The Doctrine of the Separation of Powers

An introduction
Your opening paragraphs are some of the most important of the essay – they set the tone, orient your reader and motivate the reader to continue through the whole essay. Spend sufficient time working and editing your introduction.

Your introduction needs to do three things:
1. Your intro needs to identify and illustrate the importance of the general subject matter that you are writing about. If you are writing about Chinese foreign policy, you might start by saying something like: “Following the persistent rise in the economic and military power of China, understanding Chinese foreign policy is more important than ever before.” (This sentence identifies the ‘problem’ that you are looking at – how to understand Chinese foreign policy – and explains why it is important – because China is powerful.) This aspect of your introduction should take around one to three sentences.
2. Next, you need to state your central argument in one or two sentences. Again, this should be as clear as possible. For example: “In this essay, I argue that the International Relations theory known as Realism provides us with the key to understanding China’s foreign policy.”
3. Finally, you need to spend a little time outlining how your argument (and your essay) are going to be structured. Basically, you want to let your reader know how the essay is going to proceed. An academic essay is not meant to be like a thriller or ‘who-done-it’. There should not be a surprise conclusion at the end. This section of your intro should outline the different things that are going to be argued within the body of your essay.

An essay body
The body of your essay needs to be broken up into various parts, each of which should address a different issue, and each of which should develop a different ‘piece’ of your overall argument. Think about what tasks you need to undertake in order to make your central argument clear and convincing:
• Are there key terms, concepts of theories that need to be explained? For example, if you want to argue that Realism helps us to understand China’s foreign policy, then you need to explain what Realism is. You might start, therefore, by explaining Realist theory in a few paragraphs. Generally, your discussion of theories or concepts should come first, before you move on to explain what that theory tells us about a specific example.
• Do you need to explain what a particular concept or theory suggest regarding a specific ‘real-world’ example? In the case above, this is where you might state what Realist theory tells us to expect from a China whose power is growing. In this section, your general or abstract discussion of theories or concepts must be related to the specific example you want to explain.
• Are there specific historical or contemporary examples that you want to introduce to demonstrate the accuracy of your argument? Here, you might pick out some specific examples of Chinese foreign policy – Chinese-Taiwan relations, China and the South China Seas, etc. Remember, you don’t need to cover every possible example – you need to be selective. Which examples do you select? Sometimes you pick the ones that best highlight your argument. Sometimes you might pick the ones that seem most important to real-world actors. Sometimes you might have to pick the ones that seem to challenge your argument, especially if those are really obvious examples.
There is no final rule for how to structure your essay. You need to decide for yourself, but make sure that you do think about this issue.

A conclusion
Your conclusion needs to do similar things to your introduction, but in a shorter and more confident manner.
• You need to reiterate your main argument.
• You need to remind the reader why you reached that particular conclusion. What are the key elements of your argument and your paper?
• You need to remind the reader of the general importance of the subject matter and consider what we should do in the future…

Things not to include in a conclusion
• New examples or evidence
• New arguments
• Do not ask a question

The essay must engage in normative analysis regarding the Topic.

The topic is: the doctrine of the separation of powers;
you need to discuss the topic in the context of its place within the design of the political system of the United States. In order to do so, I expect you to refer to one or more of the following primary sources:
• The Constitution of the United States of America: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html/;
• The Declaration of Independence: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html;
• The Federalist Papers: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html.
Your goals in this essay are therefore to describe your chosen topic and its place within the founding of the United States and to evaluate it from a normative perspective. Put simply, your job is to judge whether your chosen topic/principle is a valid idea upon which to base a political system.
What is normative analysis?
The first essay asks you to engage in normative analysis of one of the principles listed above. But what is “normative analysis” and what does good normative analysis require?
In answer to the first question, we might argue that normative analysis involves the analysis of values rather than that of facts. In general, those engaged in normative political analysis are interested in judging the quality of political concepts and advancing particular views of what constitutes a “good” life, political principle or political system.
More precisely, good normative analysis generally involves:
• The accurate definition/description of a particular principle;
• The interrogation of the assumptions (such as those regarding the nature of people, politics or society) that underpin such a principle;
• The judging of the quality of that principle (is it “good” or “bad”?; does it further “good” or “bad” policies or politics?), such judgement often being linked to;
• The examination of pragmatic application of that principle (can it work in the “real” world?).
A good normative analysis has a clear argument, is constructed in a logical manner, and uses reason and evidence (rather than mere rhetorical devices such as appeals to “common sense”) to support and defend that argument.