This workshop is designed for officers, analysts, and specialists at entry and intermediate levels who produce or review briefing notes. Managers and directors who coach staff and sign off on briefing notes will also find the material and exercises on editing, evaluation, and review directly useful.

Briefing notes support decision making. They enable timely, defensible decisions, shape how issues are understood, and signal the writer’s competence and judgment to senior decision-makers operating under pressure. This workshop equips participants to deliver effective briefing notes that work as decision-making tools, not just documents. You will learn to draft the key points your reader needs to know and present them so they are easy to absorb, retain, and act on. The writing techniques explored apply to a wide range of templates and styles used across government.

The session includes interactive discussions, editing exercises, critique of real-life samples, and a final team case study. The course can be customized to your organization’s templates and content priorities and is available in English and French.

• Foundations: two questions writers must ask at the start; what senior officials really need; what briefing notes are not
• Purpose and context: briefing notes for information and for action; organizational context; writing up the chain
• Anatomy of a strong briefing note: title, summary and background as context; options as trade-offs; considerations as risk intelligence; the recommendation as the bottom line
• Writing process: planning; audience analysis; drafting tips; editing your own work and the work of others; a procedural checklist
• Plain language and inclusive writing: plain-language techniques aligned with the Treasury Board Directive on the Management of Communications; clear and accessible language that promotes inclusivity
• Adjacent products: writing effective briefings; producing summary reports; crafting effective emails
• Applied practice: group exercises; a case-study task; plain-language exercises with answer keys; departmental briefing-note templates

Briefing Note Checklist

Participants receive a procedural checklist to help them review key aspects of their writing process, including planning, content, structure, and presentation.

In this workshop, participants will learn how to:

• Explain the purpose of a briefing note and what their senior readers actually need
• Ask the right questions before they begin drafting each briefing note 
• Sort and analyze issues to produce a defensible strategic recommendation
• Write each section with purpose: title, summary, background, options, considerations, recommendation
• Apply plain-language and inclusive writing techniques
• Revise their own and others’ drafts for accuracy, clarity, and brevity
• Prepare briefings, summary reports, and emails that support senior officials