POSITION PAPER

What is a Position Paper

-it presents the writer’s
stand or viewpoint on a
particular issue.
 Parts of a Position Paper

• Introduction
- presents the issue while grabbing the
attention of the readers.
- Define the issue and discuss its background.
- provide a general statements of your
position via your thesis statement.
• Body
-provide sufficient evidence for each
arguments
- State your main arguments such as
statistical data,interviews with experts
and testimonies.
- Provide counter arguments against the
possible weaknesses of your arguments.
Conclusion
- Restate your position and main arguments.
- suggests a course of action.
- state what makes your position superior
and more acceptable.
- end with a powerful closing statement
such as qoutation, a challenge or a
question.
Guidelines in Writing a Position Paper
1. Choose an issue. When choosing one,keep
the following guidelines in mind.
=the issue should be debatable-you won’t be
able to take a stand if the topic is not
debatable.
=the issue should be current and relevent.
=the issue should be written in a question
form and answerable by yes or no.
2. Begin the writing process by conducting an
in-depth research on the issue.
3. Make sure to define unfamiliar terms when
you first mention them.
4. Be aware of the various positions about the
issue and explain and analyze them
objectively.
5. Reflect on your position and identify its
weaknesses.
6. Cite valid and reliable sources to establish
the credibility of your arguments.
7. View the issue in a different perspective so
you can present a unique approach.
8. Limit your position paper to two pages.
9. Analyze your target readers and align your
arguments to their beliefs, needs, interests,
and motivations.
10. Summarize the other side’s
counterarguments and use various evidence
and data to refute them.
11. Use an active voice as mush as to achieve a
dynamic and firm tone.
12. Arrange your evidence logically using an
inductive or deductive approach.
13. Check your arguments for fallacies and
elimunate them. Fallacies, or errors in reasoning
weaken your arguments.
14. Use ethical, logical, and emotional appeal. An
ethical appeal relates to your credibility and
competence as a writer; a logical appeal refers to a
rational approach in developing an argument;
while emotional appeal uses arguments in a way
that evokes feelings.
PRACTICE

Write G if the practice is a good one; write W

if not.
1. Patrick considers all possible views on the
issue at hand.
2. Alex says that the issue is a crucial
component of a position paper.
3. Brendon thinks that the issue is debatable
if it cannot be answered by yes or no.
4. Pete conducts an audience analysis to help
him write a more persuasive position paper.
Try this…

= should love be a subject in

school?
Proposition

• Should prostitution be
legalized in Philippines?
• Should divorce be legalized in
the country?
 Choose your position/side
Affirmative Negative

-beneficial
-necessity
-practicality
-rebuttal
Researchers/verifiers
 There are four types of debates
that are commonly used. These debates
are the Lincoln-Douglas debate (the
two men debate); the Rebuttal debate,
the One-Rebuttal type of debate and
the Oregon-Oxford debate that is also
called as the cross-question debate.
4 kinds of POSITION PAPER
1. Expositive writing
=tries to answer questions of the form
“What did A say or think about P?” “What did A
mean in the following passage?” and so on.

• Generally speaking, expositive writing and

consists of summarizing or setting out the ideas
of a given philosopher in your own words, in
order to help your reader to understand material
that is otherwise obscure or hard to follow.
 It often involves arguing
for or against a certain
interpretation of that
philosopher’s ideas by showing
that this interpretation is more or
less consistent with other
writings by the same philosopher,
entails consequences which the
philosopher would or would not be
willing to accept, etc.
• Comparative writing

= takes up questions like “How

are positions X and Y similar, and how
to do they differ?” “What is the
relationship between the arguments
for X and Y?” and “How do
philosophers A and B compare with
respect to their thinking on P?”
• As with expositive writing,
comparative writing will
usually require you to
summarizing or setting out
the arguments and positions
your own words. It will also
require you to defend your
claims of commonality and
difference.
Evaluative writing

= considers such questions as

“Is position P plausible?” “Is P
more or less plausible than Q?” “Is
the argument for P strong?” “Is the
argument for P stronger or weaker
than the argument for Q?”
 If a position seems to
contradict what we know, or if we can
find a case which seems to contradict
the position, that’s a mark against the
position. If an argument assumes
things we have reason to doubt, or
which can’t be believed without
accepting the conclusion, or if those
ideas don’t seem to support the
conclusion the argument wants to us
draw, that’s a mark against the
argument.
Constructive writing

=is unlike expositive,

comparative, or evaluative writing
in that the questions it considers
are less directly concerned with
pre-existing positions or arguments.
Instead of asking “What did A think
about P?” for example, constructive
writing asks “What should we think
about P?” or “What’s the truth about
P?”
 =In defending a position of
our own, usually involves an
analysis and evaluation of
particularly relevant and
influential work in order to
elucidate or advance our own
position, carefully supporting our
position with argument, and
responding to actual or potential
objections.
Ten Characteristics of a Good Position
Paper
1) A paper should be in the author’s own words.
• This is probably the most basic requirement.
Plagiarism is intentionally or unintentionally
representing somebody else’s ideas as one’s
own, and should be avoided at all costs. You
may, of course, appeal to the ideas of others, if
you acknowledge doing so and site your
sources appropriately.
2) A position paper should have a
clear purpose.

Your readers should always have

a clear understanding of what
you’re going to do in your paper.
3.) A paper should be well
organized.

• Your paper as a whole, and each

part of your paper, should work
to fulfill the purpose of the
paper. It should take up each
task in the order most helpful to
meeting that objective and finish
one thing before starting
another.
4) A paper should flow.

• Ensure that your paper flows nicely

from one point to the next. Avoid
sudden jerks. Use smooth
transitions.
• Organizational cues, including
section headings, transitions,
subject-changes, and summaries of
what will be or has been done, can
help your reader to follow your
paper.
5) A paper should be clear.

• Make sure that you really

understand what you’re saying
and that an average member of
your audience could be expected
to understand it, too. When it
doubt about your audience, the
positions and arguments should
be stated in such a way that they
would be understood by a
reasonably intelligent reader who
is unfamiliar with the material.
6) A paper should be complete.

• Think slowly. Don’t jump to

conclusions. Flesh out all ideas
and arguments in sufficient
detail and ensure that you
adequately defend claims that
need defending.
• Sometimes, specific examples
can help to flesh out and support
general claims.
7) A position paper should
be focused.

• Try not to include irrelevant or

inessential material, unrelated
the attainment of the paper’s
purpose. If you aren’t going to
discuss an argument, for
example, don’t spend time
setting it out.
8) A position paper should
be substantively correct.

• Attribute positions to the right

person and represent those
positions correctly. Always try to
avoid speculating about an author’s
motivations because motivations
are difficult to establish and are
usually irrelevant to the merits of
an author’s case.
9) A position paper should
be mechanically correct, adhering
to the rules of style and usage.

10) Ideally, a position paper

should be creative, asking new
questions, answering old
questions in new ways, seeing
new things, seeing old things in
new ways, or making an original
point.
LET US HEAR YOU…