Samples of Academic Texts

Compiled by:
Shane B. Bagaporo
(12-HUMSS)
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Table of Contents
SAMPLE ESSAY2
SAMPLE CONCEPT PAPER 4
SAMPLE REACTION PAPER 6
SAMPLE POSITION PAPER8
SAMPLE REPORT 10
SAMPLE RESEARCH 12
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Essay is a piece of argumentative writing several paragraphs long written

about one topic, usually based on your reading. The aim of the essay
should be deduced strictly from the wording of the title or question. Below
shows an example of an essay. 

Should the death penalty be restored in the UK?

The restoration of the death penalty for serious crimes is an issue of debate
in the UK because of the recent rise in violent crime. The causes, effects
and solutions to the problems of violent crime throw up a number of
complex issues which are further complicated by the way that crime is
reported. Newspapers often sensationalise crime in order to increase
circulation and this makes objective discussion more difficult. This essay
will examine this topic firstly by considering the arguments put forward by
those in favour of the death penalty and then by looking at the arguments
opposed to the idea.
The main arguments in favour of restoring the death penalty are those of
deterrence and retribution: the theory is that people will be dissuaded from
violent crime if they know they will face the ultimate punishment and that
people should face the same treatment that they gave out to others.
Statistics show that when the death penalty was temporarily withdrawn in
Britain between 1965 and 1969 the murder rate increased by 125% (Clark,
2005). However, we need to consider the possibility that other reasons
might have lead to this rise. Amnesty International (1996) claims that it is
impossible to prove that capital punishment is a greater deterrent than
being given a life sentence in prison and that “evidence….gives no support
to the evidence hypothesis theory.” It seems at best that the deterrence
theory is yet to be proven. The concept of ‘retribution’ is an interesting one:
there is a basic appeal in the simple phrase ‘the punishment should fit the
crime’. Calder (2003) neatly summarises this argument when he says that
killers give up their rights when they kill and that if punishments are too
lenient then it shows that we undervalue the right to live. There are other
points too in support of the death penalty, one of these being cost. It is
obviously far cheaper to execute prisoners promply rather than feed and
house them for years on end.
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The arguments against the death penalty are mainly ethical in their nature,
that it is basically wrong to kill and that when the state kills it sends out the
wrong message to the rest of the country. Webber (2005) claims that the
death penalty makes people believe that ‘killing people is morally
permissable’. This is an interesting argument – would you teach children
not to hit by hitting them? Wouldn’t this instead show them that hitting was
indeed ‘permissable’? There is also the fact that you might execute
innocent people. Innocent people can always be released from prison, but
they can never be brought back from the dead. When people have been
killed there is no chance of rehabilitation or criminals trying to make up for
crimes. For this reason capital punishment has been called ‘the bluntest of
blunt instruments’ (Clark, 2005).
In conclusion, the arguments put forward by people who support or are
against the death penalty often reflect their deeper principles and beliefs.
These beliefs and principles are deeply rooted in life experiences and the
way people are brought up and are unlikely to be swayed by clever
arguments. It is interesting that in this country most people are in favour of
the death penalty yet parliament continues to oppose it. In this case it could
be argued that parliament is leading the way in upholding human rights and
continues to broadcast the clear message that killing is always wrong.
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Concept Paper is a short document written by a researcher before starting

their research project, with the purpose of explaining what the study is
about, why it is important and the methods that will be used. Below shows
a sample concept paper for academic research.

Lorena A. Brillo, Ph.D.

