Improve copywriting reference #211
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MattiSG
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MattiSG
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Really good improvements, thanks @clementbiron!
| # Memo copywriting | ||
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| ## Purpose of a memo | ||
| Memos are short analysis of detected changes, whose is *[diff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff)* the atomic unit. |
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| Memos are short analysis of detected changes, whose is *[diff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff)* the atomic unit. | |
| Memos are short analyses of detected changes, whose _[diff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff)_ is the atomic unit. |
| - They must first describe what has been added and what has been deleted. | ||
| - Their secondary objective is to provide materials to demonstrate matters of interest and further investigations. |
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Here is what I had noted from a consensus two months ago, I quite like it:
Memos are short explanations of a specific change in some terms of a service.
They remove the technical and expertise barriers needed to interpret a textual change.
They can provide additional context to make sense of that change, such as outlining the regulation, geopolitical tensions or public controversy that likely led to it.
They can also highlight the potential consequences of that change on the users and partners of the service, as well as potential real-world harms to society.
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| ## Scope of a memo | ||
| - [a topic](#topic-optional); | ||
| - [a contextualisation](#contextualisation-optional). |
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| - [a contextualisation](#contextualisation-optional). | |
| - [a context](#contextualisation-optional). |
| | Copyright | Fair use and licensing rules, verification and reporting mechanisms, monetisation | | ||
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| - Include topics in the frontmatter metadata of the draft. | ||
| Each element is explained in detail below. |
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| Each element is explained in detail below. | |
| Each of these components is explained in detail below. |
| - Do not italicise citations, use quotes. | ||
| - Minimise the length of citations because legal text is often very wordy. | ||
| - Only quote the text before modification if it is strictly necessary to understand the change, to reduce the risk of confusion and length. | ||
| - __If changes have been made in a specific jurisdiction, mention it in the memo. Do not mention jurisdiction when changes have been made globally.__ |
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Why are some items in bold and not others?
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| > OpenAI also extended export restrictions to plugins ‘located’ in countries embargoed or sanctioned by the US. This provision previously concerned only plugin owners. | ||
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| ## Topic (optional) |
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| ## Topic (optional) | |
| ## Topic _(optional)_ |
| | Data Sovereignty | Data governance, cross-border data flows | | ||
| | Copyright | Fair use and licensing rules, verification and reporting mechanisms, monetisation | | ||
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| Please note that if the diff has changes related to more than one topic, write separate memos for each topic. |
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This for me is key: I suggest moving that bit to the top of the section, as an explanation of why this is useful.
| Please note that if the diff has changes related to more than one topic, write separate memos for each topic. | |
| Changes can sometimes address several topics at once, making it difficult to narrow the memos down to a clear issue. In such cases, **write separate memos for each topic**. To support splitting, the taxonomy below can help identify topics to group the changes into that should each warrant their own memo. |
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| Please note that if the diff has changes related to more than one topic, write separate memos for each topic. | ||
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| ## Contextualisation (optional) |
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I feel that context is way more often used than topics, so I suggest moving that section above 🙂
| ## Contextualisation (optional) | |
| ## Context _(optional)_ |
| - Write the contextualisation text in a new paragraph. | ||
| - Add external links to the most authoritative sources available. | ||
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| **Example** |
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| **Example** | |
| #### Example |
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| ## Contextualisation (optional) | ||
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| Explain which wider problems are tackled by this policy change, or give a historical perspective on the change. |
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| Explain which wider problems are tackled by this policy change, or give a historical perspective on the change. | |
| The goal of the context is to help the general public make sense of the changes, which can often be applied in reaction to a geopolitical or regulatory tension. To that end, explain which wider problems are tackled by this policy change, or give a historical perspective on the change. Depending on your production goals, you might want to focus on specific angles such as real-world harms, capital concentration, geopolitical evolutions… all are valid, and this section simply describes how to integrate these additional perspectives in a memo so that they don’t take over the change analysis itself. |
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Looking at the navigation menu, shouldn't we rename this page “Memo copywriting”, removing the “reference” word that is already present in the section title? This is how we've done it in more recent pages.
| - __Use British English throughout__ | ||
| - ‘organisation’ and not ‘organization’ | ||
| - “organisation” and not “organization” | ||
| - No full point in abbreviations |
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| - No full point in abbreviations | |
| - Don't use full stops in abbreviations (e.g. write “EU” and “USA” instead of “E.U.” and “U.S.A.”). |
| - Only quote the text before modification if it is strictly necessary to understand the change, to reduce the risk of confusion and length. | ||
| - __If changes have been made in a specific jurisdiction, mention it in the memo. Do not mention jurisdiction when changes have been made globally.__ | ||
| - If you write in a different language than the detected change, always look for citations in the version of the document that matches the language of writing if it exists instead of translating them yourself. | ||
| - __Use British English throughout__ |
| - See also | ||
| - [Guardian style guide](https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-style-guide-a) |
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(apply below as well)
| - See also | |
| - [Guardian style guide](https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-style-guide-a) | |
| - For more details, follow the [Guardian style guide](https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-style-guide-a). |
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