PA 700

San Francisco Campus

Fall 2007

Style Sheet for Concept paper and oral presentation

Papers are due October 1

Oral briefing will take place on the dates listed below

Paper Requirements
Paper Organization and Style
Oral Briefing
Topics and Oral Presentation Dates

During the first two weeks of class I will ask you to sign up for the topic that is to be the subject of your paper and presentation (see list below). 

The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to explore a specific public administration concept in greater detail. It is also designed to acquaint you with literature in the field, as published in relevant journals, and engage your research skills.  You will be expected to produce a well-written, concise briefing paper on the subject, as well as to present  an oral briefing to the class on the assigned date.   The paper should take the form of a memo written to the head of a hypothetical agency. Imagine for this assignment that the agency head has heard of the concept, but does not know anything about it. He or she has asked you to prepare a briefing paper on the subject, and to brief the staff at the next staff meeting.

You may be able to use key word searches to find some of the literature that discusses your topic. However, be sure also to make use of the bibliographies of the articles you find to identify additional sources.

Paper Requirements

The paper must be based on at least six sources. At least two of these must be from scholarly journals. The other four can come from the list titled "other sources" below. Scholarly journals do not include magazines such as Newsweek or Time. Wikipedia does not count as a source, either, since the quality of its entries are uneven.  Scholarly journals provide the latest thinking about issues, backed up with citations to their sources, and are generally subject to review and critique by experts in the field before publication. For that reason, it is important that you become familiar with these journals. You may use articles from journals not included on the list below, but if you have any question about whether your source is a scholarly journal, please check with me or a librarian.

The paper should address the following questions:

Paper Organization and Style

The maximum page limit for the paper is 5 pages, double-spaced (not including the bibliography). It should be written in the form of a memo to a hypothetical agency head who has asked for information about the concept. The memo should begin with a brief introduction and end with a brief conclusion that summarizes the paper's main points.

Your grade will be based, in part, on the extent to which you effectively answer the above questions. It should be written in narrative form, not a question-answer format. Please refer to the guidance offered in the Hacker book for tips on how to conduct research and present your findings. The use of subheadings is encouraged as they can help to clarify the logic of your organization. Your grade will also be based on the paper's clarity, logic, comprehensiveness and conciseness.  

The paper must use the APA documentation style with in-text (also called parenthetical) citations. Please refer to the Hacker book or this website.  Above all, every statement of fact or idea taken from another source must include a citation so that your reader can easily find that fact or idea should he or she want to. Direct quotes should be used very sparingly. Citations for direct quotes must include the page number.  There should be a complete bibliography or reference list at the end, with the sources alphabetized by the author's last name.  Papers that do not use the APA method of citation correctly will be returned ungraded.   It is essential that you learn how to do this now as you will be required to write many papers while enrolled in this program. 

Partial List of Scholarly Journals

Other Sources

Oral Briefing

Your oral presentation will be given on the date listed below.  It is to be limited to 10 minutes. Use of visual aids (PowerPoint slides, overheads, hand-outs) is encouraged. Please let me know a week in advance of your presentation if you require a computer/projector or overhead projector so that I can make arrangements to have them available. If you plan to use a laptop/projector, you must meet me at my office no later than 6:45 on the day of the presentation so we can take the equipment to class and load your presentation.  Please bring your presentation on a diskette.

You should not read your paper. Rather, I suggest you prepare an outline of the important points that you can refer to while maintaining maximum eye contact with your audience.  Your grade for the presentation will be based on:

Topics and Oral Presentation Dates

All papers are due October 1