Exploratory Section Planning Exercise
Provide clear answers to these questions before you begin drafting the Exploratory Section.
What is the “big-picture” problem you want to address?
What is the specific problem you’ll focus on?
What are the effects of the problem? Who is being harmed and how?
Who will need to enact your proposal to address the problem?
Who (what individual, group, or agency) will be your target audience? (Your answer could be the same as for the previous question, but not necessarily so.)
What is your policy claim? Remember, you should be able to state your claim in this format: (A specified individual, group or agency) should/must/ought to do (or not do) X because…
Introduction Draft
Use the space below to write a draft of the introduction to your paper. Make sure it’s substantial and informative—150-200 words is a good target. Your intro should end with your policy claim.
Topic Sentence Outline
Create a topic sentence outline for your Exploratory Section (in other words, not including the Proposal Section). First, write your argument (policy claim.
Then, for each paragraph after the introduction, draft a topic sentence and write it. There’s no set number of topic sentences you’ll need, but 5-7 is a good range. You can add to the list below if necessary.
Think carefully about the sequence of the topic sentences. Also, remember that you don’t need a conclusion for the Exploratory Section because it will become the first part of a longer paper.
