A common assignment is to write a policy memo or brief. When researching a policy topic, there are several questions to consider when thinking about where to research a topic:
Who has a stake in this issue? Are there stakeholder organizations that may be collecting data, producing reports, advocating for policy changes, etc.?
What level of government (or institution) is implicated (federal, state, county, city, other local municipalities, school boards, etc.)?
Depending on how you answer those questions, use the tabs on the left to discover corresponding resources to search, or start with the policy databases below.
Policy databases (research a topic as well as view examples of policy documents)
- Policy Commons (includes policy reports, briefs, analyses, and datasets from IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, North American City Reports)
- Overton.io (includes policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications, and working papers)
- CQ Researcher (get in-depth overviews of current issues at the national level; identify stakeholders and different policy approaches)
- CIAO (includes conference proceedings, think tank articles, some journals, and working papers on international affairs; you can filter by document source/type "policy brief")
Resources on how to write a policy document
- The Ford School's own Writing Center, with instructors dedicated to help you improve your policy writing
In addition, view some resources below to help you with both how to write a policy document, as well as view examples of real-world policy documents.