Frank & Fearless

The public servants of Australia are employed to provide frank and fearless advice to the government. Government ministers and the Australian public expect this. The obligation to be frank and fearless underpins public service values and codes of conduct.

It isn’t always easy to be frank and fearless, especially when writing. There are a lot of bad writing habits in government, and these habits conspire against frank and fearless writing.

This book lists 20 common bad writing habits in government. While you might not have all 20 habits, you will recognise many of them.

Habits are hard to break, but these 20 habits are worth breaking. This book doesn’t just list the bad habits; it gives you ways to overcome them. Every page contains something you can do differently at work tomorrow.

You might not need to do everything in this book. But if you overcome even one bad writing habit, you will save time for yourself, your colleagues and your readers.

Frank and fearless writing is essential to good government. It is also achievable. This book will help you with that.