STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER:
Your paper should contain these parts:
Introduction: Your introductory material should set up your topic for your audience. Briefly summarize your findings on the subject. If the sources disagree about the value of or perspective on the subject, point out the areas of disagreement. Your introduction should not meander around the point of your paper. It may be more than one paragraph in length, but at some point, very early in the paper you then need to start the substance of the paper.
Thesis: Your thesis should come at the end of your introduction. State your thesis in the form of a single sentence. It should not be in the form of a question. Given the breadth of possible variation in this paper, there will also be variation in the level of specificity of the thesis:
If you are writing a paper that surveys a category, type, or theme of law, your thesis should be a brief statement that identifies a theme or pattern in the law or a critique or suggestion for how to change the law.
For example, a paper that addresses financial protection laws for senior citizens may have the following critique-based thesis: “Elder financial protection laws have failed to adapt to modern fraud threats to senior citizens.” Or it may have a pattern-based thesis: “With a few notable exceptions, elder financial protection laws implemented in the early 80s have not been consistently updated in the latter half of the 20th century.” The thesis must indicate critical thought about the topic. For example, “This paper will give an overview of adult financial protection laws” is not sufficient, but “This paper will give an overview of the ever-decreasing scope of American adult financial protection laws, and will conclude that there is room for improvement in these laws” is sufficient. Note: here you would not need to actually CREATE these improvements. It is okay to just identify that improvements could be made.
If you are writing a strongly opinionated position-type paper, your thesis should clearly state so. For example, a paper that argues financial protection laws for senior citizens restrict older people’s ability to make independent decisions may have the following thesis: “Elder financial protection laws, though well-intentioned, cause more harm than good through unfairly restricting senior citizen’s ability to control their own finances.”
Body of Paper: Use subheadings, where appropriate, to separate different aspects of your paper which support your controlling idea (your thesis). The body of your paper should provide supporting evidence to support your thesis, in a logical, fully developed manner. For each new topic that supports your overall thesis, provide a topic sentence or two which is, in effect, the thesis for that sub-topic. If you do not use subheadings, you need to provide transition sentences to move your reader from one paragraph to the next. Your supporting sub-topics should address these issues.
For example, a sub-header for the above pattern-based thesis about elder financial protection laws could be:
Federal adult protective services policy in the 1980s was prolific.
The paragraph following this sub-header would identify several of these laws.
Conclusion: Your conclusion should make some “wrap-up” statements about what you learned about your chosen topic and the possible impact of your findings on people and perhaps society in general. Also, address any issues that may still not be resolved for you. Don’t be reluctant to address any issues that aren’t easily resolved or have negative or ambiguous outcomes.
Audience: Your paper is aimed at an audience of your peers in Law 303. They are familiar with some rudimentary legal concepts, but any new or novel legal concepts should be fully explained.
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