Public Health Writing Center

• Focus on a specific topic. Provide enough detail that your audience understands the topic, but do not overwhelm them. Follow any instructions your professor provides about length.
• Be brief.
  • Use short paragraphs.
  • (Generally) use short, simple sentences.
  • Use layout options and heading levels to break your content up into smaller sections.
• Customize the information for your audience. (Who are you writing for?)
  • Highlight the most relevant information for your audience’s needs.
  • Provide context for that information.
  • Show why your audience should care about the topic right now.
  • Use mostly words your audience members will understand. Include unfamiliar words, such as the name of a condition or an important strategy, only if your audience will need to know them to understand the situation. Include clear, easy-to-understand definitions for those unfamiliar words.
  • Use bullet points, headings, and other formatting to make the document easy to understand.
• Clearly state how you got your information.
  • Mention key sources of information, such as surveys or reports.
  • If you collected your own data, briefly share how you collected it.
  • Include a short reference list.
• Use accessibility settings so that everyone can get your message.
  • Use actual header levels in your documents.
  • Add alternative text to images and other visual elements.
• Give your brief a short, descriptive title.
• Use page numbers.
• Be clear about dates. People need to know if your information is still current enough to be reliable.
  • List when you created the brief.
  • Indicate when your information was collected or created. List a specific time frame or use phrases like “in the past five years.”
• If possible, recommend actions. The number of actions and kinds of actions depend on your topic. You can recommend any of the following options:
  • Small actions, such as “wash your hands.”
  • A specific policy or strategy.
  • Several policies or strategies that could be effective. Let your audience decide which policy or strategy to use.

Different types of briefs are useful in different situations. The type of information you include depends on your purpose.

Note: Some people combine these categories. For example, some people say that issue briefs and data briefs are the same thing. Other people disagree.

Issue Briefs

Issue briefs describe a known or emerging health concern. They provide a quick summary of the information experts know about that topic at this point in time. The information might become out-of-date quickly as experts learn more.  

Issue briefs use examples and other evidence to support their recommendations.

Different sources disagree on whether issue briefs include proposed actions or not.

Examples of Issue Briefs

American Hospital Association's Issue Briefs

American Public Health Association's Reports and Issue Briefs

Data Briefs

A data brief is a specific type of issue brief. Data briefs focus on data: statistics, graphs, charts, figures, and tables. This information helps people understand the scope of an issue. Use this type of brief when you want to emphasize the number of people affected or sudden changes in impact.

Examples of Data Briefs

Data Briefs on Health IT.gov

AHRQ's Data Briefs

Policy Briefs

Policy briefs help people make decisions about policies and laws. You can recommend a specific policy or provide a few possible choices.

Examples of Policy Briefs

Policy Briefs from University of Minnesota's Center for Animal Health and Food Safety

Health Policy Briefs in the journal Health Affairs

Readability and Plain Language Tools

Charting and Graphing Tools