Semester Paper/Project
Public Procurement Concepts and Practices (PAD 4852)
Each student is required to complete a 9– 10 page research paper. The research paper provides you an opportunity to demonstrate your research skills as well as your ability to understand and integrate the concepts and approaches provided in the course. It also allows you to demonstrate insight and creativity in the analysis of a specific purchasing topic.
Early in the semester, students will select a general policy area as the focus of your research paper. Any area which fits within the scope of the course is acceptable. Examples would include, but not limited to, sustainable purchasing, the role of procurement in decision making, green procurement, procurement professionalization, leading trends, leadership, evaluation, etc.
FORMAT: Your paper will contain four sections. The paper must be typed, double-spaced, using a 12 point font, and should not exceed 12 pages typed. (page length does not include references or title page). The final paper must be placed in the appropriate link on Blackboard.
a. Title page: Must contain a descriptive title of your paper, the course number, the semester and year, and your name. The title page will not be counted in the page limit.
b. Introduction: In this section you will identify the research issue(s) your paper is going to address, what makes it an important topic, what you are going to do in the paper, and what you will generally conclude. This section should be no longer than 2 – 3 paragraphs.
c. Body section: The body of the paper should be approximately 7 to 9 pages and include, at minimum, the following:
- Define the issue/problem – and what the literature states about the issue/problem. Pay particular attention to any theories espoused in the literature.
- Identify who are the key actor(s), what they are trying to achieve, why, and how they are going about trying to achieve their objectives, and what conflicts and negotiated strategies are being pursued.
- Identify potential remedies to the issue/problem.
- Discuss the potential strengths and weaknesses of alternatives to your issue/problem.
d. Conclusion: In this section you are asked to speculate on what the materials covered in the body of the text, as well as other materials from class, lead you to conclude about your topic in general. What are the internal and external forces shaping your topic, what are the present trends, which characterize it, what do you imagine will happen in the future – 1-2 pages.
e. References: All citations must include the name of the author/s, the title of the article, the title of the source (journal), the page numbers, the publisher, and the year the article was published. References do not count towards your page limitation.
IF YOU ARE MISSING ANY OF THIS INFORMATION, I WILL NOT COUNT IT TOWARDS YOUR GRADE.
A minimum of 10 academic sources must be included in the body of your paper, though you are encouraged to do more (it seems the more academic references the better the grade). For papers that contain less than 10 academic citations, students will be penalized 2 points for each academic source below 10 (for example, if you include 6 academic references, you will be penalized 8 points – missing 4 sources times two points – from a total of 100 points).
Assessments will be evaluated based on the quality of your academic sources as well as the quality of your arguments that are based on research. You are encouraged to use the Internet but try not to limit yourself to it; often print sources have more depth. Also, be sure your sources, whether online or print, are reliable, e.g., academic journals, national or international news sources (papers, magazines), government documents, etc. I want you to properly cite your references at the end of the paper.
