Policy Paper Instructions

Purpose of the Policy Paper: to combine ideas from leadership theories and concepts to create a public or organizational policy.

Method for creating Policy Paper: Write a formal APA paper on your own applying several of the theories and concepts discussed from the semester to a situation in the real world. While this paper is applied to real life, treat it as if you were writing up a government or organizational document for your boss or congressperson. You will need to follow APA guidelines for paper writing. A sample APA template is available for your use so that you know what a formal paper should look like. The most important part of writing a formal paper is that your ideas are based in the theory and research. It is important to quote, cite, and reference those sources. This demonstrates several aspects of knowledge:

  1. It shows that you understand the material and have an ability to synthesize and apply that knowledge.
  2. It demonstrates that your arguments are more than mere opinion. Your personal opinion is fine, but it is only as good as the next one, which means that it is easily refuted and therefore your paper does not stand up to criticism.
  3. It allows your reader to track down more information on the topic if they so choose, something that is of the utmost importance in today's information age.
  4. It gives credit where credit is due.

Here is a resource to help you do so appropriately: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/lls/students/plagiarism_and_you.html

There is no right or wrong answer for this paper, but you must make your argument based on the standards set above and in a clear and concise manner. This means with a clear thesis statement, detailed explanations, apparent connection between theory and behaviors, and strong organization.

You must use at least two of the major concepts discussed during the semester as the background logic for a single policy. You may use more theories if you wish, but do not spread yourself too thin. It is much more important to get in-depth with the theories rather than throw in a lot of buzz words.

The point of the paper is to demonstrate your expertise with the leadership theories and concepts as well as your ability to critically think about leadership applications. As such, your focus of this paper should be the theories and how they help people think about the policy that you have chosen, not the examples that sparked the policy. Do not spend significant portions of your paper describing the examples or the policy itself. The policy you are creating is an example to help highlight your knowledge and thinking with regards to leadership. As such, focus on explaining and applying the theoretical concepts that lead up to the policy.

Policy Paper Topic

Content

Topic must include a real life issue that leadership can address. You must also suggest the two major course theories or concepts that you are going to use to create the policy. You may change these at a later date with approval from your instructor if the ideas don't fit together as well as you originally thought.
A paragraph or two is sufficient for this portion of the assignment.

Total: up to 5 points

 

 

Policy Paper Outline

Content

Include a brief version of your thesis. List the details you will elaborate on in your paper. In these details you will want to include ideas such as concept definitions, links to the other concepts, application to the issue you are addressing with your policy, and a brief version of your policy.
If has been a long time since you have created a formal thesis, here is a resource to help:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml

If it has been a long time since you have created an outline, here are some resource to help:

References

List at least 3 of the references you will be using for your paper. These must be in APA format.

Total: up to 15 points

 

 

Policy Paper

Content

Define key terms and their associated pieces so that the reader can see that you understand the theories and concepts. Make sure that you have used at least 2 major theories or concepts. Synthesize the theories; how do they fit together in the situation that you have described? In other words how do they complement one another? How do they describe different aspects of the situation they address? Apply the theories; how do they explain the situation? What about the situation do they explain? Is there anything that the theories are missing in the situation? Create the policy based on the logic that arrives from the definitions and synthesis of the ideas.

Structure and organization

Follows basic rules of a 5 paragraph essay (although there may be more paragraphs) - clear thesis in the introduction, recap of main points and thesis in conclusion, along with strong grammar throughout.

Citations and references

When you use someone's words exactly, quote and cite. When you use someone's ideas, cite. In both cases provide references.

Format

Follow APA format (see APA template for example and/or refer to the APA Publication Manual), including title, abstract, and references pages (these do not apply towards your page count). Write in the third person to maintain an objective scientist tone.

Total:
up to 100 points