A Military Writer's Handbook
Formats and Guidelines

Environmental Management Communication
by Dr. Paula Klink, Environmental Sciences Group

A typically good environmental communication format does not differ greatly from other good communication. Technical jargon should be avoided for it may lead to confusion. Conversely, care must be taken so the information is not brought down to too low of a level. Long, complex sentences should also be avoided. As with other written work, environmental reports should comprise an introduction, body, and conclusion. The inclusion of an abstract or executive summary will allow busy people to quickly gain an understanding of the document without reading a lot of details. If interested, the reader can read the entire document.

•  A strong abstract or executive summary should include all important aspects of the communication, including a clear definition of main themes.

•  An introduction or background section should provide supporting information for the main points of the communication. A balance must be made between giving too much information (a lengthy report) and too little information (an incomplete report).

•  The most important information is contained in the body of the report-it is the purpose of the entire communication. The supporting documentation can be communicated in many ways: through words, graphs and other pictorial representations, and through tables. This increases accessibility of the information for a varied audience. The material may be presented in point form if the author is comfortable with that format.

•  A conclusion section should clearly restate the important aspects of the communication without providing new information.

When writing a report, it may be prudent to write the body (or discussion section) of the report first, as it contains the most important information, and all other information in the report supports this section. The introduction (or background) section should only contain information supporting the arguments in the body. The conclusion section should only include information discussed in previous sections-no new information should be included. All information gleaned from outside sources should be properly referenced.

Written assignments in Environmental Management courses use the Author-Date- style documentation method. The article or book should be referred to using the author's name and the date of publication in parenthesis, such as (Klink, 2004). If the author is referred to by name in the discussion, add the year in parenthesis following the name: "as shown by Klink (2004)." A list of references should be included at the end of the work using the format illustrated in the examples below. Footnotes should be used to expand upon concepts in the body of the report, not as a means of reference.

Sample References:

Books by a single author

Reible, D.D. (1999). Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering , Lewis Publishers, Boca Rata FL.

Books by two or more authors

Lundgren, R. and A. McMakin (1998). Risk Communication: A handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risk ; Battelle Press, Columbus, OH.

Edited books

Cunningham, M. F. and R. A. Hutchinson (2002). Industrial Applications and Processes in High Polymer Series: Free-radical Polymerization , ed. T. P. Davis and K. Matyjaszewski, Wiley Interscience, New York pp. 333-359.

Article in a journal with separate pagination for each issue

Beder, S. and M. Shortland (1992). Siting a Hazardous Waste Facility: The Tangled Web of Risk Communication, Public Understanding of Science, 1 (2):139-160.

Article in a journal with continuous pagination for each issue

Slovic, P. (1987). "Perception of risk"; Science 236:280-285.

Internet resource

Delaney, K.M. (1997). Health and Environmental Risk Communication , Presentation Slides; US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine; http://www.dtic.mil/envirodod/Policies/BRAC/st_louis_hcrd.pdf.

Communication is a skill. As with any skill, the more practice and effort towards improvement, the easier and more effective the environmental communication will become. Care must be taken to adequately explain scientific ideas to a non-scientific audience without condescension. Communication using a variety of media and styles should be considered.