Complete Guide: How to Write a Public Administration Term Paper

Writing guide
Posted on January 23, 2019

A term paper is a lengthy essay written by a student on a subject. In your case, you need to deal with Public Administration. Mainly, your term paper will be based on the material studied during a college term. For that reason, it is necessary to make a precise examination of the obtained information and provide its analysis in the final term paper. Remember that it is supposed to be a critical, evaluative, or analytical report that describes a particular issue on the topic from the objective perspective. So be ready to demonstrate your research and analytical skills, critical thinking and original approach to writing a term paper.

Our guide on how to write a good public administration term paper can be a useful source of inspiration that you are likely to look for. It helps find some valuable tips at every stage of academic writing. Besides, you will know what to write about on public administration, some essential elements to consider helping you find unique topic ideas and so on. Go on reading this public administration term paper writing guide to the end to become more knowledgeable and confident in writing your own term paper.

Public Administration Term Paper and Its Key Principles

The basic term paper includes different number of pages – from 10 to 15 pages. Usually, a title page, table of content, abstract and reference list aren’t included in the pages of content. As a result, you need minimum 6 pages of typed text that will provide the readers with a comprehensive outline of the selected topic. In other words, write your term paper as if the reader knows nothing about the public administration topic you choose. Your research interest is to explore and analyze some areas related to public administration like economics, history, and politics, international relations, civil society, and so on.

Traditionally, a term paper is associated with a research paper as their main concepts seem to be incredibly similar. Nonetheless, it is important to distinguish both types of writing in the following way:

  • A research paper demands a particular academic approach, deep evaluation and investigation of the used materials, and a variety of research methods applied.
  • A term paper is based on the studied material and should be written according to the demands of your professor. These demands allow the readers to check your analytical thinking skills and abilities to collect related information, do a thorough analysis, summarize the main points of a topic, and provide a solution to the discussed issue.

Thus, it is necessary to follow the paper requirements of your professor and take into account the general principles of term paper writing. The primary purpose of public administration term paper is to summarize the information obtained during the term and show that you learn the material discussed during classes. In this way, this type of paper is considered to be a universal tool for evaluating student’s proficiency in the topic. To attain high scores in writing a term paper, you need more than just the desire to get a high grade.

3 Factors Influencing Your Final Grade in Term Paper Writing

  1. Organization of a term paper. Is it coherent, logical and easy to follow?
  2. Originality of content. Are unique ideas used in a term paper?
  3. Is a term paper formatted properly according to the required styles (APA, MLA, Harvard)?

As you see every point is essential for your academic performance. It’s time to work on a term paper so that it will bring some positive results.

Choose a Topic That Really Interests You and Your Readers

topic interesting as researcher

The first and the most important part of writing a good public administration term paper is a correct choice of a research topic. There are two possible options for this challenging process:

  • You can choose a topic from the list provided by your professor (if there is any available),
  • You can choose the most interesting and captivating topic on your own from a variety of topics on publication administration.

While choosing your topic, be specific and pay attention to the unusual and extraordinary topics that haven’t been investigated in detail. Remember that the topic should be useful in the future for potential researchers who will decide to write on the same topic. Besides, it may be developed in the research paper or even a Master’s thesis by yourself. Choose the topic you are really interested in as working on the boring issue will make the term paper writing process incredibly long and unpleasant. In addition, while choosing a topic, take into account that it should not be too broad or too narrow. Focus on one issue every student may face, the limited timeframes. So consider if you are able to complete the necessary paper on a particular topic within the provided deadline and the page limit. Captivating topics are much easier to evaluate and develop, that is why you should follow a set of rules on how to choose a topic and start the most appropriate of them. They are the following ones:

  • Brainstorm a range of topics that seem to be interesting to you. These can be your personal opinion on various social and political issues, political controversies, different social problems that you would like to discover, and current political or social events. Next, take a sheet of paper and put down all the keywords and word phrases that come to your mind. At the same time, it is necessary to avoid difficult topics that are usually related to suicides, gun control, and abortion;
  • Look through the general background information that is usually available in specialized journals, magazines, and newspapers. Read some general articles on public administration. Based on a broad overview of the topic, you can develop it by extending or narrowing the related issues;
  • Develop your topic on the basis of the thesis statement. It may be a solution to the issue you want to discuss or a purpose of your paper that should be presented in a clear and comprehensive manner. In this way, the topic should tell the readers about the purpose and meaning of your term paper;

Our experts have already passed through all these rules for the best choice of a publication administration topic. Consider the list of topics for your public administration term paper below:

  • Impact of Public Administration on the Reformation of the Welfare System;
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Lights and Sirens in Various Emergency Service Vehicles;
  • The Impact of Community Law Enforcement on Determination of Societies’ View and Opinion of Various Social and Cultural Issues;
  • The Impact of Net Neutrality on the Development of the Adolescents in the United States of America.

Pre-Writing Tips Our Writers Follow

Before writing a term paper, you need to get prepared for extensive work in advance, both morally and physically. First of all, nothing should distract your attention. Stop thinking of who like your photo on Instagram or Facebook. Switch off all social sites on a computer if you are going to work on it. Secondly, you need to be equipped with all necessary tools of writing – a pen or pencil, notebooks, word-processing software (Microsoft Word, Pages or Open Office), grammar and style guides and the other tools that help you write and write non-stop. However, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to sleep at all until your term paper is finished. So your main task is to plan your time reasonably so that you will have 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Otherwise, you’ll face the adverse effects of poor sleep that many students experience. It mainly reflects on their academic success according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Do not wait until the last minute to start writing the assignment just because you won’t have an opportunity to get prepared properly for the writing process.

