Writing a Political Science Essay

Copyright 1997, Charles King, Georgetown UniversityEssay questions,

term papers, take-home

finals, research papers, and project reports are standard components of most political science
courses. Professors may ask students to write an essay as part of a mid-term of final exam, or to
hand in extended papers completed outside class that have required substantial research in the
library or elsewhere. These kinds of assignments not only give professors a chance to evaluate
your skills as a writer and as a critical thinker two skills that you should take away from any
university course but they also provide the opportunity for you to reflect seriously on particular
issues and to use your creative powers to address fundamental conceptual questions in the study
of politics. In other words, essays, term papers and other written assignments give you the
chance to get your hands dirty by grappling with the same broad questions that inform the
work of professional political scientists. Writing essays and papers allows you to think long and
hard about such critical issues as: What is democracy? What makes people vote for Party A and
not for Party B? Do ideas affect the way people behave politically? Why do revolutions occur?
How do states interact in the international arena? What determines the shape of a states foreign
policy? Why do countries go to war?
In tackling essay-writing, especially in the essay question section of exams, students often face
three problems:

First, some students may feel that they just dont know where to begin. How can I
answer a question thats so broad? I just dont have enough information.

Second, even if they feel they know something about the subject, they may wonder how
to organize the information in order to present a coherent and convincing argument.
How do I begin to put together all the various pieces to the puzzle so that what I say
makes sense?

Finally, students may be unsure about the relationship between the presentation of factual
information and the expression of their own views on the issue at hand. The professor
never told me whether he wanted me to repeat what he had said in class, or if he was just
looking for my opinion.

Below are some general guidelines on how to deal with these troubling questions, especially in
the area of writing answers to essay questions on exams. Clearly, professors have their own
individual and sometimes idiosyncratic views on the place of essay-writing and other written
assignments in university education. But the ideas below should help you begin to assess how
you should approach essays, term papers and other assignments that require both extensive
writing and serious reflection on important conceptual issues.

Start at the Beginning

When you first read an essay question on an exam (or begin to think about an assigned topic for
a term paper or take-home final), you should ask yourself two sets of questions:
1. What does the essay question really say? What kinds of issues is it asking me to address?
What assumptions underlie the question itself?
Professors ask essay questions for a reason. They use essays as a way of getting you to go
beyond the material presented in class and in the required readings for the course. They intend
for you to reflect critically on the information you have read, assess its validity, think about its
implications, and use it creatively in order to answer the question that has been posed. So, when
you encounter an essay question, spend a few minutes thinking about what the question really
asks, and make sure that you have a clear idea of the kinds of issues and concepts that the
question is trying to get you to address.
2. What are the most useful sources of information on which I can draw in order to answer the
question? What kinds of data will best support my argument?
During any semester-long course, you will encounter a huge amount of information, both factual
and conceptual. Many students treat essay questions as dumping grounds for the information
that they acquired in the days and weeks preceding the exam. They pile on fact after fact, concept
after concept, date after date, name after name, with little thought about whether all this
information helps them answer the question. If I throw in enough stuff, a student may say, at
least the professor will know that Ive been paying attention.
Wrong. The professor will know that you have managed to cram a great deal of irrelevant
information into your short-term memory. But whether you have really thought about the issues
at hand and used the knowledge you have gained in order to reflect critically on an important
question will remain a mystery. So, after you feel that you understand the kind of response that
the essay question is trying to elicit, ask yourself about which bits of information will be the
most relevant to your response. Dont try to throw everything into the pot. Be selective. Use
those facts and ideas that are most helpful in supporting your overall argument. After doing the
reading and attending the lectures, you do have enough information to answer the question
effectively. What is crucial, though, is to organize the information and to present it in a way that
buttresses the main theme of your essay.

Organization Is Everything
Because they have not stopped to ask themselves the questions above, many students plunge
right into an essay without thinking about how to organize their thoughts. If I just get enough
stuff down on paper, a student might argue, then the professor will at least know that Ive tried
to answer the question. Wrong again. The professor will know that you are a wind-bag not
that you have thought seriously about the question.

Once you are sure that you know what the question is asking and have spent a few minutes
reflecting on the kinds of information that you want to use in attempting to answer it, spend a
further few minutes sketching out the form that your answer will take. Here are a few ideas on
how to begin:

Make an Outline
Sketch out how you plan to structure the essay. You can even use the exam booklet or the back of
the exam in order to write a brief outline, flow chart, diagram, or whatever form you find the
most helpful in organizing your thoughts. The important thing is to have a clear idea of what you
want to say and how you are going to say it before you begin writing the essay itself.
There is an additional advantage to writing an outline or essay plan: It may turn out that you
simply budgeted your time poorly and did not have time to complete the entire essay as you had
planned. But if the professor sees that you had a clear idea of what you wanted to argue, you are
likely to receive at least some credit for what you have written. On the other hand, if you have
managed to fill up a dozen pages without making a coherent argument, chances are that the
professor will remain relatively unimpressed.

