Policy Prescriptive Thesis

Title

Student’s Name

A thesis submitted to the Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master in Government

Baltimore, Maryland

Month, Year

Abstract

Each dissertation or thesis must contain an abstract immediately following the title page. It should present a succinct account of the work. The abstract should contain (1) a statement of the problem or theory, (2) procedure or methods, (3) results and (4) conclusions. However, the student’s department or program may require additional contents.

The abstract must be double-spaced and should not be more than 350 words. UMI editors for Dissertation Abstracts International will edit any abstract over this limit. Illustrations, graphs, charts or tables are not permitted in the abstract because they are not permitted by UMI for publication in Dissertation Abstracts International.

The abstract must provide the name of the readers/advisors at the bottom and conform to all requirements for the printing of the dissertation.

Preface

This is optional. You might instead write an apologia identifying the scope and limitations of your work. If you don’t have much to say here, skip it.

You will probably want to thank those who helped. People you interviewed, the boss who was supportive, faculty, family, and friends, all are candidates. This is your section. Write what you want.

Table of Contents

Introduction......

Schools of Thought......

Issue History......

Stakeholders, Players, Process......

Research Design......

Data and Analysis......

Conclusions......

Findings......

Conclusions......

Recommendations......

Your View......

References......

Appendix A: Appendix Title......

Curriculum Vita......

List of Tables

If your thesis has a number of tables and figures, then you should begin the list of tables and list of figures on separate pages. However, if there are only a few of each, then put them on a single page. If there are none, then delete the relevant headings.

List of Figures

List of Plates

If your thesis has supporting material that is in the form of computer disks or tape, film, or other physical artifact, it should be attached to the thesis in the manner prescribed by the university and listed here. In all likelihood, you’ll have no such thing, and you should immediately delete this section.

However, keep the section break below. It separates the front matter pages with little Roman numeral page numbers from the main body of your thesis that has normal Arabic page numbers.

Introduction

Throughout this handout, a defense reform— perhaps reorganization of the Office of the Secretary of Defense or a change in roles and missions for the Armed Services—is used as a running example. It is assumed that master’s theses are both scholarly in approach and are policy relevant.

Your introduction should contain a thesis statement that is perhaps in the form of a predicted outcome of some reform proposal. This section should also identify the issue. Don’t confuse issue with thesis. Your thesis might be that a particular defense reorganization proposal would fail due to Service resistance; but the issue is defense reorganization.

You probably cannot write the thesis statement before you conduct your study. Take a stab at it in the beginning, and then return when you’ve finished your conclusion. You’re not writing a mystery novel. The reader shouldn’t have to guess where you’re going.

When you’re finally ready to write the introduction, check to make sure you’ve met the following requirements. The issue must be clear. Your thesis must be clear. The reader must understand that you’re talking about an important problem and that you have a meaningful contribution to make. A thesis can often be stated as a declaratory sentence asserting that doing A will cause B. For example, following a specific policy recommendation will produce a desired social outcome. An argument, another valuable part of your introduction, and something that will structure your exposition, is an elaboration of your thesis. I.e., if your thesis is “doing A will cause B,” then “more of A causes more of A1, which in turn causes less of A2, which finally causes more of B.”

Schools of Thought

This section should map out the logic of cause and effect relating to the chosen issue. By conducting scholarly research, you will find that respected scholars and authorities differ on how to approach your chosen issue. If there is no scholarly controversy, there is no reason for doing scholarly research. There should be at least two different schools of thought. “For” and “against” a proposal are not schools of thought. The reader isn’t interested in your opinion here. This isn’t intended for the editorial page. Honestly and even-handedly describe the major schools of thought.

One of the requirements of the schools of thought section is to prove to your audience (your thesis committee) that you’ve done your homework. Another requirement is that you must set the stage for your contribution; you might refute or confirm some elements of one of the schools. Remember, your thesis must add to the existing base of knowledge.

While you are researching your issue, you will undoubtedly find these schools of thought. Make a point to be looking for them whenever you are reading. When you encounter one, rush to your word processor and make a subsection with a footnote to the source you are reading.[1] Give the heading a name that you can remember. Then capture the elements of this school’s thinking. You’ll hate yourself if you have to go back and read a couple of hundred pages trying to find a school of thought you once stumbled over. By capturing this material in this fashion, you automatically will be building your thesis.

Decide early on a consistent style for footnote references and for bibliographic references. Few things are more laborious than sweeping through your entire thesis at the last minute trying to impose order on your footnotes and bibliography.

Footnote and bibliographic references are related. Kate Turabian’s classic work, considered the definitive source by many, describes their similarities and differences.[2] The information in each is much the same. They differ in purpose, however, and purpose dictates their differences. The purpose of the footnote is to help readers find the referenced material themselves, down to the page. The purpose of the bibliography is to list in detail all references used in the thesis. References are ordered alphabetically by the author’s last name. Therefore, the author’s name is given last name first, followed by the first name, separated by a comma. In a footnote, the author’s name is given first name followed by last name. Compare the footnote referring to Turabian’s book at the bottom of this page to the reference at the end of this paper. Commas separate the “pieces” of a footnote, while periods separate the pieces in a bibliographic reference.

Issue History

Continuing with the defense reorganization example, the issue history would probably be a legislative history. Congress has played a strong role in this area. Tell that story. Major legislation was passed in 1947, 1949, and every few years after until the most recent round of legislation in 1986. Events in international relations, even wars, may have precipitated legislative response. Capture that story as well.

