Practical guide
A practical weekly brief template
Structure the week around developments, not days. Show what changed, what persisted, where sources disagreed, and which questions or actions carry into the next week.[1][2]
Why this gets difficult
A weekly template can become a chronological scrapbook, repeating background from Monday through Friday and hiding the week's actual movement.[1][2]
A practical way through
- Define the seven-day window and collect canonical source items.[1][2]
- Cluster coverage by continuing development and identify the week's changed evidence.[1][2]
- Write a short top-line synthesis plus sections for major movements and unresolved disagreement.[1][2]
- End with next-week watch items, deadlines, and linked sources.[1][2]
An example
The situation: A regulation evolves through a proposal, public responses, and a deadline reminder across one week.[1][2]
What changes: The shared background appears once, each procedural change is sequenced, and stakeholder disagreement is grouped by provision.[1][2]
What you get: The reader sees the week's movement and next official event rather than five dated recaps.[1][2]
What to watch for
Sources worth keeping
How Scottie helps
Scottie can use the same source-linked story structure for scheduled editions, though current flagship proof is centered on the morning brief.[3]