cademic Research Papers are usually comprised of:
1. Introduction-
Sum up what you are researching, why it is important, what is your contribution, how you will go about it, what are your main findings.
2. Literature Review -
What is the current literature out there on this subject. What are the strengths and weaknesses? How do you situate yourself in this research? What gap are you filling?
3.Evidence-
Unique Research you conducted. Largest part of book/article. (Discourse analysis, statistical analysis, interviews, surveys, ethnography,
historical analysis)
4.Conclusion-
Sum up what you did. What are the limitations to your research? What is left to explore?You will conduct a limited and modified literature review. You will compare at least 2 academic sources (not journalism news, must be peer-reviewed articles or books) on your topic. Pick sources that hold different viewpoints.
You will need to include other sources as well (can be government data, non-academic articles...)
Paper requirements: 7 page minimum (not including bibliography), double-spaced, 1" margins, 12 standard font.
Rough Guideline for Paper:
1. Title:
2. Introduction:
1 page (what is your topic, why is it important to global politics, what you will do and argue in this paper, what background information, history or definitions are important for the reader to know)
3. Sources: 4+ page synthesis of their arguments (Put them in dialogue with each other around their arguments, approaches, rather than separately summarizing each one.)
4. Your analysis: 1 page (What are the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, what is lacking? What argument did you find most
compelling? A combination? None? Why?)
5. Conclusion 1 page (summary of what you did and what conclusion you drew, limitations, potential avenues for tackling issue...)
6. Bibliography list of sources used in appropriate format. Minimum of 5 sources.