Guidelines On Writing A Position Paper.

By Mushba Said.

Since everyone is kind of oblivious to the fact as to what a position paper really
is, and I’d like to think of myself as an unofficial authority on position papers,
here is a guide on how to write position papers—good, acceptable position
papers.

First off, you can’t write anything, unless you know what you’re supposed to
write, so let’s briefly define Position Paper:

A Position Paper is a formal document that you print out and present to the
dais/chair, that explains your country’s stance on that particular topic. This is
important because there’s a Best Position Paper award up for grabs at all MUN’s
and committees.

Now let’s move onto the Format:

(PLEASE OPEN ONE OF MY POSITION PAPERS BEFORE GOING THROUGH THIS FOR
REFERENCE)

1st: The Flag. It is optional to have a flag, but highly recommended by me,
especially if you can print it out in colour, as it helps your position paper to
stand out, and gives it a nice appearance.

2nd: The Headings. Basically, there are 4 main headings: Country (write your
country’s FULL FORM! i.e. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan), Delegate(s) (the ‘s’
depends on if you’re in a double delegation), Topic (don’t just write Arctic stuff,
write the full topic heading given in the study guide, i.e. Militarisation of the
Arctic), and finally Committee (write the full form of your committee followed
by an abbreviation in brackets).

Now some people add more headings, like Head Delegate, Institution, and
conference, but I stick to the 4 mentioned above. They’re enough according to
me :P
3rd: THE CONTENT!!! Now let’s break this into 3 pieces: Introduction, main
body, conclusion.

Introduction: This is exactly what it sounds like; a brief introduction as to

what the reader can expect in the following paragraph. Just introduce the
topic along these lines, i.e. “Militancy is a menace that has torn this world
apart through…. Blah blah blah… and Jordan is strongly against it..”
MAXIMUM 4 LINES, Minimum 2 lines.

Main Body: Now this is where you explain as to why your country
believes whatever it does regarding the topic. You have to backup your
stance with FACTUAL, SOLID ARGUMENTS; don’t give them embellished
baloney, give them straight, simple, hard core facts and figures. Now let’s
move onto what you should mention, in order of importance (depends on
the topic and if any of this is available: Facts and figures (like in the
position paper of Germany), excerpts and names from UN Resolutions
and other documents of international law (if any are being violated, like in
my first position from DISEC), and lastly, if nothing else, then statements
from your country’s relevant ministers, departments and leaders.

Conclusion: Now this is where, I believe, you can really score some points
and get creative. In actual debating, you might be forced to defend
whatever you come up with as a whole bloc, (depends if you were gutsy
enough to go up to the bloc leaders and give them your suggestions), but
in your OWN position paper, a country is supposed to give it’s own
suggestions as to how to resolve the issue the at hand. Even if all you’ve
got is one little idea, delineate on it, like I’ve done in my position papers.

Now if you go through all my position papers, you’ll see that I haven’t strictly
written it in 3 paragraphs; I’ve got 4 too. But the point is that you must have
everything in order: ;your format should be in order, your content should be
good, everything must be good, don’t just give a nice presentation only to
disappoint the reader with irrelevant content.

Other Stuff:
  The maximum length of a position paper is 1.5 pages, and the minimum
and IDEAL is 1 page. Please try to keep it to one page;
 The first time you write it makes it the first draft; edit it, edit it and edit it
until you get that perfect 1 page;
 This is the most important for a writer: FEEDBACK. Write your position
paper, and upload it onto the group wall, and listen to everyone’s
feedback; the more feedback from people the better. In places like MUN’s
you need ideas, and every kind of idea holds some value.

I hope this was helpful guys, good luck.