NGO. It is therefore perhaps surprising that there use as an assessment tool in politics/IR courses remains underutilised (see Boys and Keating 2009;Pennock 2011;Trueb 2013;Biswas & Paczynska 2014;McMillan 2014; Chagas-Bastos and Burges 2018 for exceptions). The literature shows that the assessment method encourages students to develop 'real world' skills (very few jobs require the employee to regularly write 3000 words, most tend to need short, persuasive briefs), whilst also demonstrating academic knowledge (Moody and Bobic 2011).…”

“…Foreign aid is clearly linked to foreign policy and the use of policy briefs as a tool of communication in foreign affairs ministries is well documented. Biswas and Paczynska (2014) utilised policy briefs in the classroom based on their experiences as Franklin Fellows at the United States Department of State. The aid context is, furthermore, interesting because short, focused pieces of writing like policy briefs are widely used by NGOs, think-tanks and government departments.…”