PA582 Public Policy Formulation and Implementation
Week 6 Course Project
Policy Research Paper
Objectives
The Policy Research Paper is a course-long project that
allows you the opportunity to examine a current (add: local, state,
or) national societal issue that you feel could be properly
alleviated, or perhaps even resolved, via public policy making.
This paper is valued at 200 points. This paper will be graded
on the quality of the research topic, the quality of the
information properly cited within the paper, the analysis and
recommendations, grammar, and sentence structure.
As you consider topics, remember that this policy paper
should contain a comprehensive assessment of the problem, the
proposed policy, and the potential consequences of implementation
of that policy. When you write your paper, you should think of
yourself as a staff person who must advise a policy maker facing a
problem that must be resolved in the near future. As this staff
person, adopt one of the perspectives of public administration as
discussed in class, and frame your responses around this approach.
The Policy Research Paper should be 8 to 12 pages,
double-spaced, 12-point font. The paper should include a cover
page, table of contents, introduction, body of the report, summary
or conclusion, and a reference page). The page count does not
include the cover, table of contents, or reference page(s).
Even though this is not a scientific-type writing assignment,
and is mostly creative in nature, references are still very
important. At least six authoritative, outside references are
required (anonymous authors or web pages are not acceptable). These
should be listed on the last page titled references.
The paper should follow the American Psychological
Association (APA) guidelines.
Appropriate citations are required.
All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the
plagiarism policy.
Papers are due during Week 6 of this course.
Any questions about this paper may be discussed in the Course
Q & A Forum.
The paper should include the following components.
Components
Define the
Issue
Introduce the problem or issue that you are researching. The
purpose of this section is to tell the reader what problem you are
addressing and why it is important.
Background Describe
any historical aspects of the topic, particularly ones that are
important to an understanding of the issue. Also important to this
section is a discussion of key stakeholders and policy networks.
Policy networks include concerned citizen groups, elected
officials, and special interest groups.
Identification of Policy
Alternatives This
is the main section of your paper. In this section, you will
describe what is currently being done (if anything) with respect to
the problem, and then compare that to what could be done. When you
consider possible alternatives that the government could take,
remember to include the following.
Description of two to three alternative methods to resolve
the issue you presented
Consequences of each alternative method: For example, who
would be affected, what costs might be incurred and by whom, and
what benefits might be realized?
Description of evaluation criteria: This should help you
compare alternatives across a number of areas. For example, cost
could be key criteria for comparing alternatives, but there may be
other concerns that are equally important to resolve. You might
find an inexpensive alternative, but it might not be politically
feasible to implement, for example. Once the criteria are
identified, you should establish a way to prioritize the criteria.
Which are the most important and why? Think about the discussions
in class regarding decision making and evaluation.
Recommendations
Remember that you wrote this paper from the perspective of a staff
person presenting this analysis to a policy maker. Now you are
ready to make a recommendation on one of these alternatives. In
this section, outline which alternative you would recommend to the
policy maker, including a brief summary of how you arrived at this
conclusion.
References
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