Skirts and Essays: 

Reflections on My Technical Writing Experience

In my first graduate school course, the professor introduced us to an unlikely analogy for effective writing. “Essays are like a good skirt; they should be long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep it interesting.” This cheeky analogy stuck with me throughout graduate school and has become a way for me to review the effectiveness of my written reports and policy memorandums. Using the analogy as a guide, I realized that well-written essays cover the subject, are short enough to remain interesting, and are tailored for the audience.

Covering the Subject

A well-written document should fully cover the subject of interest by providing sufficient information for the reader to understand the major conclusions. Prior to writing a document, thorough research is critical to fully covering the subject. As an intern with the National Association of Wheat Growers, I authored a memorandum for members of the organization about the National Drought Monitor and its impact on agricultural policy decisions. When asked to write the memo, I had no previous experience with the topic; therefore, I spent several days researching background information on the National Drought Monitor before creating an outline and writing the memo. This research ensured that I fully understood the topic before writing about it. As a result, the final document was detailed and thoroughly explained the tool and its use in national policy. By making myself an expert on the issue, I assure that the topic is fully addressed in my writing. 

Short and Interesting

While it is important to fully cover the subject, brevity is just as critical in written communication. My education at the Bush School has reinforced the skill of clear, concise writing through a heavy emphasis on policy memo writing in classes. In a majority of my graduate courses, I have been challenged to write policy memos that provide depth in a concise format. These courses have taught me the importance of synthesizing references, utilizing active voice, and creating clear organizational structure.  Additionally, I learned the Bottom-Line Up Front (BLUF) method of communicating in which the document begins with the conclusion. Each of these skills allow me to present my findings and conclusions in a succinct manner that is easy to read and understand. 

Tailoring for Success

Tailoring a document according to the situation is essential to ensure the desired goal is being met. The audience and goal of a document is important to consider when authoring a paper.  For example, policy memos tend to be much shorter and more concise than in-depth research papers. Through my capstone experience, I have gained experience in tailoring my writing according to specific audiences and desired goals because the writing is being delivered to two different audiences: academics and industry professionals. Early on in my capstone experience, we determined that multiple deliverables would be important for our project to ensure that we met the desired goals of both audiences. Though we are delivering the same information, we are creating two kinds of documents. The first kind is longer, more in-depth, and extremely detailed to meet the goals of academic readers. These documents include our interim and final reports that are 60-100 pages in length. The second kind of documents are much shorter, less detailed, and more focused on specific quantitative findings to meet the needs of the industry professionals representing Philanthropy Southwest. To meet these goals, we created shorter memos, presentations, and bulleted talking points. By tailoring our writing according to the situation and goals, we are able to meet the needs of varying audiences. 

Conclusions & Takeaways

As I improve my writing skills, I begin to realize how well the analogy of skirts and essays applies to technical writing. Like a good skirt, a good essay should fully cover the subject while being short enough to keep the audience engaged. It also needs to be tailored to the specific situation and audience. Keeping these characteristics in mind allows me to author high-quality technical communications that reach the desired goal for the particular project.