Writing Skills for Intelligence Analysts

Length:

4 days

Who should take this course?

Intelligence Community analysts seeking to improve the quality and impact of their written products.

Cost:

Description:

This workshop presents established analysts in the Intelligence Community with multiple opportunities to practice and hone their writing skills. Most of the writing assignments are edited and returned to the drafters during the workshop. Analysts practice writing a variety of intelligence products ranging from a short article to a set of Key Judgments for a National Intelligence Estimate. The instructors provide personalized, individual feedback to the students on six writing assignments. This direct feedback is the most effective teaching method for helping analysts improve their writing ability.

Concepts introduced in this workshop include:

• What is analytic writing and why does writing for the Intelligence Community differ from other styles of writing?
• Why is the process of writing so closely linked to being an analyst who is able to think critically ("good writing is good thinking")?
• What constitutes good writing and what are the most common characteristics of poor writing?
• How do you self-edit and review your own paper?
• How can good writing skills translate into creating good PowerPoint slides?
• What essential elements belong in the title of an intelligence product and why?
• How do you condense an article to just half the space and what does tha teach you?
• What is the difference between a summary and a set of Key Judgments?
• How do you write a summary of an intelligence product that provides the reader with the most significant information?
• Why are key judgments so important and how do you write them?

Agenda:

Day 1
Introduction and Collaboration Techniques
Principles of Effective Analytic Writing
Writing Exercise
Review of Common Writing Problems
Review of excellent IC Products
Crafting a Short Intelligence Article

Day 2
What Did We Learn Yesterday?
Exercise: Rewriting a Poorly Written Article
Exercise: Sharpening Your Editing Skills
Crafting a Longer Intelligence Article
Key Judgments and Summaries
Excerise: Crafting an Intelligence Summary

Day 3
What Did We Learn Yesterday
Exercise: Writing for Brevity
Exercise: Crafting Titles
Exercise: Crafting Your Second Intelligence Article

Day 4
What Did We Learn Yesterday
Grammer Exercise: The Devil is in the Details
Exercise: Writing Key Judgments
Group Exercise: Creating a PP Presentation
Applying What You Have Learned
Wrap Up

If you're interested in future runnings of a course,
please send an email to courseregistration@pherson.org
to request information or call 703-390-9903.