Keep It Simple
Think back to eighth grade composition class. Remember the three-point enumeration essays
you probably had to write? They consisted of an opening paragraph, three further substantive
paragraphs and a conclusion. The opening paragraph set out the general ideas you were going to
explore, the three following paragraphs expanded on each of those ideas, and the final paragraph
wrapped up what you had said.
The same format with perhaps some modifications can be used to write responses to essay
questions.

Opening sentence and first paragraph: State clearly the main point that you wish to
make in the essay. In other words, someone should be able to read the first sentence and
know exactly how you plan to answer the question. Dont try to be too cute, but a catchy
opening sentence which states simply and clearly the line of argument you intend to take
is always desirable. Other sentences in the first paragraph should then support the first
sentence and sketch out the ways in which subsequent paragraphs will expand on the
theme of the essay itself.

Body of the Essay: For normal essay questions on exams (say, those in which you have
an hour to complete two essays), you should have no more than three or four paragraphs
in the body of the essay. Each paragraph should make a clear and discrete point, and that
point should support your overall argument. If it doesnt, dont write it. Your thoughts in
the body of the essay should follow on logically from the points you set out in the

opening paragraph. And each paragraph should begin just like the opening paragraph,
with a clear statement of the topic that the paragraph will address.

Concluding Paragraph: Sum up what you have said in the essay in a final paragraph.
Remind the reader of your main point, but avoid repeating it in exactly the same words.
End the essay with a sentence that wraps up your thoughts and leaves the reader with a
sense of closure.

Your Opinion Is More Than Just Your Opinion

Essay questions are not extended short-answer questions, and they are not exercises in
penmanship. A professor puts essay questions on exams not in order to see if you can repeat
verbatim what he/she said in class, but in order to solicit your informed views on a particular
subject that you should have mastered in the course. In this sense, essay questions do ask for
your opinion, but it is an opinion that should be intelligent, informed and well-structured. No
conceptual questions in political science have once-and-for-all answers. Essay questions ask
you to address important issues by using your brain constructing a coherent, logical and
informed view on a given topic. After sitting in a course of lectures and doing the required
reading, you are more than capable of completing such a task. Your opinions should have
evolved and become more sophisticated, and you should have developed a reasonable level of
expertise in the main issues addressed during the course itself. Your opinions matter, for they
were what your professor was trying to get you to develop all along.
Again, essays are not simply receptacles for regurgitated factual information. Your knowledge of
facts can be assessed using multiple-choice questions, true/false, identify, define, short-answer
and a range of other examination formats, most of which you probably experienced in grade
school. At the college level, however, you are expected to think. And thinking requires creatively
using the knowledge you have acquired to take a clear position on a contentious issue.
How do you do all that? Here a few guidelines:

Make An Argument. Take a stance. Stake out a position. Argue for a particular point of
view. Simply reeling off dates and names or even using political science jargon will
not do the trick.

Support Your Argument. Use relevant facts, concepts and other information to buttress
the points you wish to make. Throwing in irrelevant information will impress no one. It
will simply cloud your argument and convince the professor that you really dont know
what youre talking about.

Be Creative. How creatively you make your argument is always important. Style matters.
Some professors may even prefer essays that are well-structured and well-written but not
particularly brilliant, to those that contain a truly original insight cloaked in language that
would make Webster and Fowler turn in their graves. But be careful: Dont get cute.

Writing a sonnet or a short one-act play is probably not a good idea. You should,
however, bring all your skills as a writer to bear on the essay topic. After all, thats why
the question is an essay question, rather than a true/false or short-answer.

Answer the Question. Let me repeat: Answer the question. If you write page after page
of text, but never really address the issue at hand, few professors are likely to give you
much credit. Always keep your overall point in mind, and make sure that everything you
write relates back to your central argument. And that argument, in turn, should squarely
address the question posed on the exam.

Copyright 1996, Georgetown University

How to Write a Good Paper in Political Science

Like many skills, writing good papers in political science (or other subjects) takes
practice. But good papers also share important characteristics. It is these tips that you
will find useful. Despite the somewhat subjective nature of evaluating papers, many
professors have very similar views on what constitute a good paper.
Rather than "reinventing the wheel," I will put together a few examples in this
document, instead of writing one of mine. You can compare them and judiciously
apply the ideas from these examples in your own papers. I will also add new resources
to this site.
From Stephen Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science (Cornell
University Press, 1997)

I often offer the following suggestions to undergraduates writing class papers.

General Format
The following general format is often appropriate: "tell them what you=re going to tell
them; then tell them; then tell them what you told them."
Introduction Format
Begin your paper with a short summary introduction. This summary introduction
should answer up to five (5) questions:
1. What question or questions do you address?
2. Why do these questions arise? From what literature or real-world events? Offer
background that clarifies your questions and puts them in context.