If you issue is a single legislative act, you may want to capture previous legislative attempts, the events that make the legislation ripe now, the dates steps along the legislative path were taken, and any serendipitous events along the way.

If you can’t find a history for your issue, you probably haven’t identified an issue rich enough for a master’s thesis. This section, too, serves to demonstrate to your reader that you’ve done your homework.

As in your schools of thought section, you will undoubtedly encounter elements of issue history as you read books and journal articles. Don’t make the mistake of nodding your head up and down saying “that’s interesting, I must remember this when I start to write my thesis.” Write it down immediately. Make footnotes to the reference. Capture page numbers. Your thesis is writing itself as you read. The key is to be on the lookout for issue history.

Stakeholders, Players, Process

Stakeholders are those parties who have something to win or lose from the reform proposal. There may be other players or decision-makers who have nothing to lose or win but will play a major role in legislating or implementing the reform. And, there is a process through which the reform will be decided, e.g., authorization legislation, appropriations, or National Security Council deliberations. There may be a separate process for implementing the policy. A player in one might be a stakeholder in the other.

If there are two major players, each with a vested interest, you might expect that they have articulated a school of thought to support their interests. Under these conditions, this section might merge with the schools of thought section. Alternatively, you may find that your issue has been through a process several times and, thus, this section might be better addressed in the issue history section.

This section demonstrates to the reader that you have a grasp of the pragmatics of the decision making process and that you are qualified to draw conclusions and make recommendations. This is a stronger requirement in a policy relevant thesis than in a purely theoretic research thesis.

Research Design

At this point, you’ve set up the problem for the reader. They believe you understand what’s gone on before. Now you’re shifting to what will become your original contribution. The requirement is to describe precisely what your research seeks to show, and how you have proceeded to gather information in a way that suggests the reliability and validity of your conclusions. Don’t be afraid to identify your weaknesses. This section is often titled simply “Methodology.”

If, as is suggested in the Methods of Social Inquiry class, you took the time to create a project prospectus or research plan, you may be able to plug it in here as a first cut. No doubt your research plan will fail you in some way. Things never work out the way we plan. Bring this section in line with the research, data collection, and analysis that you actually did.

Data and Analysis

In a full thesis, data might be best presented in an appendix. Make a judgement call. Either put it here or put it in an appendix and summarize it here. The analysis might be highly quantitative or just pure deductive logic. Analysis might also be conducted through several case studies.

You may find that the evidence gathered supports one school of thought and refutes another. Since policy issues tend to be quite complex, another common outcome of analysis is that the evidence is inconsistent, contradictory, and inconclusive. Say so.

Conclusions

Your conclusions should follow directly from your analysis. Restate you thesis, recall your evidence, and summarize your logical argument. If you can write the conclusion before doing the research, you are not writing a scholarly thesis, you are writing a large editorial.

I often find it convenient to separate what I learn in research and analysis into three categories: findings, conclusions, and recommendations. If it helps, use it, but don’t feel compelled to leave the structure in your final thesis.

Findings

Some things are findings of fact. No reader should be able to argue with findings of fact. They may not like them, but you’ll have all of your sources identified, and your disapproving reader will have to attack someone else. Make sure your sources are good ones.

Conclusions

Solid, clear logic is used to weave together findings to produce conclusions. One might expect another to arrive at a different conclusion, but your logic should be supportable. Those inclined to put aside their preconceived notions should find your conclusions reasonable. If another reader can refute your conclusions, that’s just fine. That’s what scholarly work is about. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis, as Hegel would say.

Recommendations

Based on findings of fact, logically derived conclusions, and credible causal relationships, you may be able to move into the world of the predictive thesis. That is, based on everything you’ve presented so far, you can predict a certain outcome, e.g., the eventual collapse of the social security trust fund. Then the title of this subsection wouldn’t be “Recommendations” but something else.

If your work justifies it, you may be able to produce a prescriptive thesis. That is, you can prescribe a course of action that will achieve a desired social outcome, e.g., what policy action should be taken now to prevent the collapse of the social security trust fund.

Your View

You have now earned the right to say what’s on your mind. If your analysis says the reform will fail, but you can make an argument why it should pass in the interest of national security, this is the place to say it.

Now go back and write your introduction, the part I always struggle with the most.

Do not assume that this outline and these heading titles will be right for your final product. It is offered as a point of departure. As indicated above, some of these sections might profitably be combined and reordered. You won’t be able to tell how to communicate your results until fairly late in the process. You can, however, be confident that the order you followed conducting research is the wrong order for final exposition. The final product must be structured for the consumer (reader), not the producer (writer).

References

Van Evera, Stephen. Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997.

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 4th ed. University of Chicago Press, 1973.

White, Louise G. Political Analysis: Technique and Practice. 4th ed. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999.

Appendix A:Appendix Title

Curriculum Vita

The final page of the thesis should contain a brief biographical sketch. This “scholarly life” or “curriculum vita” should record the data and location of the author’s birth and the salient facts of his or her academic training and experience in teaching and research.

[1]In the day of the typewriter, it was quite unrealistic to get footnotes positioned at the bottom of the page where they were referenced. The response was to collect them all in one place and call them endnotes. This became the standard for professional journals. Many faculty members expect endnotes and find footnotes strange. Others, myself included, like to the see the reference right there on the same page. Fortunately, Word makes it easy to go back and forth with a few clicks. Absent faculty direction, do whichever you prefer.

[2]Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1973), pp. 126-127.