Complete Guide: How to Write a Public Administration Research Paper

A public administration research paper is a type of academic work that is traditionally based on an independent research in such academic disciplines as Political Sciences, International Relations, and any other fields that focus on organizational governance and administration. Public administration has a direct relation to the implementation of a great variety of government policies and preparation of civil servants for introducing and carrying out public services. Being a researcher of this field, you can be asked to:

• Do a thorough analysis of the chosen topic on Public Administration;
• Present the final findings of research;
• Discuss the research findings and their contribution to the field;
• Make a logical conclusion from what is investigated;
• Produce a set of recommendations on further research, etc.

You can present your public administration research paper as a traditional term paper and create the significant grounds for many researchers in the future at the same time. For that purpose, you should show some well-developed skills in writing a research paper. All of them are aimed at operating with relevant scientific facts, using the effective research methods, making the readers understand the flow of thoughts fully and so on. Read this public administration research paper writing guide to know how to succeed in research paper writing on Public Administration.

List of Research Topics to Choose Quickly to Start Writing

Choosing a topic is the first step towards creating the best public administration research paper writing. You should choose an interesting topic that can attract the attention of the audience. By the way, don’t forget that you are actually writing a research paper to someone – your professor and others who are interested in knowing more about your topic. Read why the audience matters in writing. The topic has to be captivating; otherwise, you would not be interested in conducting thorough research and your audience would not be interested in the obtained results presented in the paper. For that reason, it is necessary to start researching a topic that is really important for you, motivates you to put in personal efforts, and makes you full of enthusiasm to discover new facts and evidence related to the subject of the paper. The best piece of advice is to focus the attention on a narrow topic that can be easily developed into an extensive study.

The field of public administration can be characterized by a considerable number of different topics to be researched. All of them are of great importance to the development of governmental policies and their management. These topics usually are related to administrative and support services, healthcare, military, education, research, and culture. As a result, your research paper can be:

• The thorough analysis of some governmental policies,
• The evaluation of different political decisions and their influence on the society,
• The criticism of local or/and federal budget spendings,
• The exploration of the duties and responsibilities of different administrative units,
• The examination of differences in state and federal laws,
• The investigation of the origin of different political systems and interdisciplinarity.

It is necessary for you to make a right choice. Follow a set of easy tips that will help you to choose an appropriate topic for public administration research paper:

• Think of a particular idea, question, or problem, that is interesting to you and that can be explored without any additional difficulties. It should have some impact on the development of public administration. In this way, focus on a clear topic that can make a contribution to the mentioned field of study.
• Brainstorm topic ideas effectively. There are some great brainstorming methods to get a lot of valuable ideas related to specific areas of public administration. Nonetheless, you should also keep in mind the general requirements to your research paper and brainstorm ideas within them.
• Check your old notes and library resources related to the subject. It happens that looking through the related material may help you to think of an excellent research topic and provide the supportive information for it.
• Generate from three to five research questions, make evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, and chose the most appropriate of them.
• Create a thesis statement and develop its main message into the topic. In this way, it becomes possible to define a research question, provide an answer to it, and clarify the main purpose of the conducted research.

Pre-Writing Tips to Follow for Better Results in Writing

There is a strong need to follow a set of particular guidelines and take into consideration a number of useful tips immediately at the first stage of writing. They help to put all the collected information in the right order, present a topic in a clear and understandable manner, and transmit your primary message to the readers. In addition, writing a research paper demands that you make a deep research of a chosen topic, pay attention to its various aspects, and use only reliable sources of information. For that reason, researching the sources and general information related to public relations, government organizations, financial issues, or human resources is considered to be the most important thing.

1.   Define the Type of Research Paper Writing

A research paper may be of two types: argumentative and analytical. If you want to write an argumentative research paper, you should search for the information that is debatable and invited to the discussion. For example, it is possible to compare and contrast laws and legislations in different countries and describe their influence on the welfare of the local citizens. This approach will persuade your readers to support your position on the topic. If you want to write an analytical research paper, you should create a research question and search for the information that can provide the answer to it. For example, it is possible to make an analysis of a newly introduced law and study its effectiveness is solving different social issues.

In both cases, there is a need to search for primary and secondary sources and analyze the topic based on the found information. The information on Public Administration can be found online on the official sites of the governments or their departments, in the specialized online journals, archives, or libraries, where all the relevant publications are available in printed versions. The useful data usually is presented by laws, legislation, various government policies, different state or federal projects, political decisions, government accountability, public interests, and public relations. What is important, the data should be up-to-date and contain facts and evidence that are pertinent and up to the point.