3. What answer or answers do you offer? Summarize your bottom line in a few
sentences.
4. How will you reach your answers? Say a few words about your sources and
methods.
5. What comes next? Provide a roadmap to the rest of the paper: "Section I
explains how I began my life of crime; Section II details my early arrests;
Section III describes my trip to death row; Section IV offers general theoretical
conclusions and policy implications." Something of that sort.
Number 1 ("What is your question?"), number 2 ("Why does this question arise?"),
and number 3 ("What is your answer?") are essential: make sure you cover them.
Numbers 4 and 5 are optional.
Summary introductions of this sort help readers grasp your argument. They also help
you diagnose problems with your paper. A summary introduction can be hard to write.
A possible reason: gaps or contradictions in your arguments or evidence, which
summary exposes. Solution: rethink and reorganize your paper.
Conclusion Format
Authors often recapitulate their argument in their conclusion; however, a good
summary introduction often makes a full summary conclusion redundant. If so,
recapitulate quickly and then use your conclusion to explore the implications of your
argument. What policy prescriptions follow from your analysis? What general
arguments does it call into question, and which does it reinforce? What further
research projects does it suggest?
Argumentation
Four injunctions on argumentation should be kept in mind.
1. Use empirical evidence--facts, numbers, history--to support your argument.
Purely deductive argument is sometimes appropriate, but argument backed by
evidence is always more persuasive.
2. Clearly frame the general point(s) that your evidence supports. Don't ask facts
to speak for themselves. To summarize points 1 and 2: offer evidence to
support your arguments and state the arguments your evidence supports.

3. "Argue against yourself." After laying out your argument,

acknowledge questions or objections that a skeptical reader might raise, and
briefly address them. This shows readers that you were thoughtful, thorough,
and paid due regard to possible objections or alternate interpretations. Often, of
course, the skeptic would have a good point, and you should grant it. Don't
claim too much for your theories or evidence!
4. Use footnotes to document all sources and statements of fact. On footnote and
citation format, consult and obey Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of
Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed., rev. John Grossman and Alice
Bennett (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), in paperback. You
should own a copy.
Writing
Good writing is essential to clear thinking and effective communication. So bear the
following points in mind:
1. Your paper should make a single point or a handful of related points and should
follow a simple organization. Avoid cluttering it with extra points. If you
developed an argument that later became ancillary as you rethought your paper,
drop the argument from the paper. This is painful ("I sweated hours on that
idea!") but extraneous argument drain power from your main argument.
2. Break your paper into numbered sections and subsections. More sections is
better than fewer. Sections help readers see the structure of your argument.
Label sections with vivid section headings that convey the main message of the
section.
3. I recommend the following structure for sections/subsections:
Your argument;
Your support evidence;
Counterarguments, qualifications, and limiting conditions of your argument.
1. Start each section with several sentences summarizing the argument presented
in the section. You may cut these summaries from your final draft if they seem
redundant with your summary introduction, but you should include them in
your first drafts to see how they look. Writing such summaries is also a good
way to force yourself to decide what you are and are not doing in each section,

and to force yourself to confront contradictions or shortcomings in your

argument. Often these section summaries are best written after you write the
section, but don't forget to add them at some point.
2. Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that distills the point of the
paragraph.(1) Later sentences should offer supporting material that explains or
elaborates the point of the topic sentence. Qualifications or refutation to
counterarguments should then follow. In short, paragraphs should have the
same structure as whole sections. A reader should be able to grasp the thrust of
your argument by reading only the first couple of sentences of every paragraph.
3. Write short, declarative sentences. Avoid the passive voice. (Passive voice:
"The kulaks were murdered"--but who did it? Active voice: "Stalin murdered
the kulaks.")
4. Write from an outline. Outlines are major aids to coherence and readability.
5. Write at a level appropriate for college undergraduate readers--i.e., smart
readers without much background knowledge on your topic. In fact your class
papers will be read by teachers who probably know something about your
topic, but they want to see how you would lay out your argument for folks who
don't.
For more advice on writing see William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of
Style, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1979), and Teresa Pelton Johnson, "Writing for
International Security: A Contributor's Guide," International Security 16 (Fall 1991):
171-80.(2)
If you are doing a research paper, you might also consult Kate L. Turabian, A
Student's Guide to Writing College Papers, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976), for advice.(3)
Vetting
Ask a friend or two to give your paper a look before you turn it in; and return the
favor for them when they have a paper under way. Two heads are better than one, and
giving and receiving comments are important skills.
General Beauty Tips
Take care to turn in a neat, clean paper. Run your spellchecker. A messy-looking paper
suggests a messy mind.

How to Learn More about How to Write Papers

Reread articles you or others admire and imitate their better aspects.
1. The topic sentence can appear as the second sentence in a paragraph, but should not appear later than that.