POL2001 International Political Economy
Choose one of the following topics
- Essay topic 1: Has the world benefited from having rules governing global trade and commerce?
- Essay topic 2: Should businesses be able to sue governments under ISDS clauses for losses caused when the rules governing their investments are changed?
- Essay topic 3: Should governments reduce the restrictions on immigration?
- Essay topic 4: Is liberal globalisation a threat to the environment?
- Essay topic 5: What impact have free trade and global economic integration had on economic development?
Yes, you can (and should) do the same topic as you chose for the First assignment, but that’s up to you. And you can use any of the work you did for the first assignment, including actual text from the first assignment.
Step 1: Get on top of the debate on your essay topic
If your essay is going to investigate contributions to a debate, you need to work hard to understand the debate, the reasons it has arisen, and the issues involved.
Understanding the debate, and its context, is important for understanding the material you find when doing your research, and what it all means.
Start by studying the topic or topics in POL2001 that deal with the essay topic.
Go back over the the feedback you got for the first part of your Argument Analysis assignment. Did it suggest you had a strong understanding of the two positions? If not, try and improve your outlines of the two arguments you did for the first assignment.
You will need to summarise the debate on the essay topic in your introduction. Here is the web-page on how to develop your essay’s introduction.
Step 2: Develop your research program
You need to test the credibility of around 3-5 propositions. They should come from rival positions on the essay topic.
For the first assignment, you tested a key proposition argued by one author as part of debate on the essay topic. You should have found concrete evidence and research findings that enabled you to evaluate its credibility. Now, you need to do that for another 2–4 propositions.
The aim here is to choose the best propositions for testing.
This is a skill in itself, and we have outlined some advice on how to develop a research program in a separate web-page.
Step 3. Do research to test the credibility of the propositions you have chosen
Here is advice on how to test propositions.
Step 4: Summarise your research
Here is our advice on how to summarise your research. You MUST read this.
Step 5: Evaluate the credibility of each proposition you’ve investigated
In your first assignment, you evaluated a proposition in the light of evidence you found. Now you do this for each of the 3–5 propositions you’ve investigated.
- What feedback did you get for the evaluation you did for the Argument Analysis assignment?
- Did you use our evaluation worksheet to help you?
- Remember to also evaluate the credibility of the evidence and research you find.
The overall conclusion of your essay will flow from your evaluation of each proposition you test.
Step 6: Develop your conclusion
This is where you pull all your findings together. It should be a synthesis of the conclusions you’ve reached from all the proposition testing you’ve done.
There’s some advice on how to do this in this web-book chapter: Developing your essay conclusion. There are also some examples of conclusions from earlier student essays.
Step 7: Write up your POL2001 essay
Your essay should look something like this:
- Cover page: with your name, course name, essay topic, word count
- Introduction (start your essay on a new page).
- Section 1 (2-3-4 paragraphs):
- A brief presentation of the first proposition you’re testing; a summary of the concrete evidence and other research you found about it; your evaluation of the proposition.
- Section 2 (2-3-4 paragraphs):
- A brief presentation of the second proposition you’re testing; a summary of the concrete evidence and other research you found about it; your evaluation of the proposition.
- Section 3 (2-3-4 paragraphs):
- A brief presentation of the third proposition you’re testing; a summary of the concrete evidence and other research you found about it; your evaluation of the proposition.
- Section 4 (2-3-4 paragraphs):
- A brief presentation of the fourth proposition you’re testing (if applicable); a summary of the concrete evidence and other research you found about it; your evaluation of the proposition.
- Section 5 (2-3-4 paragraphs):
- A brief presentation of the fifth proposition you’re testing (if applicable); a summary of the concrete evidence and other research you found about it; your evaluation of the proposition.
- Conclusion.
- List of references (on a new page, with a heading).
You can use headings for each section if you wish.
Use your own words
Your text must be in your own words. You should not directly copy (or quote) material from your sources unless absolutely essential – and in no case should this be more than 5% of your essay. See the section on Writing in your own words.
Reference your assignment
See our short guide to referencing here.
Final step: Submit your essay
Submit your assignment via the link on StudyDesk. The essay frame is just before Topic 10.
Detailed instructions in the chapter: How to submit your assignments.
Give your assignment the correct filename
You must give your assignment a filename that includes
- Your name
- The number of the essay question you’re writing on.
- This is so it can be easily allocated to the marker doing that topic.
- For instance: grande_ariana_essay_q3.docx
How your essay will be assessed
- Quality of your understanding of debates surrounding the essay topic
- Quality of your research program
- Quality and depth of your research (eg the quality of your research to test specific arguments)
- Quality of your presentation of research material
- Quality of your evaluation of rival arguments in light of the evidence
- Quality of the overall structure and coherence of your essay
- Quality of your writing and referencing
Here is the marking template for this assignment.
Examples of former student assignments
I’d like to thank these students for permitting their work to be made available to you, anonymously of course.
Student K6 essay: Click here.
Student J1 essay: Click here.
How does this assessment help you achieve POL2001 course objectives?
POL2001 has four objectives that sum up the abilities we hope to develop in each student, and which will be the focus of assessment; details here.
This assignment aims to contribute towards, and assess, three of these:
- Course objective 1: Explain and contribute to debates around globalisation and its governance
- Course objective 2: Critically evaluate, on the basis of research, rival claims made as part of political debate
- Course objective 3: Write clearly in English, observing academic conventions
What skills does this assignment help you develop?
USQ undertakes to develop ten qualities and skills in everyone who graduates from the university. This assignment aims to help you develop:
- Skill 1: Ethical research and inquiry (basic level)
- Skills 3: Academic and professional literacy, and in particular:
- Disciplinary knowledge (basic level)
- Research and information literacy (intermediate level)
- Academic literacy (intermediate level)
- Critical thinking (intermediate level)
- Referencing (basic level)
- Skill 4: Communication, and in particular:
- Expression (basic level)
- Writing (basic level)