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Intelligence Writing

This is a collection of great and very useful resources concerning intelligence writing such as manuals/guides, standards, books, and articles. There are both official and community resources. The collection is aimed to those looking to improve their intelligence writing skills (including me).

Official Resources

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

• Style Manual & Writers Guide for Intelligence Publications
• Analytic Thinking and Presentation for Intelligence Producers

Articles & News related to CIA's Style Manual & Writers Guide

• Writing Tips from the CIA's Ruthless Style Manual
• The CIA style guide goes online: now you can learn to write like a spy
• The CIA Released Their Style Guide, and It's Absolutely Fascinating
• Mission Grammatical: CIA Has 185-Page Writing Style Book
• The CIA and the Power of Words
• 11 Grammar Lessons From a Leaked CIA Style Book

Mercyhurst College - Institute for Intelligence Studies

• The Analyst's Style Manual

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

• DIA's Style Manual for Intelligence Production (governmentattic.org)
• DIA's Style Manual for Intelligence Production (dia.mil)

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)

• ICD 203 - Analytic Standards
• ICD 206 - Sourcing Requirements for Disseminated Analytic Products
• ICD 208 - Maximizing the Utility of Analytic Products

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

• USAICoE Writing Program Resources
• Enhancing Your Intelligence Writing Writing Guide for USAICoE and U.S. Army Writing

Department of Justice (DOJ)

• How to Write an Intelligence Product in the Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) Format

Community Resources

Articles

• How You Can Write Like An Intelligence Analyst
• Intelligence Analysis Tradecraft 101: Writing Effective Intelligence
• My Fool Proof Process to Writing a Killer Intelligence Brief and Tips to Deliver Intelligence Assessments Better
• The Three Skills Every Successful Intelligence Analyst Needs To Master: Tips on how to Write, Brief and Analyse
• Intelligence Writing
• How Intelligence Analysts Can Improve Critical Thinking and Writing Skills

Papers

• Write Like a Spy: Using U.S. Intelligence Guidelines to Reinforce the Lessons of Predictive Legal Writing
• Intelligence Analysis Reports: A How-to Writing Guide
• CIA - IC Writing Style
• How To Write Like An Intelligence Analyst

Discussions

• How does one write reports as well as an intelligence analyst? (Quora)

Talks

• Threat Intel for Everyone: Writing Like A Journalist To Produce Clear, Concise Reports (33min)
• Hack the Reader: Writing Effective Threat Reports with Lenny Zeltser (37min)
• Pen-To-Paper and The Finished Report: The Key To Generating Threat Intelligence (33min)
• Writing Meaningful Threat Intel Reports in MISP (2h30min)

Videos

• Overview of threat Intelligence Reports | Types of Cyber threat Intelligence Reports (13min)

Podcasts

• How to Keep Finished Intelligence Fresh (Recorded Future)

Presentations

• How to Create Meaningful Intelligence Reports

Books

• Communicating with Intelligence: Writing and Briefing for National Security (James S. Major)

Trainings/Courses

• Threat Intelligence Writing (Threat Intelligence Academy)
• Reporting for Analysts (I-Intelligence)
• Analytic Writing, Reporting, Briefs, and Dissemination (Treadstone71)
• Introduction to Analytic Tradecraft Writing (FedLearn)

Bonus

• Style Guides by Government Agencies
• The Elements of Style - Strunk & White
• Psychology of Intelligence Analysis

Contribute <3

There are little public resources about this specific topic. Please feel free to contribute on this project, either by sending a PR or sending me a message at [email protected] with suggestions of additional resources.

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Disclaimer

I currently work as a Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst but I'm not an expert on intelligence writing. I created this collection as part of my learning process of this essential topic and as a way to share and learn with the intelligence/cybersecurity community.