Discipline-Specific Characteristics
for Academic Papers

Government

The following are some characteristics of Government papers, based on our examination of a paper from GO 351:

• Provides a close analysis of a political text
• Presents its major themes and their relationship to political life
• Develops a critical distance from contemporary events to address the themes in a timeless fashion
• Address the question what is universal in the particular
• Presents the thinker's argument rather than what the student writer believes or feels
• Convinces the readers through the strength of the student writer's interpretation
• Shows sensitivity to the thinker's language and the historical context in which he or she wrote.