Term Paper Notes

Here are a few notes to remember as you are tweaking and polishing your term paper.
- refer to the grading guidelines
- 'A' papers have a good numbers of sources with supporting evidence (5-6 high quality sources)
- if you need more high quality supporting evidence, refer to the policy center links provided
- your target audience is someone involved in government
- your objective is to persuade them to support a change (or perpetuation) of current government policy
- your analysis of the issue and analysis/argument for your policy must be thorough
- proofread!! (spell check will not catch everything)
- double-check to make sure that your paper is correctly formatted

Also remember, the term paper is due on Monday.
- it must be submitted to TurnItIn
- a hard copy must be submitted in class

Good luck!

A Good Example of Policy Writing

Follow the link below and you will find the work of Leia Guccione (Mrs Guccione's daughter). She is writing of a possible solution to climate change that she is in favor of. Regardless of your position on the issue or interest in the issue, you should read it and pay attention for the way in which she writes it. You will notice how she:
- Introduced the issue
- Gave a bit of background
- Clearly identified the problem that exists currently
- Overwhelmingly argued in favor of her position
- Provided evidence (through the use of statistics and hyperlinks to sources)

http://blog.rmi.org/blog_2013_10_02_microgrid_solution_to_macro_challenge_of_climate_change

Remember, your objective in this paper is to try and convince people in government to adopt your position concerning this policy issue. This is exactly what Ms Guccione is doing in this work.

psst.... it is also what Mr Edghill does in his writing.... just saying

How to be a Foreign Policy Genius

This was shared with me by a friend of mine who graduated from Nolan, taught at Nolan for a year, got his MA from Yale, and now works for the State Department. Oh, and he has also been published in The Atlantic. So pay attention.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/30/how_to_be_a_foreign_policy_genius_in_7_minutes?page=full&wp_login_redirect=0

Policy Centers to refer to for your Term Paper

Below is a partial list of 'think tanks' and policy centers that may be of use to you.

For focusing on domestic issues:
The Brookings Institute - http://www.brookings.edu/
The Cato Institute - http://www.cato.org/
The Heritage Foundation - http://www.heritage.org/
Center for American Progress - http://www.americanprogress.org/
American Enterprise Institute - http://aei.org/

For focusing on foreign policy:
Council on Foreign Relations - http://www.cfr.org/
Center for Strategic & International Studies - http://csis.org/
Wilson Center - http://www.wilsoncenter.org/

Wikipedia has an extensive list of think tanks. You may want to look through it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_think_tanks_in_the_United_States

High-quality journalist sources
The Atlantic - http://www.theatlantic.com/
The Economist - http://www.economist.com/
Foreign Affairs - http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
The Christian Science Monitor - http://www.csmonitor.com/

Don't forget that all of the Executive Departments (State, Treasury, etc) have their own studies and publications as well as all if the Congressional Committees (Foreign Affairs, Budget, etc).

Good luck.