Circular 'O' 51/78 Home 'B' 28/78
HFK 014/2
^ APR 1978
Departmental are
30. 61
83113
DEFICUR
INDEX
Taken
pr.
3)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
܂܂
30 March 1978
ANNUAL REVIEWS
1.
..
I have been reading the crop of Annual Reviews with interest: the standard is generally high (though a few of you still find it difficult to be as brief as you are required to be). However, the near simultaneous receipt of over 150 Reviews and the burden this imposes on the attention of readers, as well as on the printing and distribution machinery, is considerable. We have therefore looked again at the value of the Reviews and how they should be handled.
2.
』'
In the light of a study by the Planning Staff, the Steering Committee has concluded that the Reviews serve a number of useful purposes and should continue. But I have decided that some procedural improvements should be made.
(a) Length
The maximum length should remain 2,500 words of text plus summary. This is intended to be the top limit. Anyone who can do the job in less will earn credit as well as attracting greater attention.
(b) Content
The Review is a personal report conveying your comments and views on the more important developments of the year and the state of the country or organisation at the end of the year. It is not meant to be a comprehensive tour d'horizon. May I urge you all to concentrate on analysis and discussion, with only enough description for the reader to know what you are writing about. A glance forward is often useful.
(c)
Chronology
In future this will not be printed for general circulation. It will, however, be retained as useful to you and to selected departments here. As from next January it should be sent separately under compliments slip or stock letter to the FCO department concerned, who will circulate it to those who need it. We shall therefore no longer insist on the former rules on brevity in chronologies. Indeed, within the limits of your Chancery's resources, you may adopt a more comprehensive approach in order to produce a document which is useful to the researchers and others. And I should not object if, for the sake of completeness, the occasional item in the chronology were annotated, by no more than a sentence, to bring out the
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