Writing a Position Paper

Time to write a position paper?

What is the right approach?

Do you even have the requisite skills?

All these questions run in the minds of most scholars required to write a position paper.

So, what do you need to know?

With the right guidance, not much!

To begin with, note that a position paper example would act as an effective guide on the right approach.

Accordingly, whether it is a reflection paper example, article review example, critical reflection essay example, or critical analysis essay example, example papers should illustrate keys aspects of writing, including how to construct arguments, apply evidence, structure paragraphs, etc.

What is a Position Paper?

Before you start writing, it is important to understand what a position paper is.

So, what does a positional paper entail?

In short, a positional paper:

Presents an arguable opinion about an issue.

Based on this definition, the goal of a position paper is therefore to convince the audience that an opinion is valid and worth listening to.

Purpose of a Position Paper

A position paper seeks to fulfill a particular purpose.

What is this purpose?

Simply, a position paper seeks to:

Generate support on an issue.  

The paper therefore describes the position on an issue taken by the writer and the rationale behind that position.  

As reflected in any good position paper example, ideas that you intend to advance need to be carefully examined.

This examination should be done when:

1. Choosing a topic,
2. Developing your argument, and
3. Organizing your paper

To make the position paper balanced, it is necessary to ensure that you address all sides of the issue and present it in a manner that is easy for the audience to understand.

Writing a balanced paper requires you to take one side of the argument and persuade your audience that you have well-founded knowledge of the topic.

As illustrated in a good position paper example, to do this, you have to support your argument with evidence.

This evidence should be used to:

1. Demonstrate the validity of your claims
2. Address the counterclaims
3. Illustrate that you are well informed about both sides

Issue Criteria

You should devise an approach on how to determine the suitability of the topic.

As demonstrated in any good position paper example, for the paper to realize its objectives, the topic must be plausible.

In this, you have to take a side on a subject.

This demands that you first establish the plausibility of a topic you intend to explore.

This step is necessary in ensuring that your argument is strong.

To do this, you should ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is it a real issue, with genuine controversy and uncertainty?
2. Can you distinctly identify two positions?
3. Are you personally interested in advocating one of these positions?
4. Is the issue narrow enough to be manageable?

Analyzing an Issue and Developing an Argument

After selecting a topic, you should go ahead and do research on the subject matter.

It is important to ensure the side of the argument you take is well supported by evidence.

As earlier noted, this requires you to take a position.

As is lucid in any good position paper example, the position should be clear.

To help clearly state your position, you should list out the pro and con sides of the topic.

This will help in examining your ability to support your counterclaims, along with a list of supporting evidence for both sides.

Accordingly, the supporting evidence may include the following:

1. Factual Knowledge – Information that is verifiable and agreed upon by almost everyone.
2. Statistical Inferences – Interpretation and examples of an accumulation of facts.
3. Informed Opinion – Opinion developed through research and/or expertise of the claim.
4. Personal Testimony – Personal experience related by a knowledgeable party.

With the list of pro and con lists, you should then go ahead and compare the information side by side.

Borrowing from an excellent position paper example, this demands that you consider your audience and your viewpoint, to help identify the best position to take.

When considering the audience, you should ask yourself questions such as:

1. Who is your audience?
2. What do they believe?
3. Where do they stand on the issue?
4. How are their interests involved?
5. What evidence is likely to be effective with them?

On the other hand, when determining your viewpoint, you should ask yourself the following:

1. Is your topic interesting?
2. Can you manage the material within the specifications set by the instructor?
3. Does your topic assert something specific and propose a plan of action?
4. Do you have enough material to support your opinion?

Position Paper Format

A position paper format entails the actual organization in the paper.

As demonstrated in any good position paper example, the organization should be around a thesis.

This should be evident in the introduction.

Accordingly, the introduction should lead up to a thesis.

By leading with the thesis, your approach is more effective because:

1. It is possible for the audience know where you stand
2. The thesis appears in the two strongest places, first and last.
3. It follows the most common form of academic argument

Outline for a Position Paper Example

Below is an outline that any good position paper example would adopt.

I. Introduction

A. Introduce the topic

B. Provide background on the topic

C. Assert the thesis (your view of the issue)

II. Counter Argument

A. Summarize the counterclaims

B. Provide supporting information for counterclaims

C. Refute the counterclaims

D. Give evidence for argument

III. Your Argument

A. Assert point #1 of your claims

1. Give your opinion

2. Provide support

B. Assert point #2 of your claims

1. Give your opinion

2. Provide support

C. Assert point #3 of your claims

1. Give your opinion

2. Provide support

IV. Conclusion

A. Restate your argument

B. Provide a plan of action

Position Paper Example

Andrew J. Fitzgerald

Professor Jacobsen

ENGL 1A: Composition and Reading

Aug. 29, 2024

Stop Subsidies for Local IT Firms

                Local U.S. IT firms should not receive subsidies from the government. Subsidies for IT firms are usually in two forms: sales tax breaks and property tax breaks (Tarczynska). For sales tax breaks, companies enjoy sales and use tax exemptions that allow for tax-free equipment and electricity purchases. More than 20 states offer sales tax breaks, with Virginia’s sales tax exemptions for example, costing residents $136 million in the 2022 financial year. On the other hand, property tax breaks entail property tax abatements through programs such as Enterprise Zone. A state like Oregon, which runs the abatements program, provided a property tax of $152 million to data center owners for the 2023 financial year. Amazon who is already a big beneficiary of the program, received an additional $1 billion in property tax breaks. Companies usually combine these two subsidies to get huge tax breaks at the expense of the residents.  

