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(U) Some Tips on Portion Marking
FROM:
SID Classification Advisory Officer (S02L)
Run Date: 01/26/2006
(U//FOUO) Portion markings! Love 'em or hate 'em, every SIGINTer must understand them and
know how to use them. It can be especially tricky to know what to do when you are portion
marking bulleted lists. Here's some guidance that might make this aspect of your job a little
easier.
(U) General Guidance (does not apply to SIGINT reporting):
(U) The lead-in sentence MUST ALWAYS be portion-marked. As for the bullets themselves, a
good way to determine whether or not portion markings are needed is to apply this process:
If the bullets relay a full thought such as:
the building is north of the center of town
the children's care center is in Nimptown
...then portion marks would be needed.
(U) However, if the bullets looked like:
three donuts
5 apples and a pear
$3.00, and
a bag to carry it all
...and carry an incomplete thought, then portion markings are not required.
(U) In addition, if you portion mark one of the bullets, you need to portion mark all of them, or
vice versa. So, if you have some bullets that convey a complete thought and some that do not,
then you could just leave all of the bullets unmarked and apply the highest classification for that
section to the lead-in sentence. For example:
Wrong way:
(U) All good men and women should come to
the aid of their country through:
(U//FOUO) volunteering for a tdy to the
Middle East and doing an outstanding
job
their taxes
Right way:
(U//FOUO) All good men and women should
come to the aid of their country through:
volunteering for a tdy to the Middle
East and doing an outstanding job
their taxes
(U) So, bottom line is, not every bullet requires portion markings. However, use your best
judgment to ensure the information is appropriately protected.
(U) Special Guidance for SIGINT Reporting:
(U) According to USSID CR1400, Section 5.20 , if all bullets in a set are less than four lines, they
do not have to be individually classified; however, if even one bullet in a set is four lines or
more, then all of the bullets must be classified. So, the classification of bullets in SIGINT
reporting does not depend on whether or not a bullet conveys a complete thought -- it's
determined by the length of the bullet.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108