Tips for Writing a Good Position Paper and Online Writing Resources - University of Toronto

Introduction to Good Writing Criteria

Questions:

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The main criteria of good writing for this course are:
• originality of argument
• adequacy of evidence used to support argument
• appropriate use of primary and secondary sources
• coherence of ideas (concise expression, smooth transitions, logical organization)
• engaging style (tone, stance toward audience, level of formality)
• correct grammar, punctuation, citation form 

Visit writing.utoronto.ca for tips on:
• writing (style, research, organization, grammar, punctuation)
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• writing when English is a second language
• reading
• writing instruction and support at the University of Toronto 

Positions Guidelines
A good position paper takes a position while engaging with classical theory. It uses logic and evidence to persuade the reader of the validity of a distinctive interpretation advanced by you. Your task is to make an argument -- not to summarize the course material. Your paper should build on a sound understanding of the lectures and readings. It might be structured as follows:

• Introduction: state the question you are addressing, the argument you will make and how your position paper will make this argument

• Exposition: briefly but clearly set forth the ideas you are analysing

• Analysis: present your argument as it pertains to these ideas – this is the body of the paper, where success in persuading your reader is most likely to be realized

• Conclusion: summarize your paper’s argument and say what it implies for: (1) the ideas that provide the focus for your paper (as stated in your earlier Introduction and Exposition); and (2) a general theme in sociology (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, gender, industrialization, democracy, social change, feudalism, capitalism, globalization, progress) -- “if my argument is valid, then a broader implication for sociology is that.

A position paper is not simply a summary or restatement of a thinker’s ideas. You have to do something with those ideas: challenge them, apply them, compare and contrast them. Most importantly, you need to stake out a position in relation to these ideas. The following six questions will take you through a series of steps towards that goal. Try out the path mapped below and see how far you can get. Type in a few points for the stages you are ready for, then step back and look at the result. You can e-mail your notes to yourself and build on them later.

1. What are the main ideas in the reading?
The first step in writing a position paper is to read the assigned course readings carefully, and identify the central concepts. List some of the main ideas put forward in the specific readings for this assignment. Which social institutions or social processes concern each thinker? How do the concepts and concerns differ from those of other thinkers in this course?

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2. Which of these ideas do I want to work with?
Which concepts or claims are convincing to you, and might be useful for understanding the world today? Write a sentence or two restating in your own words one of the ideas that you feel strongly about (whether you are for it, against it, or just interested). Which concepts or claims are not convincing because they are incorrect, illogical, or obsolete?

3) How do I turn my choice of topic into a logical position?
Several possible forms of paper are possible, including:
• comparing and contrasting with another thinker
• applying a thinker’s idea to a social phenomenon of your choice
• testing ideas for historical relevance or obsolescence
• comparing competing interpretations of a thinker’s idea
• presenting an argument, then refuting it
• following a “generic” essay form 

Choose a form that suits the idea you have chosen, and write a few more points to show how you will use it.
Which comparison will you make? Which aspects of the social phenomenon will you investigate?

4) What is my thesis question?
State the main question you will ask in your paper. Then take another sentence and state the answer you will try out. You should be able to state it in the form of a question, with a preliminary answer. Remember that your question should be different from questions posed in the course readings (it has to be original) and it should fit a three-page paper (it has to be focused and concise). Try to sum up your position clearly and concisely.

5) How do I support my position?
First, you need to describe the ideas that you are going to be dealing with in your paper – the ideas that you are going to support, or criticize, or both. Avoid more summary than necessary – include only those points relevant to your paper. List two or three main ideas that you will need to summarize and discuss.
Second, what sort of examples might you present that would support your position? Note here one or two examples you could use to support your position, giving a key detail for each that would strengthen your case. If your paper is an attack on a thinker’s logic, then you might use specific quotations from the paper to show an internal contradiction. If your paper is an analysis of a modern-day social phenomenon, then your evidence should illustrate this phenomenon.

6) Why does it matter?
The course syllabus suggests that your conclusion should briefly identify the sociological implications of your findings. In other words, you need to sum up why the topic and viewpoint you have defined are important. What does it mean for researchers, policy-makers, or citizens? Try to state in one sentence why your position matters. 

More generally, your paper may raise new questions, point out logical gaps or hidden contradictions, or draw connections with other issues, theoretical approaches or developments in society. Here are some questions that might stimulate thinking at the early stage when you are trying to find and formulate an argument: 

• What are the main questions or issues? What is their significance? Who (or what intellectual school) is a thinker arguing against? Is a thinker addressing a controversy and taking sides? Is a thinker identifying a problem previously unseen? Is a thinker offering a solution to an already-recognized problem, or simply criticizing earlier solutions?

• What is the logic of a thinker’s argument? What assumptions does a thinker make? Are these assumptions tacit or explicit? Do the conclusions flow logically from the assumptions? What kind of evidence, first principle, or other understanding is marshalled to make the argument persuasive?

• What are the important concepts? How are they defined? What biases are built into them?

• Relate a text to others by thinkers studied in this course. Do you detect a polemic, even a hidden one? Does a common theme run between texts, and if so, how does a text you are discussing fit in?

• What is a thinker’s vision of historical change? Does a text seem anachronistic, or does it say something important that transcends its time and place?

• What are the implications for research? What kinds of study would test a thinker's assertions? Indeed, are a thinker's assertions at all verifiable through research?