                Cities and states argue that tax breaks are essential in attracting the high-paying jobs provided by technology companies (Rushe). Studies however indicate that handouts to companies rarely result into significant job creation, and when jobs are created, they come at a high cost. The tech industry is the main culprit, where data centers for companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook have benefited from huge tax breaks but created few jobs. For example, Foxconn received $4.5bn subsidy to build assembly plants and warehouses in Wisconsin. With a 3,000 conservative estimate of jobs to be created, each job created by the company would cost about $1.5m. It has been observed that even with this high cost, jobs created are low paying jobs.

                Further, subsidies to the local IT firms are likely to weaken them in the long-run. By their design, subsidies are essentially industry protectionist policies and approaches that seek to shield an industry from market forces perceived as threatening (Lee, 269). Accordingly, offering subsidies to local IT firms would give them an advantage over foreign firms seeking to operate in the local market. Such kind of protection would impair the local IT firms’ ability to compete on global and regional levels. Lack of such competition is likely to result into low innovation and the eventual collapse of these local IT firms (World Bank e-Library, 13).  

                As well, protection of the local IT firms could result into massive layoffs on employees in the same and other related industries. The information technology business is a global enterprise, with companies from different countries seeking both local and foreign markets for their products and technologies. As such, countries where the U.S seeks to market products made by local IT firms, for example China, may take retaliatory steps to counter the protectionist actions against their local IT firms. This would have a grave impact on the local firms exporting their products to foreign countries and may eventually result into loss of jobs for the people working in the local IT firms. This begs the question whether it is prudent to provide subsidies for the local IT firms at the expense of scores of employees working the industry as a whole (Taylor, 9).

                More to this, protection of the local industries through subsidies is likely to harm the local consumers. The protection could result into limited competition levels between firms in the same industry (Haley & Haley, 215). In return, this would create a partial market monopoly for the local IT firms, which has the possibility of harming quality among the local IT firms, and consequently result into substandard products or services. As well, the partial monopoly enjoyed by the local IT firms may negatively impact product or service pricing.

                In addition, subsidies for the IT industry could hurt other firms in related industries. Subsidizing the local IT firms, which protects them against competition from foreign firms producing similar products but cheaper prices. For instance, offering subsidies to local IT firms producing microchips and microprocessors implies that foreign firms that used to produce such products at lower prices will not be able to compete effectively in the same markets. This will negatively impact the firms that previously relied on the imported microchips and microprocessors for their core business. If such businesses survive such high prices, they will be forced to initiate massive layoffs (m Dagenais & Pierre-Alain Muet, 195).

                Proponents of subsidies for IT firms argue that they enhance job creation and economic growth. Those opposed to them point out that considering the cost and the uncompetitive business environment they create, they are not worth it. Certainly, subsidies for the local IT firms are an untold story on the numerous negative impacts they have on the industry and the general economy. Such subsidies are likely to weaken the IT industry in the long-run, cause massive layoffs on employees in the IT and other related industries, result into low quality and overpriced products, and may even hurt other related industries. Since subsidies for the local IT firms would cause more harm than good to the IT industry, other related industries, and economy, it is advisable that all levels of governments avoid using tax payers money to subsidize the IT firms.

Works Cited

Haley, Usha C & Haley, George T. “Subsidies to Chinese Industry: State Capitalism, Business Strategy, and Trade Policy.” London: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print. 

Lee, Yong-Shik. “Safeguard Measures in World Trade: The Legal Analysis.” Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014. Print.

mDagenais & Pierre-Alain Muet. “International Trade Modelling an Applied Econometrics Association volume International studies in economic modeling.” London: CRC Press, 1992. Print.

Rushe, Dominic. US cities and states give big tech $9.3bn in subsidies in five years. The Guardian, 2 Jul. 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/02/us-cities-and-states-give-big-tech-93bn-in-subsidies-in-five-years-tax-breaks. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.

Tarczynska, Kasia. “Big Tech Eyes Billions in Public Subsidies for AI, Cloud Computing.” Good Jobs First, 27 Nov. 2023. https://goodjobsfirst.org/big-tech-eyes-billions-in-public-subsidies-for-ai-cloud-computing/. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.

Taylor, Lance. “External Liberalization in Asia, Post-Socialist Europe, and Brazil.” London: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.

World Bank e-Library. “A Guide to Competitive Vouchers in Health Stand Alones Series.” World Bank, World Bank Publications, 2005. Print.