Don't Dodge the Draft

This article appeared in the GAO Review, Vol. 15, Issue 2, Spring 1980. The GAO staff is composed primarily of people from the accounting disciplines, not the writing disciplines. A problem is encountered when staff members view themselves as non-writers. Their written work would improve if they viewed themselves as writers while engaged in writing tasks. Early writing, which occurs simultaneously with the audit, will improve the audit. A GAO report and the draft which precedes it should be an argument for action which avoids redundancy, dead horse whipping, passives, and the switching of topics among other problems. The reviewer's task is to impose Report Manual standards on the draft. To improve his job, the reviewer should play the role of investigating editor and champion of the report. No documents in all Government prove more helpful to the American people than GAO reports, thus the writers and reviewers should be honored to work on the draft.