2.   Say, “Yes” Only to Reliable Information Sources

The quality of your research paper grows and develops along with the amount of the newly discovered information, including a personal interpretation of the author supported by facts and evidence that should be taken from governmental websites and annual reports. Thus, before starting the research, you should find both primary and secondary sources that will become the ground of your research paper. These sources include articles in peer reviewed sources, official statistics, and professional critical evaluations. In addition, searching for the relevant information not only allows to find valuable sources but also offers you a chance to discover new insights in the field of public administration.

Pay significant attention to the fact that the any research paper is not a summary of the chosen topic and the results of research. It is a paper where you should present, explain, and prove your research ideas and support them with relevant facts from reliable sources. To search for valuable sources and make their proper evaluation, it is necessary to spend time. A good source is an essential ground for the well-developed public administration research paper. Only in this way, it is possible to provide the reader with the full amount of necessary information to understand the discussed issue.

3.   Develop the Outline of Your Research Paper

• Title creates a first impression for the reader. That is why it should present a brief information about the topic you are going to You should avoid unnecessary words and word combinations while creating a title and make sure it is short and comprehensive. Great title examples for your research paper on Public Administration are:
• The Importance of Forecasting Changes and Patterns in Public R
• Public Administration Areas Handling of Domestic Issues like Violence and A
• An Analysis of the Main Reasons Why Cities Have Issues of Administering F
• Thesis statement presents the main idea of the whole research paper. Therefore, it should include your main arguments and briefly explain your central message to the reader. As the thesis statement sets the tone for the whole paper, you should spend some time developing this large and informative sentence. A great example of the thesis statement for public administration research paper is: “While both representatives of North and South believed they fought against despotism and repressions, the former concentrated on the repressions of slaves at the time when the latter struggled to hold their privilege for self-government.”
• Body sections should include three or more well-developed parts. Each of them is devoted to a particular aim to review, explain, prove, or discuss the results of research. Here are useful tips for writing an excellent body of your research:
• Start with a topic sentence. It should contain keywords that are relevant for your research paper and pointed out by you in advance.
• Think of further explanation of the first sentence and provide some additional sentences for the readers to understand your message.
• Introduce strong pieces of evidence. If it is a quote, do not forget to cite it properly.
• Explain the provided information. The explanation is essential as the readers have to understand the importance of the mentioned facts and be able to evaluate them in relation to the topic.
• Create a concluding sentence. Each body paragraph should end with a conclusion that demonstrates the contributions of the paragraph to the discussed issue.

Take into consideration the following example of the main research paper part:

“Despite the great results in the first month after an introduction of a social program, political experts doubt that it will have a significant influence on the overall development of the local culture. Looking back, the local authorities have already introduced a range of the developmental programs; nonetheless, they only slightly changed the situation for better. As famous journalist Jon Katz once said, “We live in a fragmented and disconnected culture,” and that is why it is quite difficult to develop and introduce successful cultural programs. Nowadays, people have become more culturally separated, being indifferent to the cultural preferences of the others. Taking into account this fact, there is a need to create more flexible programs that would be able to adapt and function in different cultural communities throughout the country.”

• Every well-written research paper has a number of logical conclusions an author should arrive at. Yours is no exception. For that reason, include such an essential part of a research paper as a conclusion. Remember that it isn’t just an element of the particular descriptive process. This is the part where you should explain how your research paper can influence the field by naming the findings.

Post-Writing Public Administration Research Paper Writing Tips

Last but not least is to take into account the following post-writing tips provided be some experienced specialists in academic writing. Thus, all of them highly recommend to proofread a paper. So when the public administration research paper is written, it is crucial to read the whole paper and check its structure and content. Each body paragraph should have particular structure and include topic sentence, its further explanation, a piece of evidence or a fact and its explanation, and a concluding sentence. In addition, all the claims should be supported with the relevant facts and evidence found in reliable sources. The information in the text should be presented in a comprehensive and understandable way without irrelevant words and word combinations. Besides, you should read the paper for the second time and check it for misspellings, improper citations, content inaccuracies, and third-person pronouns. What is more, it is crucial for you to check all the supportive facts, evidence, and final results. Finally, the paper should be presented in a particular format and the reference list should be arranged in alphabetical order.