PAIMI Report Writing

1. PAIMI Report Writing An Overview

2. Goals & Objectives Goals: • To reflect the conditions of the P&A system at the time of the visit • To provide the P&A system with sufficient guidance on what they are doing well and how to make improvements Objectives: • Adhere to and address prompts • Focus on facts and be objective • Write clearly and concisely with the audience in mind • Edit for content, grammar, and punctuation

3. Address the Prompts KEY: Address ALL the prompts (preferably in order and always finessed into a paragraph)

4. Focus on Facts KEY: Write what you observed and have the paper work to back up your statements. • Temper your statements • Cite your source • Avoid Comparisons • Limit Embellishments • Use the might of “might”

5. Clear and Concise KEY: Short sentences, direct and to the point • Any sentence longer than 4 lines is suspect • Keep your target audience in mind • Avoid colloquialisms • Don’t use two words when one will do

6. Editing Your Writing KEY: Save time and energy Editing Benefits Everyone • Company • Lead Writer • Editor • You

7. Editing Your Writing Singular or Plural • The words “data” and “staff” are plural • “The staff are…” • “Mental illness” and “emotional disturbance” are singular • “Emotional disturbance is…” • “Youth” can be singular or plural • “Majority” • “The majority is…” • “A majority are…”

8. Editing Your Writing Prepositions • Between • There is a direct line between You Me • Among • We are among Friends

9. Edit Your Writing Capitalization • “State” and “Federal;” but not “statewide” or “federally” • When referring to the P&A system, “Division,” “Department,” “Bureau,” and “Agency” are capitalized • “Web site” is capitalized • Without a name, “council,” “commission,” “county” and “center” are lower case • Use lower case for “bachelor’s, “master’s,” “legislature” (unless Federal), “fee-for-service,” “internet” and “monitoring team.”

10. Editing Your Writing Numbers • Time • 3 hours • Money • 50 cents • Measurement • 15 miles Unless it is the first word in a sentence • It lasted 2 years, even though it was a 2-day project. Two years have passed since then. • In most other cases, numbers 10 and higher are written as numerals, nine and lower are spelled out.

11. Editing Your Writing Percent • With a number • “The population increased 15 percent.” • Without a number • “The percentage of the population with mental illness…” • The percent symbol (%) • In tables and exhibits only

12. One Word Onsite Healthcare Wraparound Database Timeframe Ongoing Decisionmaking Caregiver Fundraising Workgroup Followup vs follow up The followup presentation will…” “We will follow up on these data.” Words beginning with “non” are one word except when followed by a capitalized word nonprofit nonnegotiable non-American Editing Your Writing

13. Editing Your Writing Two Words • Task force • Paper work • Fact sheet • Web site (W is capitalized)

14. Words to omit Really Very Appears Seems Indeed Nevertheless Time and again On the other hand Wholly Thence Extremely Albeit Truly Huge In these regards Being that Edit Your Writing

15. Edit Your Writing More words • Use “composed of” or “includes” instead of “comprise” • “Persons” or “individuals” instead of “people” • “Persons with disabilities” instead of “disabled persons” • “Cultural competency” instead of “cultural competence”

16. Edit Your Writing Acronyms • Spelled out on the first usage in each chapter, with the acronym following in parentheses • Data Infrastructure Grants (DIG) • “The” appears before an acronym at the beginning of a sentence • The acronym “CMHS” stands exclusively for Center for Mental Health Services • Never use the same acronym to mean two different things in the same report • Avoid overuse

17. Edit Your Writing Punctuation • Hyphen • Most compound terms used as adjectives are hyphenated • “Long-term plans should be long term.” • “Long-term plans should meet long-term objectives.” • Words ending in “ly” are never followed by a hyphen • “Federally funded program vs. State-funded program” • Commas • Before the conjunction in a list • “Hospitals are located in Baltimore, Frederick, and Columbia.” • Space • Two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence • No contractions or ampersands (except in an acronym)

18. Editing Your Writing Miscellaneous • Legal cases are presented in Italics with the “v” in Roman type • Stoltenbragh v. Ottoman • Omit the names of specific persons; give only general titles • Use the correct ethnic designations • Caucasian • African American • Native American • Hispanic • “However” and “therefore” are not sentence starters

19. PAIMI Report Writing Questions??

20. PAIMI Report Writing Thank you