Political Science 1020E Study Guide - Cabinetry, Westminster System, Caucus
29 Nov 2012
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Guidelines for Essays
Methodology:
The planning and writing of essays is a learned craft. There is no instant formula that can be
applied to the task of essay composition. At this stage in your academic careers, you should
be familiarizing yourselves with a range of essay styles and making extensive use of style
guides. This short document is designed to offer some guidelines for your essay composition
in Politics 1020E.
One common (and faulty) method of producing essays among political science students is
what can be called the linear method: students first think about the topic; then they go to the
library and find material related to it; then they produce an outline plan for the essay; finally,
they write the essay. While this method can work, it is not the best way to write an essay.
Most successful essay writers use the recursive method. Employment of the recursive method
involves the student in the act of writing from the very start of the project. It is quite possible
to compose a reasonable outline plan for an essay and to begin the writing process within
hours of making a decision on a selected essay topic. The student who begins the writing
process early engages in the other stages of the essay process with greater purpose and
efficiency. If you know what you are looking for, it is much easier to write it! Naturally, the
process is recursive: you read something new and then you rethink what you have said; you
go back to your text and edit it; then it occurs to you that the changes introduced necessitate
further changes and this sends you back to the library in search of new material.
Clearly, the recursive method has its limitations. It is often difficult to write about something
when you know little about it. However, the limitations of this kind of ignorance should not
be overplayed.
Thesis Statement and Route Map:
Even if you do not know a great deal about a topic, you may well know how to ask important
questions about it, or you may know enough to make a tentative claim or contention about
some matter related to it. In other words, the development of a provisional thesis for your
essay can and should occur very early in the process. What is a thesis? It is an argument, a
hunch, a contention, a proposition, an exploration or a theme that gives coherence and
purpose to your essay: it is what your essay is about. Employing the recursive method, your
initial thesis should not be a dogmatic statement of what you intend to ‘prove.’ Instead, your
thesis should be a well-reasoned statement of expectation about your chosen topic that is
nonetheless open to modification and correction. Very little is ever ‘proven’ in political
analysis and you are encouraged not to employ the term. Instead, use a more tentative
expression such as ‘support,’ ‘imply,’ or ‘lend credence to.’
In the course, you are provided with a choice of essay questions, each of which will enable
you to focus upon a distinctive area in political analysis. The decision about how to address
the set question is up to you. Moreover, the answer to the question: ‘how do I approach this
topic?’ leads directly to the establishment of a thesis statement. In other words, the process of
crafting the essay consists of an interaction between the original question and your response
to it. Some students find this the most challenging part of the composition process. They look
for the ‘real’ or ‘true’ thesis statement in the essay question, instead of devoting time to
developing their own take on the topic. They may ask instructors what they ‘really want’ from
the answer. Instructors invariably reply that what they really want is for them to engage in the
material given in the set question and to come up with their own thesis! Some students parse
each element of the set question in the mistaken belief that they must address each component
mentioned. This is definitely not what we require from an essay. The set questions are in fact
designed to generate and stimulate interest in a focus of enquiry. The decision about what
aspects of that broad focus to accentuate and to develop are in the hands of the student and
will be determined through the thesis that she or he has developed. Students who attempt to
meet the essay requirements through gathering and representing largely unprocessed material
that they believe relates to the components of the set question, produce weak essays. Such
essays are little more than catalogues of data and lists of ideas culled from elsewhere. Avoid
such a tedious essay style and bear in mind that an essay is an argument rather than a laundry
list!
What about resource material for essays? Do not overlook the course lectures and course
reading material. While you should not rely upon these resources alone, they will get you into
thinking at an appropriate level and might suggest some avenues of enquiry. You should scan
a range of political science scholarly dictionaries, encyclopaedias, handbooks and yearbooks.
Use these, and avoid generic dictionaries! Never write anything like this: ‘Funk and Wagnall
define politics as….’ You should also feel free to employ a range of textbooks for
introductory politics and broad and general political science books that introduce a theme,
such as legislatures or political parties, as well as introductions to the political systems in
various countries. While you are free to read what you like, and in general the more you read
the better, you should probably steer clear of the more professional academic journals and
advanced treatments of topics that are normally read by graduate students and professional
scholars.
Once you have developed a thesis, you should be able to state it clearly. Check it out with one
of the instructors/director or with a friend: do others know what you are trying to say? Once
you are clear about your initial thesis and have written it down, you need to develop a ‘route
map’ for your essay. The route map consists of a listing of specific points, contentions,
arguments, examples, themes and sub-themes you will need to address – and the order in
which you will address them – in order to explore your thesis adequately. Simply articulating
the route map can lead you to modify your original thesis. You can expect there to be further
recursive modifications as the process of essay construction continues.
The route map should be integrated into the body and flow of your final essay and is not an
appendage to it. The thesis and the route map should be clearly stated near the start of your
essay. A good essay might begin with a thesis statement something like this:
While Britain and Canada can both be described as parliamentary systems based upon the
Westminster system of fused executive and legislative powers, the Canadian Prime Minister is
comparatively more powerful vis-à-vis the Canadian house of Commons than is his or her
British counterpart.
The essay then offers this further elaboration, leading to the articulation of a route map:
Lalonde (1991: 380) points out that the Canadian Prime Minister cannot be ‘first among
equals’ because he has no equals in the Canadian system. In this essay, I shall illustrate the
wide-ranging and unequalled powers of the Canadian Prime Minister with respect to his role
