Writing is a skill that gets better with practice. Like any skill, there are ways of working that help you to improve faster.
A blank page waiting to be filled with words can be very scary. Equally scary is running out of words halfway through writing something.
Editing text is usually easier than writing it. So, your first step is to come up with words to edit. Here are 2 approaches.
Jump straight in:
Much of what we write in our work makes a case for doing something.
Within the APS, we ask for funding, people, time and authority. When we write for people outside the APS, we want them to take action: get a health check, vote or be alert to cybersecurity threats.
In both cases, we are making a persuasive argument for someone to do something.
A good persuasive argument has 3 parts. Each part has a different role, so you need all 3:
As humans, we’ve been telling each other stories for so long that we tend to think in them. We use stories to understand the world and share information. Stories underpin all our narratives, whether they’re about dragons, people or government policy. This means people respond strongly to certain characteristics of stories.
Stories make sense. Events have meaning and happen for a reason.
Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Events happen in a meaningful order, usually chronological.
When you write, you create a relationship with your readers. The closely linked concepts of ‘tone’ and ‘voice’ play a big role in shaping this relationship.
Tone describes the level of formality in your writing. It’s related to the words you choose and how you structure sentences.
Voice is the persona or character underlying your writing.
The voice for a document with a formal tone, like a Cabinet brief, will be objective and institutional. For a piece of writing with an informal tone, like a newsletter article, the voice will be warm and friendly.
It is vital to understand who needs your content and why they need it. This applies whether you’re writing a ministerial brief, content for a digital service or instructions in a print brochure.
If you don’t understand who you’re writing for, you risk writing something that isn’t accessible or useful.
The APS has a legal obligation to provide information that’s accessible. We must understand our users’ diverse needs before we start writing.
When you mention the handbook in your content, write the title in italics with an initial capital.
Example: The Government writing handbook includes advice about writing good paragraphs.
Always cite the handbook when you paraphrase it or quote it in your content. The following examples show how to do this using our preferred referencing styles.
A government source notes that active voice is ‘more direct than the passive voice’ (APSC 2024). [In-text citation]
The handbook’s focus is on writing and reading in government. This guided our choice of terms.
We use the noun ‘writing’ more often than ‘content’ (the term prevalent in the Style Manual). Writing is the words that are set down in a document, a draft or a complete written work.
We use ‘content’ in a broader sense. Content is the range of government material (including web content) that includes visual, auditory or interactive elements as well as text.
‘Text’ is a group of words or a written work.
Writing is an important part of working in the Australian Public Service (APS). It is the most common way public servants communicate:
The Style Manual is for everyone who writes, edits or approves Australian Government content. It helps us write clear, concise and consistent content that is fit for purpose.
