Overall Format of the Paper
Your papers should have the following sections:
• Executive Summary: You must include a brief executive summary (preferably one paragraph)
in your papers. Your executive summary should be short, simple, and to the point. It should
briefly summarize the problem, the recommended policy alternative, and the basis for the
recommended policy alternative.
• Analysis of the Problem: You should explain the problem and its causes here. It would be best if
you mentioned who is impacted by the situation, how it developed over time, and how it might
change.
• Review of Current Legislation, Policies, and Programs: You need to summarize the current
legislation, policies, and programs undertaken by the government (especially at the
governmental level you are focusing on), highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
• Policy Goals: Policy goals are also the evaluative criteria. In this section, you should explain your
evaluative criteria (no more than 4) and their impact categories.
• Alternatives: You should provide details on your alternatives (no more than 4), including
information on which government agency/division should implement that particular alternative.
• Comparison of the Alternatives: You should compare the outcomes of your alternatives
based on the criteria and impact categories you selected.
• Evaluation and Recommendation: You should present your Criteria Alternatives Matrix (CAM)
and mention your final recommendation to deal with the problem here.
You can talk about your data collection activities (e.g., interviews, surveys) either in a separate section or
when they are relevant (e.g., if one of your interviewees was helpful in terms of your understanding of the
problem the better, you can mention that interview in the problem background section).
Please take a look at the sample papers we shared with you, especially the Chapter called “Preview: The
Canadian Salmon Fishery” by Weimer and Vining (2005) (available on the course website).
Page Limit
The page limit is ten (10) pages (max.), double-spaced. This excludes the references and appendices.
Appendices
We encourage you to put selected materials as appendices. You could, for example, put additional.