Coverage Maps
The same street, covered four different ways. Look at the gaps.
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Same eight houses every time. The difference is who got covered, and how carefully.
Say how widely a measure applies, the most useful kind of precision in a solution paragraph.
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Six policies, all described as broad. Coverage, exceptions and manner differ in every one.
- A ban on single-use plastics that applies to every retailer, with no exemptions of any kind.
- A subsidy available only to households below a defined income threshold.
- A 3% budget cut applied identically to all fourteen departments.
- A package of forty reforms introduced in one year, across the whole sector.
- Changes made in eleven separate acts over nine years, by four different ministers, with no overall plan.
- The replacement of an entire inspection regime with a completely different one.
Call all six broad and you have said something true and almost useless.
Two things differ between them, and a third differs in one case only. Before reading on, see if you can name them.
The three axes in detail, the one word with criticism built in, and the two pairs that are close enough to be interchangeable.
Both mean everyone is covered. They differ in what they emphasise.
blanket stresses that no exceptions are permitted. A blanket ban, a blanket rule. It usually carries a faint criticism, because the natural next question is what about the cases that should have been exempt? — and the word has already answered no.
across-the-board stresses that everybody is treated identically, usually at the same rate. An across-the-board cut of 3%, an across-the-board pay rise. It is more neutral than blanket, and its natural home is numbers.
A useful test: if the point is nobody is exempt, write blanket. If the point is everybody gets the same amount, write across-the-board. Hyphenate it before a noun.
The same street, covered four different ways. Look at the gaps.
Same eight houses every time. The difference is who got covered, and how carefully.
Six policy descriptions. Pick the word the description supports — and twice, notice it supports none of them.
Check all three axes before answering: how complete is the coverage, are the exceptions deliberate, and what was the manner?
In two of the six, only the extent is given, and broad or partial is therefore the precise word.
A city bans private cars from its centre. There are no exemptions for residents, deliveries, disabled drivers or emergency access arrangements beyond the statutory minimum. Which word?
Three chains. The middle one turns on a criticism you may not have meant to make.
Chain 1
The measure: a ban on advertising high-sugar products before 9pm, applying to every broadcaster and every platform, with no exemption for small operators or for public-service channels.
Candidates: broad / blanket
Step 1 — Which of the three axes does the description give you?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The government introduced a restriction on advertising before 9pm.
Chain 2
The measure: a national insulation programme that reaches social housing in year one, private rentals in year two, and owner-occupied homes in year three, with a published schedule and an evaluation after each stage. You are writing about it approvingly.
Candidates: piecemeal / phased
Step 1 — What would the other candidate assert that you do not mean?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The programme was introduced on a basis.
Chain 3
The measure: a transport subsidy that a paragraph says will help many rural households. Nothing has been said about eligibility, exemptions, timing or manner.
Candidates: broad / across-the-board
Step 1 — How many axes do you actually have?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The subsidy is in its reach.