I hope you all had a well-deserved, relaxing winter break! We now have only 35 days until BMUN LXVI! I hope you're all as stoked for conference as we are :)
In this post, I just wanted to go over our expectations for your Position Papers, which are due in the coming weeks. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of what to write in your papers, here are the deadlines:
- February 5th 2018 - this deadline is ONLY if you want your paper to be considered for the Best Position Paper Award.
- February 12th 2018 - this deadline is for all other papers, for consideration for any committee award.
Please do keep in mind that these deadlines are very strict, especially the first one. If your paper is submitted after February 5th, it will not be considered for the Best Position Paper Award.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's go over what the dais expects from you for Position Papers. Each delegation is required to write two papers, one for each topic (1. Religious Freedom and 2. Exploitation, Forced Labor and Trafficking). Each paper should be between 5-10 typed pages (Times New Roman font, size 12, double-spaced with one inch margins), and note that your bibliography does not count in the page count.
The paper is broken down into four sections, along with the following weightage in terms of grading:
- Past and Current International Action (15%)
- For this section, you must provide a brief overview of any past and current action taken by the international community in solving the issue. You are more than welcome to explore issues beyond the jurisdiction of the United Nations, and the UNHRC.
- Country's Position (25%)
- This is perhaps the most important section in terms of preparing you for conference. In this section, explicitly state your country's position on the topic. This can be their general attitudes towards the issue, actions they may have taken (like ratifying certain treaties), or even certain negative forms of behavior. For example, you may state your country's position on the Trafficking in Persons tier list for the second topic.
- Proposed Solutions (30%)
- In this section, you are to propose a plan of action for solving the issue. We encourage you to be as detailed as possible, and to truly think critically of every solution you propose in terms of feasibility, measurability and other such parameters. This is an extremely important part of the paper, especially for us as a THIMUN committee.
- I'm going to ask you to write at least two solutions in the form of operative clauses. This means that you must use proper formatting (consult the BMUN Learn website, links provided below), and that they must be well constructed. This is to get you prepared for resolution writing during our first committee session.
- Questions to Consider (20%)
- For this section, you are to choose two of the Questions to Consider given at the end of each topic in the topic synopsis to answer thoughtfully. Please only respond to two questions, no more and no less.
In addition to these guidelines, there is a 10% of the grading which is up to the Chair's discretion in terms of discerning the overall quality of the paper. I'm also going to ask you to please use these subheadings for the four sections in your paper, as it helps the dais understand exactly where you finish each section.
Now, a very important note on citations and plagiarism. The Position Paper is a research assignment. Therefore, you are required to consult reputable sources during the writing process. You must NOT cite the topic synopsis in your paper - the purpose of the paper is to go beyond the scope of the topic synopsis and for you to hone in on your specific country's stance on the issue. You are required to cite your sources in MLA format, to use footnotes/in-text citations, and to provide a fully formatted works cited section at the end of your paper.
Plagiarism is not tolerated in any way, shape or form. All position papers go through an extensive screening process when they are submitted, and if you are caught plagiarizing, you will not be eligible for any committee award.
The full, detailed Position Paper Guide is available here on the BMUN website, and additional help is available here on the BMUN Learn website. You'll find a lot more help on there, such as sample position papers and the full rubric :)
Also, a quick reminder to check out the THIMUN rules of procedure on the BMUN Learn website! It's best to start familiarizing yourself with it as soon as you can.
That's all from me for now! Thank you for bearing with me for this long, long post. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us via this blog, or shoot me an email at sthati@bmun.org! I'm very quick with my responses :)
Have fun, good luck, and see you all in March!
Suma
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