THE NINTH ANNUAL ALABAMA MODEL UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE
GUIDELINES FOR A SUCCESSFUL POSITION PAPER
The position paper is a delegate’s first impression to the dais and is the final product of a student’s preparation and research for any Model United Nations conference. It contains informed perspectives and histories of the state a delegate represents and is crucial to creating an authentic MUN experience.
All delegates in General Assembly committees are strongly encouraged to submit a position paper. A country delegation (consisting of two students in DISEC, SOCHUM, WHO, and UNDP, and one student in UNSC) must submit a position paper in order to be considered for awards. This means ONE position paper for every country in a committee covering BOTH topics A and B. The best position paper within each committee will be awarded the Outstanding Position Paper award by the committee staff.
There are no position papers required for crisis delegates. Crisis delegates can expect to give a one minute speech at the beginning of the first committee session in a Round Robin caucus, where every delegate will outline their character and their policy positions for the committee.
FORMAT
The position paper will be two pages long, so that each topic takes up space on one page. When finished writing positions for the first topic, add a page break and begin the second topic on the second page. Do not exceed two pages.
The document will be single-spaced, 12 pt., Times New Roman font.
The document will begin with a three-line header on the left side consisting of the following:
Name(s) of the delegate(s)
State represented by the delegate(s)
Committee in which the delegate(s) will participate
After the header, center and identify the title of the first topic, such as in the following example:
Topic A: [Insert Title of Topic]
References will be cited using footnotes in MLA format. Include the URL for electronic sources. We strongly encourage using solely electronic sources for ease of reference.
Please use the example position paper provided on the ALMUN website as a reference for formatting.
Position papers should be saved as a word document or PDF file with the title "ALMUNIX_[committee]_[country]".
All position papers should be submitted via email to almunpositionpapers@gmail.com by 11:59 p.m on January 21, 2017 with the subject "[Country] [Committee] Position Paper".
CONTENT
Position papers will have three paragraphs for each topic outlined as follows:
- The first paragraph introduces the topic from the point of view of the nation represented. It discusses the history of the topic, specifically in relationship to the country.
- The second paragraph analyses the country’s context of the topic and expresses most of the research done on the topic. It discusses past action or inaction, success or failure, and the nation’s current thoughts and feelings towards the issue.
- The third paragraph is the informed discussion of solutions to be proposed by the delegate(s) at the conference. It uses the research done on the topic and synthesizes it into new and creative ideas based on the nation represented by the student.
Do not write in first person; write as the nation represented (e.g. “The United Kingdom believes…”)
Avoid the passive voice.
Write matter-of-factly rather than with embellished language.
Remember to cite your sources!
Please use the example position paper provided on the ALMUN website for ideas on how the writing and style should look, as well as how to present the information needed to prepare for the conference as well as to impress the dais.
Additionally, a watermark or a header with images such as the nation’s flag may be used to enhance the visual element of a position paper to make it stand out among other papers (though the content of the text remains the most important part of the position paper-judging process).
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