Position Papers! Woohoo!
Hi Delegates!
Hopefully, it’s not as cold and rainy wherever you are! I walked halfway to class today and thought very seriously about turning around and going back to bed =P. Well, on to BMUN business! I wanted to give you guys some tips while you’re starting to work on your position papers.
1. Do your research!
This really can’t be emphasized enough. It is immediately evident to us when we read your papers whether or not you have a firm grasp on the country you are representing. The more research you do, the more likely it is that your paper will be in line with your countries policies and also, the more likely that you will be able to use historical insights from your country when you are coming up with resolutions.
2. Don’t Procrastinate!
Procrastination is evil! Please Please start your paper as soon as possible. Even if you are simply browsing articles for 15 minutes every night, anything is better than starring at a google page with a million hits for your country the night before the position papers are due.
3. Be sure to cite everything that you use!
We will be extremely picky and strict regarding citations and references. Do not plagiarize. Do not copy something from the web directly into your paper without a citation and hope that we won’t notice. It is typically very obvious, and it is also very easy for us to do a search on a suspicious sentence.
4. Keep your paper structured and organized.
Your paper should flow logically and not leave us lost and confused after a page, wondering where the heck you’re going with the rest of your paper. You must include a description of the topic, past UN actions, and your delegation’s policy and solutions
5. Make sure you are accurately representing your country.
This is probably redundant, but really key! You might want to look at official documents that have been released by your countries in order to get an idea of the typical language that is used, especially if there is something unique about the diplomatic language of your country.
6. Have someone proofread your paper before you submit it.
While we are grading your paper on its substance, it will be much harder to concentrate on the substance if every other word we find ourselves circling a spelling mistake or stumbling over awkward grammar. Sometimes, when you read your own writing, it’s easy to gloss over any mistakes because in your mind, you see how it’s supposed to look. If you finish your paper ahead of time *ahem ahem* it will give another person the chance to say, “Um, when you say the ‘country’s border’…you spelled it boarder…like a snow boarder…”
7. Pay attention to deadlines.
BMUN is very strict on deadlines. If you would like to be eligible for a research award, then you must submit your paper by February 1, and in order to be eligible for general awards, they must be postmarked by March 1. In addition, the earlier you submit your paper, the more time we have to grade it.
8. Follow our guidelines.
Position paper requirements are discussed extensively in our delegate guide. Please follow our paper guidelines:
- 8.5 inch by 11 inch paper
- 1 inch margins on all sides
- typed
- double spaced
- 12 point Times New Roman font
- stapled in upper left corner (no bindings or folders)
- 3 page minimum length per topic
So that was just some general advice that hopefully got you motivated to go start working on your position papers!…right? =)
-Ariana
January 27th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
For the exact format, should we try and emulate the same organization as the synopsis; split the paper into two columns per page along with the listed guidlines above? Also for economic policy, is there a particualr site you could recomend as well? Embassies are usually good to check and reference, but I want some more details. Any suggestions?
January 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Hi Zaq,
As to the format of your position paper, you definitely do not have to put yours in columns the way we did. You can make yours look however you see fit. Like I said before, if you can add some unique touches specific to your country, that would make it even more interesting for us when we’re reading them. If you want some good websites to look at for more details about economic policy, I would suggest checking some of the websites below. =)
U.N. Warns of Climate-Related Setbacks, November 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/world/28climate.html?ex=1197003600&en=2ac470844c99582d&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Interesting maps on different aspects of development. November 28, 2007
http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/
ODI, Rethinking Rural Development: http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/briefing/rural_develp.pdf
Breaking Through Poverty with Microfinance - Grameen Fdn
http://youtube.com/watch?v=s3I9ThVww3k
World Development Report 2008, Agriculture for Development: Overview: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2008/Resources/2795087-1192112387976/WDR08_01_Overview.pdf
I hope this is helpful!
Ariana
February 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Thanks for the extra pages. I have to say when looking at the seocnd page and reading the article concerning regional-versus-country specifici poverty lines the data did shock me a little bit I would ahve thought that there would have been a difference when the survey means had been further stratified into countries rather than just regions, but I would also like to see the raw data so i can make conclusions myself.
It’s going to be interesting to see how climate change plays out in committee as well. I’m expecting some hostility between the smaller and larger nations, which is always evident, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what some of the delegates from africa are going to discuss concerning desertification and the possible linkages between that and global climate change. There is always the possiblilty of desertification affecting other regions, such as asia and the eastern portions of the middle east at a greater rate as well, and the influences on the textile communities there could be detrimental to multiple economies if one should prove incapable of withstanding a sudden drop in their production. hopefully in the spirit of globalization the larger trading partners will step in, right? I hope very much that my conjecture would be right.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I am just putting the finishing touches on my paper and I know some comittees had specific requirements for how to cite sources, as well as the format of the cover page. Do we have any such requirements? Thank you!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Hi Kathryn,
Don’t worry about your citation format or how you choose to design your title page. We are not going to be too picky about that =). But do be careful to cite everything that you use because we are very serious about out plagiarism policy. Best of luck!
Ariana Afshar
March 6th, 2008 at 8:04 am
So we can do end notes?
I am really inspired by you guys and your hard work, keep it up!
March 6th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I believe so. Well, at least that was how my partner and I did it.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Hi Easton,
Yeah, that is part of the whole BMUN format actually and make sure you endnote everything! I don’t know how far along you’ve come in your paper, but from what it seems, be careful that everything you utilize has its endnote attatched to it. The paper’s actually were fairly easy to write and the level of analysis that it afforded was amazingly greater than most other conferences I’ve attended. It was fun, haha.
sincerely,
Zaq