Required elements:
1. Title
o The title should very succinctly deliver the main argumentative point of your paper.
2. Intro
o The introduction should read like a shortened version of your paper, where you (1)
briefly describe your research problem/puzzle, as well as the theoretical and/or
empirical context which makes it a problem/puzzle, (2) clearly state your research
question,1 (3) briefly summarize the argument you are trying to make, (4) describe
the sequence of your analysis and the type of empirical data you will look at, and (5)
hint at a broader relevance of your findings.
3. Literature review/Theoretical section
o Here you need to analyse (not simply summarize!) what the existing academic
literature has to say about your problem, in what way, if any, other authors tried to
tackle it before and what they overlooked/misinterpreted. The key aims of the
literature review are (1) to demonstrate your awareness of the academic
conversations that may be directly or indirectly relevant for your problem and
question; and (2) to find an angle from which you could bring in your own
contribution into one or several of those conversations. Please, consider using
Google Scholar or Webster Library databases for completing this part of your
research paper.
4. Proposition of a better/alternative angle from which the problem at hand can be tackled
more efficiently (aka Methodological section)
o Having analysed the existing literature, you need to propose your own way of
looking at the studied problem and outline briefly how exactly you are planning to
approach it, what kind of empirical data you would be looking at, what time frame
you will choose to conduct your analysis, and what spatial context you will focus on.
Each of the above explanations must contain answers to two questions: WHAT and
WHY? The golden rule of writing a research paper is: Justify, justify, justify!
5. Analysis
o This section should be devoted to a detailed empirical analysis of the chosen sources
and data that should aim at answering your research question. There is a great
variety of data that you can choose to analyse: speeches, policy documents,
historical materials, statistics, legislations, imagery, everyday discourse, and
secondary sources as well (such as scholarly publications).
6. Conclusion