Conceptual Foundations of International Politics: How to Write the Essays Fall 2010 This guide is designed to suggest strategies

for writing the essays assigned in Columbias School of International and Public Affairs required course, Conceptual Foundations of International Politics. Choose your topic. You will have been provided a selection of topics. In choosing the one you will write on, make sure you understand the question, or the point of the assignment. Do you know what literature (which readings) the question refers to? Can you think of examples that will illustrate your answer? Compose your thesis or argument. You are not writing a book review, a description of the readings, a survey of conventional wisdom or an op-ed piece. Whether it asks you to engage a theoretical debate or take a policy position, the essay assignments require that you make an argument. Before you begin to write, you should know what position you will be advocating. You should be able to summarize it in a sentence or two. Outline the essay. You can make a formal outline, with Roman numerals (see the useful blank outline at http://www.bookrags.com/articles/2.html), diagram the argument with arrows and boxes, or simply make a list of the issues you will be addressing. In all cases, you will need to answer questions like these: What is the nature of the debate? What is at issue? What are the competing perspectives? Which argument, perspective or policy do you advocate and why? What examples or cases might test the value of each position, and support your argument? How would your argument be viewed by proponents of other theoretical traditions? Write the body of the essay. Flesh out each of the elements of your outline, devoting at least a paragraph or two to answering each of the questions in your outline. Make sure that your descriptions of the issues, the arguments, and the examples are clear, concise and relevant. Write the introduction and conclusion. Do not write your introduction until the body of the essay is drafted. You mayindeed, probably willfind that your ideas have matured as you have written, and your introduction will reflect that.

Finally, make sure all your citations are clear and complete. If you are in doubt about what to cite, err on the side of caution. It is always wiser to give more credit than necessary than less. Conceptual Foundations uses the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style for identifying sources. In this method, you credit sources with parenthetical citations in the text of the essay, and give the complete description of each source in your list of works cited or bibliography, which is a list of all the sources used in your paper, arranged alphabetically by author's last name. For example, in the text of your paper, you might say:
In the League of Nations mandates, the relationship between nationalism and statehood was not straightforward (Anderson 7).

or
Anderson argued that although political theorists equated nationalism and statehood, policymakers were fairly cavalier about the relationship (7)

In your works cited list, you would include:

Anderson, Lisa, Antiquated before They Can Ossify: States that Fail Before They Form, Journal of International Affairs, 58:1, Fall 2004.

http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm has useful (color-coded!) guides to citation styles for various kinds of works.