{"id":55761,"date":"2022-11-09T16:09:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T00:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/?page_id=55761"},"modified":"2025-10-06T08:57:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T15:57:06","slug":"administrative-policy-drafting-tips","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/index\/policy-development-review\/administrative-policy-drafting-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Administrative Policy Drafting Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wsu-row wsu-row--single\" >\r\n    \n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left wsu-font-size--xlarge\">Administrative Policy Drafting Tips<\/h1>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>\n\n<p>The tips below help with drafting policies and procedures that are accessible, easily understood, and effective.<\/p>\n<p>For style guidelines, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/index\/policy-development-review\/administrative-manuals-style-guide\/\">Administrative Manuals Style Guide<\/a> and the WSU Marketing and Communications <a href=\"https:\/\/ucomm.wsu.edu\/editorial-style-guide\/\">Editorial Style Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For any questions, contact Policies, Records, and Forms at <a href=\"mailto:policies@wsu.edu\">policies@wsu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Check to see if a WSU policy on the same topic already exists or overlaps.<\/li>\n<li>Look at other universities\u2019 policies for ideas.<\/li>\n<li>Create an outline of the policy.<\/li>\n<li>Use the <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/documents\/2025\/07\/policy-template.docx\">policy template<\/a> <span style=\"font-size: 1.125rem;color: initial\">(MS Word download)<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Use simple, plain language and short sentences.<\/li>\n<li>Write with the intended audience in mind.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t use unnecessary words. For example, use &#8220;to&#8221; instead of &#8220;in order to&#8221; and &#8220;because&#8221; instead of &#8220;as a result of.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Keep it short. Don\u2019t try to cover every possible situation.<\/li>\n<li>Make it helpful. State who (or which unit) needs to do what, and why.<\/li>\n<li>Make it enforceable. State how it is to be enforced and by whom.<\/li>\n<li>Use vertical lists and bullets to help the reader focus on important material.<\/li>\n<li>Check for compliance with laws, regulations, and industry standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tips below help with drafting policies and procedures that are accessible, easily understood, and effective. For style guidelines, see the Administrative Manuals Style Guide and the WSU Marketing and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1061,"featured_media":0,"parent":49838,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1061"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55761"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68102,"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55761\/revisions\/68102"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=55761"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.wsu.edu\/prf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=55761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}