Reference no: EM133853271
Assessment information
Policy Brief topic proposal presentation and literature review, 20%
ASSESSMENT DESCRIPTION
Students are asked to make a recorded video presentation of 7 to a maximum of 9 minutes.
In it you should outline your proposed policy brief topic, and provide an argument and rationale for your choice i.e. what is its relevance, importance etc. Students will need to identify three relevant readings, providing an outline of the direct relevance of the readings to the proposal, and how the readings will be used in your policy brief. Book assignment help service now!
The readings should be scholarly literature, policy documents, briefs or analysis. This can include, for example, documents produced by government agencies or NGOs, if appropriate. Context vcan be established via reference to credible new sources.
Part of the challenge of this assessment is to be clear and succinct. You have a short period of time, so should prepare your presentation accordingly to maximise impact. Reading from a script is not encouraged. If you do, please ensure that you submit a word document copy of it.
The presentation should include a PowerPoint with maximum of 6 slides, summarising the proposal topic and three readings. This should be visible as you present ie using a split screen showing your PowerPoint and yourself.
All presentation content will be checked for plagiarism, including the use of AI generated text and collusion.
HOW TO SUBMIT
The video presentation is to be submitted as a single file in a standard video format i.e. mpg, avi etc via the assessment submission tab on the unit LMS. Please ensure it is within the upload size limit for LMS. To do so, you may have to reduce the video resolution quality. Please DO NOT submit links to hosted content.
Ensure that the uploaded document title contains your surname and student number. Avoid generic file names
i.e. ‘essay1'.
HOW IT IS ASSESSED (summary)
You will be assessed on these key criteria:
Clearly Spoken
Pacing
Use of slides
Selection and framing of the policy problem/issue
Preparation/research
Choice/Relevancy of literature
Discussion/analysis
Organisation
Clarity of material
Assessment - Policy Brief
ASSESSMENT DESCRIPTION
Students are asked to research and write a policy brief of 2000 words (not inclusive of reference list). The Brief should identify, outline and respond to an existing security policy problem, issue or challenge that is linked to security, conflict or violence.
How do I identify a problem/issue for my policy brief?
An effective policy brief must propose a solution to a well-defined problem that can be addressed at the level of policy. This may sound easy, but it can take a lot of work to think of a problem in a way that is open to policy action.
Preliminary research will be important in this regard. The key is that you define the problem and its contributing factors as specifically as possible so that some sort of concrete policy action (at the local, state, national or international level) is feasible. It may be an issue familiar to you in your local or national setting, It may also be an issue anywhere in the world, or one that is global or transnational.
For example, existing counter-violent extremism policy in Australia has been largely premised on a post-911 transnational Islamist terrorist threat. However, security agencies now identify domestic far-right and single issue violent extremism as the predominant threat, in terms of possible violent/terrorist incidents. How can existing policy be tweaked to substantively deal with this changed threat? Unit topics and materials, as well as current affairs, provide many examples, and you are encouraged to engage with different sources in identifying your policy brief topic i.e. it has been reported the Australian government will purchase Hilmar long-range rocket systems form the US. How could this generate instability in the region, considering the clear non-proliferation stance of near neighbours such as Indonesia? How should governments approach issues of sustainable domestic water supply in contexts of transnational disputes over water shared sources? Please note these are indicative examples only, and should not be used as your topic.
Writing and Organising your Policy Brief
A policy brief is a short document that presents the findings and recommendations of a research project to a nonspecialized audience. It is a medium for exploring an issue and distilling lessons learned from the research and is a vehicle for providing policy advice. A Brief should be clearly laid out, with distinct sections (using subheadings).
You can find examples of Policy Briefs, and further guidelines for here:
In terms of structure, your policy brief should include some, if not all, of these sections:
Title: A good title quickly communicates the contents of the brief in a memorable way.
Executive Summary: This section is often one to two paragraphs long; it includes an overview of the problem and the proposed policy action.
Context or Scope of Problem: This section outlines the context, background and importance of the problem/issue, and aims to convince the reader of the necessity of policy action, or changes to existing action.
Policy Alternatives: This section discusses the current policy approach and explains proposed options. It should be fair and accurate while convincing the reader why the policy action proposed in the brief is desirable.
Policy Recommendations: This section contains the most detailed explanation of the concrete steps to be taken to address the policy issue.
Appendices: If some readers might need further support in order to accept your argument but doing so in the brief itself might derail the conversation for other readers, you might include the extra information in an appendix.
Consulted or Recommended Sources: These should be reliable sources that you have used throughout your brief to guide your policy discussion and recommendations. This should be organised as per a conventional essay reference list.
An abbreviated policy brief structure should consist of :
Executive summary
Purpose
Critical analysis
Recommendations
While the length of the Policy Brief is, unsurprisingly, relatively brief, to be well written it requires significant background research. In preparing your Brief, you should engage in scholarly research drawing on suitable source materials. A suitable number of source materials for a project of this kind will vary, however a minimum would be 10 source materials. You must reference source material as per a normal university research essay.
Begin with university library resources, and scholarly search engines such as Google Scholar. An excellent Library resource is the JSTOR Security Studies Database, which you can access here.
Many examples of policy briefs can be found online. There is also a list of some Policy Briefs on the unit page. Make sure to verify the credibility of any sources or examples that you draw upon. Some further tips on writing a policy brief can be found here and here
HOW TO SUBMIT
Upload via the upload tab on the unit page. Please submit in .doc or similar format. Do not submit in PDF.
Ensure that the uploaded document title contains your surname and student number. Avoid generic file names
i.e. ‘essay1'.
HOW IT IS ASSESSED (summary)
You will be assessed on these key criteria:
Identifying a genuine policy problem
Succinct and informative background analysis and context setting
Structure, clarity and expression
Quality of argument and policy/action recommendations
It should reflect your earlier policy brief topic presentation, including any feedback
The assessment includes a moderation process to ensure reliable, just, and fair outcomes.
Your assessment outcome will be provided to you via feedback and a detailed marking matrix, uploaded to the unit page
Please consider this general advice for the policy brief:
Please use an easily legible font and adequate font size.
Please use sub-headings and paragraphs to structure your argument.
The brief needs to be fully referenced and accompanied by the reference list at the end of the documents. The reference list is not considered in the word count.
The primary sources for your brief should be books, book chapters, journal articles, policy briefs and policy documents. Please do not rely on the work of just one or very few authors and support your arguments with an adequate number of references (minimum: ten).