Data Analysis for PolicyMaking in Georgia
Course overview Module 6 · Writing the Policy Data Brief
Module 6 · 20 min · 5 pages

Writing the Policy Data Brief

~20 min total · Earn: Brief Author

Assemble your five-section Policy Data Brief and turn your course work into a document your organization can actually use.

POLICY DATA BRIEF Georgia Redistricting & Voting Access · [Your Name] · [Date] 1. RESEARCH QUESTION How does mail-in ballot rejection rate vary across Georgia counties by median household income? 2. DATA SOURCE Georgia Secretary of State · 2022 General Election ballot data · County-level rejection file 3. KEY FINDING Counties in the bottom income quartile rejected mail ballots at 3.4x the rate of top-quartile counties (3.9% vs 1.1%). 4. METHODOLOGY NOTE County-level rejection rates calculated as: rejected / (accepted + rejected). Income quartiles from ACS 5-year estimates. 5. POLICY RECOMMENDATION Establish a uniform ballot-curing notification standard statewide to reduce preventable rejections in lower-income counties.
Module 6 overview diagram. Anatomy of a Policy Data Brief: five labeled sections stacked vertically with color coding.

Pages in this module

  1. 6.1 What goes in a Policy Data Brief
  2. 6.2 Research question framing
  3. 6.3 Writing the finding section
  4. 6.4 Policy recommendation
  5. 6.5 Submit your Policy Data Brief