Drafting Memos and Policy Language with Claude

Government writing has conventions. Action memos open with the recommendation. Briefing memos lead with the bottom line. Decision memos lay out alternatives, recommend one, and provide a signature line. If you prompt Claude for "a memo," you will get something that reads like a college essay. If you prompt with the actual structure, you will get something that reads like it came from your office.

What you'll learn

• The three workhorse memo formats and what differs between them
• A reusable prompt scaffold that enforces structure, tone, and citation discipline
• How to handle classification and the "always cite your sources" rule before paste
• Common failure modes and how to catch them in review

The three formats — what they actually are

Action memo

Recommends a specific decision the principal must make. Opens with the recommendation, lists the issue, gives discussion in two to four short paragraphs, and ends with concurrence/non-concur lines. Length: one to two pages, single-spaced. Audience: the principal who signs.

Briefing memo

Informs without asking for a decision. Used to brief leadership before a meeting, hearing, or external engagement. Bottom-line-up-front (BLUF), then key facts, then talking points or anticipated questions. Length: one page, often bullet-formatted.

Decision memo

Lays out two to three alternatives with pros, cons, costs, and risks for each, then recommends one and provides a signature/initial block. Used when the principal must choose among materially different paths. Length: two to four pages.

The reusable scaffold prompt

Bo, the trick is to give Claude the entire memo skeleton, the audience, the tone constraint, and a rule that forbids unsourced factual claims. Here is the scaffold I use:

You are drafting a [ACTION / BRIEFING / DECISION] memo for [PRINCIPAL TITLE]
at [AGENCY/COMPONENT].

CONTEXT (do not include in the memo, just for your understanding):
[paste the background you would have given a junior analyst]

CONSTRAINTS:
- Format: standard agency memo header (MEMORANDUM FOR / FROM / SUBJECT)
- Length: [one page / two pages / specified word count]
- Voice: third person, plain language, no hedging adjectives
- BLUF: first sentence states the recommendation or the bottom line
- Every factual claim must cite a source by parenthetical reference
- If a claim cannot be sourced, write "[SOURCE NEEDED]" instead of inventing one
- No predictive or speculative language unless I have given you a forecast
- Conclude with: [concurrence lines / talking points / signature block]

DELIVERABLE:
1. The memo, ready to paste into a Word template
2. A separate "Open questions" list of every [SOURCE NEEDED] tag for me to fill

The two non-negotiable rules are the [SOURCE NEEDED] tag and the open-questions list. They convert Claude from a confident bulls***-generator into a structured first-pass analyst. You finish the citations; Claude does the structural work.

Walk-through — an action memo in 90 seconds

Imagine you are a GS-13 program analyst. Your director needs an action memo recommending whether to extend a contract with Vendor X for one more year. You feed Claude:

[scaffold above, with placeholders filled in:]

PRINCIPAL: Director, Office of Program Operations
SUBJECT: Recommendation on the extension of Contract X-1234 with Vendor X

CONTEXT:
- Contract X-1234 is a $4.2M IDIQ for IT modernization support, expires Sep 30
- Vendor X has met all CPARS scoring thresholds for two consecutive periods
- One option year remains; second option year expired Sep 2025
- Current funded backlog requires ~9 more months of vendor support
- Two competitor vendors have expressed interest via Sources Sought

CONSTRAINTS: as above. Length: one page.

RECOMMENDED DECISION (you will write this into the BLUF):
Exercise the option year on Contract X-1234.

What comes back will have a clean MEMORANDUM FOR header, a one-sentence recommendation up top, three paragraphs of discussion, a brief risk note, and concurrence lines. The factual claims about CPARS, dollar amounts, and dates will be tagged [SOURCE NEEDED] if you did not give Claude a verifiable source — that is exactly the safety behavior you want.

The "always cite your sources" rule

Bo, this is the single behavior that separates AI-assisted memo writing from AI-assisted hallucination. Three sub-rules:

1. No statistic without a citation. "Workforce attrition rose 12 percent" must be followed by "(OPM FY2024 Federal Workforce Data, Table 5)" or replaced with [SOURCE NEEDED].
2. No legal or policy reference without a citation. Authority claims like "pursuant to 5 USC §552" or "under OMB M-24-10 §3(c)" must include the section, not just the document name.
3. No quotation without a verbatim verification step. If Claude generates a quoted sentence allegedly from a regulation, you re-fetch the regulation from the canonical source (eCFR, Federal Register, FAR, DFARS) and confirm the words match before sending.

Federal compliance pitfalls

Homework

1. Pick a memo you have to write this week.
2. Use the scaffold to generate a first draft inside an approved AI tool only.
3. Walk through every [SOURCE NEEDED] tag and either fill it or strike the claim.
4. Time yourself. Compare to your usual baseline.
5. Save the prompt and the source citations together — these become your working file.