Writing reports to Congress

On writing for the highest-stakes reader you will ever have.

I have helped prepare material that went to Congress. The first time, it changed how I write permanently, and the lesson turned out to apply far beyond government.

You start by assuming the reader is smart, busy, and skeptical, in that order. Smart, so you do not condescend. Busy, so you lead with the answer instead of building to it. Skeptical, so every number has to be defensible and every claim has to survive someone actively looking for the seam.

That last filter is clarifying. Before a sentence goes in, you ask whether you could say it out loud, under oath, to someone who wanted to catch you in an overstatement. Most hedging and most hype does not survive that question. What is left is usually true, and usually shorter.

The structure follows from the reader. Answer first. Evidence second. Caveats stated plainly rather than buried, because a skeptical reader trusts the writer who volunteers the weakness more than the one who hides it. You are not selling. You are reporting, and the credibility is the product.

I now write almost everything important this way, whether or not it is going anywhere near Capitol Hill. Imagine the toughest fair reader you can. Write for them. Your easier readers will be glad you did, and your case will be the stronger for having been built to survive the hard one.