I. Executive Summary (or Abstract).
The Executive Summary (or abstract) should consist of 200 – 400 words on your topic and the plan of your paper.
II. Issue Definition.
Begin your analysis with a short section introducing the problem/issue you with to research. The purpose of this section is to give the reader an immediate indication of the issue you are addressing and why it is significant. Be very explicit about the subject matter and define the terms of your analysis.
III. Background.
This section should describe the key historical aspects of your issue in order to place the topic within an historical context. You should be able to include the policy networks that have arisen in connection with your issue. A typical policy network might include elected or appointed officials, concerned citizen groups, interest groups, public agencies, think tanks and private entities (such as regulated industries).
The policy network will contain very different groups depending on the nature of the issue. In this section you should also identify who you believe to the major stakeholders.
IV. Theoretical Framework/Key Concerns.
This portion of your paper should provide you with some idea as to why this particular issue and your analysis are important to the field of public administration, political science, and/or border studies.
In many ways, this is the heart of your paper. Here you may wish to draw on readings that you have had in your program coursework. You should provide the reader with a clear rationale for why this issue relates to key concerns in political science, public administration, border studies, etc., and how your analysis will address some of those concerns.
V. Literature Review.
This section ties together the historical background on your topic and the key concerns identified in your theoretical framework by examining in more detail the nature of your particular issue. It is here that you may wish to discuss the immediate and future repercussions of your topic. In this section, you may draw from a variety of sources (newspaper articles, scholarly journals, books, government documents, legislation, and previous analyses) to describe the reasons why this issue may be difficult to resolve. You may wish to focus on the different values and interests of the actors involved in the policy network, the resources (money, personnel, time, media) being used, the institutions involved (legislative bodies, executives, public agencies, the courts, public opinion), and the degree to which consensus on the issue is either present or lacking. It will also be important to identify the “facts” surrounding the issue, and to what extent there is agreement across the different actors.
VI. Identification of Policy Alternatives.
This is the main section of your paper. This is where analysis of what is currently being done is compared to the possible actions that government or nonprofit organizations might take to resolve the issue. It is not appropriate, for example, to focus on alternatives such as broad societal changes or new economics systems that are beyond feasible limits. Identifying alternatives, establishing criteria and evaluating these criteria are discussed here for possible policy courses of action.
VII. Recommendations.
Your analysis should conclude with a summary of the central knowledge you have gained from research. Here you will provide your recommended alternative to key policymakers, with a brief summary outlining how you arrived at this point.
VIII. References
IX. Appendices (if any)