UP Open University
December 1, 2017
Background
Instructional consultation is a basic service to students, and it is an
important tool in assessing the relevance of important basic institutional
services. However, as perceived by students, a substantial gap still exists
between the need for instructional consultation information and the current
services being rendered by the school.
The post-modernist, process-oriented concept of education has led to
policies requiring educators to take a more active role in the education
process. The notion of a dialogic and interactive curriculum where
knowledge-creation and negotiation are emphasized is a 21″ century
byword, making learning more authentic and meaningful to students. The
21″-century curriculum has been described as one that is generative,
outcome-based, and interactive, marked by a meaningful transaction
between teacher and student.
Project Description
Objectives 
 To analyze the current instructional consultation program of the
higher education unit
 To assess students’ perception and attitude towards the current
instructional consultation process
 Expected outcomes 
 Improved student-teacher relationships, resulting in optimized
institutional goals
 Adoption of improved instructional consultation practices in support of
the institutional goals
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 The study could influence policies for students across all disciplines
regardless of attitude towards instructional consultation. The study
could also change the way teachers regard their role in instructional
consultation in the context of a learning paradigm that insists on
collaboration.
Indicators of achievement 
 Increased number of students availing of their instructional
consultation privileges
 Improved consultation rooms
 Increased number of teachers rendering consultation beyond their
required consultation hours
Main activities
 Writing letters
 Drafting questionnaires
 Consulting with experts on the matter
 Distributing questionnaires and collating data
 Interpreting results
 Consulting with statistician
 Interviewing respondents
 Organizing an intra-school visit to learn best practices from peers
Project Needs and Cost (P17,000)
Communication (P12.000.00)
Travel to and from interview sites
Token for the respondents and consultant/s
Other incidental expenses
Professional fee for statistician
Supplies (P7,000.00)
Books and other learning resources
Photocopying expenses
Library fee
Duration and Target Date of Completion
January 1- June 30, 2018
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Reaction Paper is a type of written assignment, which requires personal

opinion and conclusions on a given article or abstract. Unlike a summary, a
reaction paper should contain your own thoughts on the problem,
discussed in the original text.

Based on Macrae’s stereotype rebound article that we read, I was thinking

that stereotype suppression might be an alternate explanation for
Bodenhausen’s findings.   Bodenhausen et al. showed that happy
individuals made more stereotypical judgments than neutral mood
individuals.  Experiment 2 showed that these stereotypical judgments
occurred even when the happy participants were not cognitively
distracted.  Perhaps the feeling of happiness suppresses all other negative
thoughts, including stereotyping.  Our neutral emotion state is one in which
we are aware of both our negative and positive thoughts.  A state of
happiness suppresses negative thoughts, including stereotyping and
elevates our mood.  When negative thoughts are brought back into our
consciousness, like being asked to make a judgment call, then these
thoughts are more negative than usual.  This is evidence by the fact that
Bodenhausen et al.’s participants in a happy mood rated stereotyped
targets more negatively than the non-stereotyped targets.  This was not
seen in the neutral group because their negative thoughts had not been
suppressed via a feeling of happiness.Therefore, their negative judgments
did not rebound and subsequently the stereotyped and non-stereotyped
individuals were rated equally.  Experiment 4 can also be explained along
this line of logic.  Participants who were held accountable for their
judgments were less stereotypic than those who were not accountable in
the happy condition.  The fact that participants were going to be held
accountable made their processing conscious and more effortful.  They
may have become aware of their rebound effect and tempered their
judgments.  If Macrae’s participants would have been told that they were
going to have to explain their paragraphs about the skinhead or explain
why they chose to sit in the seat they did, I’m sure their stereotypic
reactions would have been tempered as well. 
I was also intrigued by the Sinclair, Mark, & Clore article and how it related
to Bodenhausen et al.  Both articles demonstrated how participants in
happy moods rely on automatic processes or mental heuristics when
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interpreting information or making a judgment.  Sinclair et al. demonstrated

