In this assignment, you are required to plan an essay answer to the question you chose.
This assessment seeks to:
• Test your skill to formulate a question on war/ peace/ transitions or all of these phenomena through a political economy framework
• Test your ability to identify the methods of data collection and the academic literature that will help you answer the question you have chosen
• Test your skill to clearly organise your thoughts
What you need to do in writing your outline:
• Pay close attention to what the question asks and answer it directly / have a clear topic.
• Outline the key components of your argument. These components are the reasoning behind your thesis (they will constitute the spine of your essay around which you will construct your analysis when writing your essay).
• Indicate what kind of evidence you would offer in support were you writing a full essay.
• Refer to relevant literature, using a shortened citation (e.g. Cramer 2018).
• Avoid direct quotes
• If you are in doubt of how you will structure your submission, aim for a 250-300 word abstract on your chosen question: what are you aiming to study or show?; why do you think the question is relevant?; what political/ historical/ social power struggles or alignments are you planning to reveal in your answer?
• Another 150- 200 words for describing the methods of data collection.
• You are encouraged to identify a few of the core readings that you will base your essay.
Marks will be awarded for:
• Clear and accessible organisation
• Clarity and scope of the question and research plan
• Demonstration of analytical skills
• Citation of limited amount of relevant literature (c. 3-5 references are likely to be sufficient)
The essay outline will be useful when writing your essay
It will help you:
• Organise your thoughts
• Keep you on track when you are writing
• Make sure you are answering the question
• Avoid omitting and crucial points of debate and information
• Help you to check that you have evidence ready to support each of the elements of the arguments you want to make
• Avoid writer’s block