Re: citations and references to other documents in a policy document

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Brezinski, Brittany wrote:
> Please help! 
>  
>  
> For instance, an Information Security officer in my organization wrote a
> policy document using my template. In the References section, he copied
> control objectives and standards directly from COBIT 4.1 and PCI DSS
> documents (external sources)

I didn't dig very deep, but it looks like COBIT and PCI DSS are open 
standards. If the author didn't acknowledge the sources clearly, I agree 
he should, but maybe everyone concerned already knows. That's the hard 
thing to know, as a tech writer managing a collection of expert knowledge.

My experience with documents (no experience with policy docs, sorry) for 
an internal audience is that people tend to use them according to their 
understanding at the time, and that can be OK.

Looked at the other way, internal consumers will take them at face 
value, as THE POLICY DOCUMENTS, even if somebody made howling mistakes 
in the use of certain fields or wrote in the wrong spaces.

> I thought I should add the actual references to the external sources,
> but I do not know what to do with the long paragraphs he copied from
> those sources. I don't think these should go in the Policy section as
> citations.

Your HR department probably has a bunch of policy documents. Take a look 
there for examples of how your company does it.

> Also, it doesn't make sense to include these as footnotes
> since it would create two pages of just footnotes! Should I tell him he
> can't include those paragraphs and instead he must only cite the pages
> and sections in the external sources?

I don't mean to presume to tell you how to do your job, but if the 
documents matter at all, I think getting and filing away complete 
copies, of all internal and external documents that are referenced in 
the policy, would be a diligent way to cover the liabilities and loose 
ends created by these documentation issues.
>  

Hope you get more specific answers from a policy writer. Good luck.

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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