Clearer policy documents and research reports for the Federal Transit Administration’s Office of Research, Demonstration and Innovation
CHALLENGES
The Federal Transit Administration’s Office of Research, Demonstration and Innovation advances mobility, accessibility, and safety through research. Its technical professionals needed to communicate complex findings through policy documents, reports to Congress, and executive action memos.
Wordy language, inconsistent styles, and unclear organization often required three rounds of revisions—a process leadership identified as its top productivity drain. These writing challenges also limited the team’s outreach, making it harder to share research findings and funding opportunities effectively with transit agencies.
SOLUTIONS
Instructional Solutions tailored the training to help the Federal Transit Administration’s research professionals turn complex information into clear, actionable policy documents, reports to Congress, and executive action memos.
Participants learned to analyze their audience, organize a logical argument, and highlight essential information. Instruction addressed wordiness, repetition, passive voice, and weak transitions, giving the team a shared process for planning, drafting, and revising.
The program targeted the causes of repeated rewrites—the team’s greatest productivity drain—to support stronger first drafts, reduce management editing, and make research findings and funding opportunities more accessible to transit agencies.
OUTCOMES
Advanced expertise translated into stronger writing skills
Nearly all participants held PhDs, bringing deep research expertise to the training. Even within this highly educated group, the share who rated their business and executive summary writing skills as advanced—“major skill” or “expert”—doubled from 43% before training to 86% afterward. The program addressed a critical professional need: communicating complex research clearly in policy documents, executive summaries, and reports.
Less time writing, more capacity for mission-critical work
Every respondent expected to save writing time, with an average anticipated reduction of 27%. Half expected savings of 30% or more. For an office whose leadership identified repeated rewrites as its greatest productivity drain, these anticipated gains point to valuable capacity for research, policy development, and outreach to transit agencies.
Practical changes participants could put to work immediately
Participants identified specific applications: organizing memos and project profiles, strengthening public-facing letters, and writing more concise, direct messages. One described being more deliberate about time spent brainstorming, drafting, and editing; another summarized the benefit as “More concise, better tone.” Respondents rated their likelihood of recommending the training 4.57 out of 5.