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(U) Write Right -- SIGINT Myths: The Traffic Fairy
FROM:
of the Reporting Board (S12A)
Run Date: 03/11/2005
(U//FOUO) SID today published a request to the work force last
autumn for "NSA Myths," which started a lively discussion of such
tales as the official number of staples to be used in fastening a
burn bag (a surprising number of myths seem to relate to our
classified waste disposal system).
(U//FOUO) This brought to mind a specifically SIGINT Myth, that of
the Traffic Fairy. In an agency whose personnel are rumored to be
more than 70% introvert, it's perhaps to be expected that analysts
would tend to keep their eyes focused on their desktops (physical
or virtual), sometimes to the point of confusing availability of
collected information with reportability.
(U//FOUO) Granted, in the bad old days too many of us had our
noses held to an extremely large grindstone, which hid from view
the actual customer requirements and hence an essential
component of the SIGINT reporting cycle: feedback. But those days
are long gone. Just because the traffic fairy dropped it on your
desk (or your workstation) doesn't mean it's reportable. Sharpen
your decision-making skills when selecting the meat for your
report.
(U//FOUO) For example, we saw a recent report that concerns the
efforts of an important target country to investigate the motive
behind an explosion at a house of worship. The Summary describes
the situation with admirable succinctness, but adds the irrelevant
information that the country's president remarked that a recent
snowfall might ease a water shortage. Even if this were truly
significant (which a quick reading of the Details indicates it wasn't),
it surely wasn't of equal importance with the main SIGINT fact and
therefore shouldn't have been included in the summary.
For more reporting advice, see The Reporting Forum .
SERIES:
(U) Write Right '05
1. Write Right : Too
Much Redundancy is
Redundant
2. Write Right -SIGINT Myths: The
Traffic Fairy
3. Write Right : There
Is No Index of
Forbidden Words
4. Write Right :
Avoiding SIGINTisms
5. Write Right : A Note
on Validity Wording
6. Write Right : Brevity
Can Impede Clarity
(or, A Capital
Situation)
7. Write Right :
Opening the Traffic
Fairy's Packages
8. Write Right :
Management Theory
Applied to Reporting
9. Write Right : Give
the 'Key Points' Style
a Try
10. Write Right : Still
More on the Traffic
Fairy
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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