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Lecture Notes, Foundations of Public Administration,

week 4

6:00pm

Make sure everyone has a group

Announce we will be handing back papers in seminar

Joan lecture about policy processes. Click here to view handout.

7:15pm

10 minute break

7:25pm

Policy vs. law

Handout “The Plan”

Click here to view handout on difference between policy and law.

Note differences between an organization's internal policies and public policies.

Internal : hiring policies, budget policies, employment policies- policies lay out the intent- rules, regulations and codes cover the minutia of how to make the policy function and ensure it is enforced.

Public policies : example- the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act was in1976 (Public Law 94-282). The Act created the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Policies are devised by public officials and public institutions to address public problems or provide public services within a given framework- welfare, crime control, Medicare, Medicaid, environment, education. Then we have codes, rules, regulations and programs to address the functions of policy and to enforce the policy. These give the policy funtional grounding.

Note differences between types of law (always ask a lawyer what type of law they practice).

“Learning to Learn” in preparation for assignment #2- formal writing, citations- I have taken down my examples.

As Emerson stated “if you want to become a great writer, read great writers.”

Now that you have all just finished a paper and four weeks of reading, you are re-acquainted with how you as an individual scholar approach reading and writing. Some of you may be very pleased with how you are processing and communicating information, others of you may have found these readings and this paper more challenging than you expected.

Tonight I would like to start by offering you some ways of approaching reading and writing that may or may not be similar to what you already do. The objective here is not to learn speed reading or academic writing styles, but to intentionally recognize some ways in which we can be effective readers and writers.

An effective reader adjusts how they read to the type of material they are reading and to the purpose for why you are reading it. To do this, it is important to understand how what you are reading is written. Authors write with intention - they pick words purposefully and they link them together purposefully. To understand their intention, here is one approach.

Tip : Survey, Question, Read, Review, Recite, Rewrite. Create your own key for reading.

Similarly, a good writer adjusts what they write to the type of material they are writing and to the purpose for why it is being written. To do this, it is important to understand how readers may approach what you write.

Tip : copy the layout of an article or memo or report that made sense to you. You can use this to follow the progression/movement of ideas in your own writing. Then, as you write, always remember that you are taking your reader on a journey: tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you just told them.

8:05pm

10 minute break

8:15pm

Seminar