In fact, it would be great if you could work on a term paper for several hours each day. Look at how many stages you need to pass through to reach the final one – the successful paper submission:

  • Exploring and focusing a topic;
  • Finding and selecting appropriate sources of information;
  • Taking notes on the obtained information;
  • Outlining the main ideas for yourself;
  • Working on every part of a term paper – an introduction, body, conclusion;
  • Revising the final term paper.

The most important point of prewriting is to understand an assignment given to you. Look through the description of the task and its requirements as all this is the basis of your paper. From the assignment instructions, you are able to determine what kind of paper you need to write and at what approach, what materials are necessary (be it a journal, periodicals, primary and secondary sources, etc.), what format is required and so on. So read your assignment attentively to be sure that you are in the right way towards the success in writing.

Additionally, you need to search for the background information in the library or on the web to support your claims with the relevant facts. While searching for the sources, it is important to take into account that you can use only academic sources like books and peer-reviewed articles that contain reliable pieces of information. Take into account that your term paper should be written in a required formatting style (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard or Turabian). You can check some samples written in one of the formats on the Internet or ask the instructors to show you the samples available to them. The latter must lend more credence to you. Alternatively, you can order a custom written term paper to see a good example of formatting the text. Eventually, take all the collected information and tools to get down to work in a place where no one can interrupt the writing process that is already simplified.

The Basic Structure of a Public Administration Term Paper

The structure of every academic paper should follow a particular pattern. It allows the writer to develop a well-constructed literary work and provide the readers with all the necessary information logically. Include the following elements:

  • A cover page with a title. It is a page where you put your name, your instructor’s name, course number, and a date of submission;
  • An abstract. You should provide the comprehensive description of your term paper on this page. Yes, it is a separate but not obligatory page that contains keywords and word combinations relevant to your research. This part tells the reader about the major issues discussed in your paper and why it is interesting or important for you to analyze this particular topic;
  • It is a part of the paper that includes the thesis statement and introduces your topic to the readers. Here, you can tell about the public administration issue you want to discuss and provide a number of possible solutions. Despite a great amount of valuable information, keep the introduction short. In percentage terms, it is average out at about 10% of the whole term paper;
  • Body parts. Traditionally, each academic paper should include three or more well-constructed body parts. Each of them is aimed at a particular question or idea. Every paragraph is logically complete and connected by means of transition words. and develop the issue mentioned in the introduction part. A body paragraph should start from a topic sentence, a fact or a piece of evidence to support the idea, an explaining sentence, and a concluding sentence that grabs the information together and leads the reader to a logical conclusion. It is important to remember that the topic sentence introduces the whole paragraph. It may be considered as a mini-thesis that unites the concept between paragraphs and prepare the reader for a new argument of the author. It is essential to avoid discussing bare facts but to provide a personal evaluation of the topic and some independent evaluation of the discussed issue. That is why you can present here some arguments and counterarguments in order to convince the audience with your arguments;
  • This is a part of an academic paper where you should summarize all the issues discussed in body paragraphs, provide solutions (if necessary), and restate the thesis statement. You can finish this final part of the paper with an opening question or with the encouragement of the readers to continue their own research on the chosen topic. If your public administration term paper contains the argument, a conclusion part is the last chance to attract the attention of the readers and convince them to support your claims;
  • Reference list. This is the final part of your academic work where you should include all the materials used for writing the term paper. These are the used articles, books, journals, official reports, and internet pages that should be cited in a particular format and include such information as the last name of the author, title, year of publication, and a number of pages;
  • Additional information. Your paper may also include some additional information like different relevant photos, tables, pictures, and graphs;

7 Proofreading Tips That Help You Out

proofreading tips

The last but not the least is the process of proofreading. This process should not be ignored by the writers as it allows to correct some mistakes made during the writing process. This is a number of tips on how to proofread a term paper effectively:

  1. Check the structure of the paper. It should contain a title page, an abstract page (if required), introduction paragraph, three or more body paragraphs with claims of the author supported with facts and pieces of evidence, a conclusion paragraph, a reference page, and additional materials (if necessary);
  2. Double check all the facts and pieces of evidence in your public administration term paper. Remember that all of them should be taken from reliable sources;
  3. Read the paper one more time aloud. This easy tip will allow you to hear the written text and find out some irrelevant words and phrases. In addition, this approach is helpful to define run-on sentences and various issues that can not be detected when reading silently;
  4. Check the paper for plagiarism. It is not acceptable for the academic paper to include the stolen ideas of the other people. For that reason, all the ideas you have found in additional sources should be cited according to the required format. Besides, it is possible to use one of the numerous plagiarism checkers available online and find out whether the paper contains some borrowed ideas or not cited facts and phrases;
  5. Check citations. Due to the fact that the paper should be presented in a particular format, the citations in the reference list, as well as in-text citations, should be arranged in the same format. In addition, the sources in the reference list should be arranged in an alphabetical order;
  6. Check the paper for some errors in grammar, syntax or punctuation. To make the process faster and easier, it is possible to use a computer search for tracing miswritten pronouns and antecedents. Use computer spelling checkers that are available online. This method allows to save a lot of time and make sure the paper does not contain misspellings;
  7. Make sure the format requirements of your term paper are met. Check the margins, font, font size, and line spacing and make sure these elements correspond to the format required by your professor.

Following this easy and helpful guide you will be able to think of the appropriate topic, find the additional information, write a well-constructed public administration term paper, and arrange the written material according to the requirements. Good luck!

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