how happy people are influenced the same by strong and weak persuasive
arguments.  However, unhappy people engage in more effortful processing
and therefore more influenced by stronger arguments and discount weaker
ones.  Unlike Bodenhausen et al., Sinclair et al. showed that when
participants are aware of the cause of their mood, the effects of mood
disappear and the argument quality affects attitude.  It would be interesting
to take this paradigm and apply it to a stereotype judgment situation like in
Bodenhausen et al.  What if Bodenhausen’s participants had been made
aware of the fact that their recall experience had influenced their mood?  It
seems likely that the effect of happiness on participant’s ratings would be
attenuated.  There should be no differences between the neutral mood
condition and the happy mood conditions on stereotypical judgment
ratings.  The participants should become aware of the external influences
on their emotion and therefore could not use their mood to cue their
processing (automatic vs. conscious).   
I am also a little confused about the influence of negative emotions on
stereotypic judgments.  Both Sinclair et al. and Bodenhausen et al.
suggests that happy people use more automatic mechanisms in processing
information.  On the other hand, unhappy people engage in more motivated
an conscious thinking because they are, let’s say not at an ideal goal state
or their rate of movement towards a goals state is not ideal, in the
terminology of last week’s authors.  Why then do unhappy people and
happy individuals both make stereotypic judgments?  If unhappy people are
engaging in effortful processing shouldn’t they realize that they are
stereotyping and be more likely to not make stereotypic judgment, in a
Devine-like interpretation?  Bodenhausen appears to be saying that happy
people will make stereotypical judgments because they are using heuristic
cues and also people in negative mood will make stereotypical judgments
because they are more deeply processing environmental cues. The two
statements are contradictory.  Would motivational accountability also
attenuated stereotypical judgments in people with negative affect as
well?  This also seems like a good follow-up study.
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Position Paper is an essay that presents an arguable opinion about an

issue – typically that of the author or some specified entity. Position papers
are published in academia, in politics, in law and other domains.

Sample Position Paper

Topic 1: The Question of Palestinian Refugees
Country: Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Committee: Multilateral
Middle East Peace Summit School: Nathan Hale

After fifty years of turmoil in the Palestinian and Israeli territories, a number
of problems have resulted from the conflict. One of the most severe of
these problems is that of the over 4 million Palestinian refugees dispersed
throughout the Middle East and the world, millions are still living in refugee
camps. Many Palestinians feel that the refugees should be given the “right
to return,” thus allowing them to repatriate back to their native land. On the
other hand the Israeli position is that repatriation is not an option because it
would have damaging impacts on the population of the small country and
also create a significant Palestinian majority. For the Israelis this can pose
two problems; first a question of sustainability, can the small country
sustain such a substantial population increase. Second: Israeli authority in
the land may be challenged by the presence of a large Palestinian
population, thus threatening their control of power, and ultimately the fate of
nation of Israel. The Palestinian National Authority will stand strong on the
issue of the “right to return” for all Palestinian refugees. It is our belief that it
is the inalienable right of our people who have been expelled from their
homeland, to return as Palestinian citizens. We are not alone in our belief
that all Palestinian refugees should have the “right to return,” in fact many
international organizations, such as Amnesty International recognize and
support the same need. The “right to return” is not only agreed upon within
international organizations, but more importantly was specifically outlined in
the UN resolution 194 (1948). It may also be understood that all successful
peace negotiations will be contingent upon the acceptance of this policy. To
respond to the first concern of the Israeli’s, the question of sustainability, all
refugees that return to the area will return to the Palestinian territory. This
makes the question of sustainability a question for the Palestinian National
Authority not for the Israeli government. As for the second concern that
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Israeli sovereignty in the region would be threatened by the increased

Palestinian population; this is also an unfounded concern. With the support
of the United States, Israel undoubtedly proves that as long as the US
possesses the world’s most powerful military, and declares absolute
support for Israel, their existence will not be threatened. The “right to
return” for all Palestinian refugees will in no way endanger the state of
Israel. In fact, if Israel makes the decision the concede this demand for
peace, then the Palestinians may become more willing to sit at the table for
further and more drastic peace concessions. One of the major points of
anger for the Palestinian people is the plight of their refugees, and
resolving this matter would ultimately be progressing towards the resolution
of the greater problem of peace in the land.
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In an academic report, you should provide a description or analysis of a

set of actions you took to research a specific question or phenomenon.
Academic reports are used to present and discuss the results of an
experiment, survey, or other research method. Below shows an example of
academic report.

IMPACT OF THE CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE

3 Impact of the Currency Exchange Rate on National Economy Nowadays,

business transactions become more and more complicated due to the
interdependence between different economic segments. The currency
exchange rate is one of the definers of the relationships and goods
exchange in the international arena. The concepts of supply and demand
and market equilibrium determine a value of a particular currency in
international transactions while not only having a critical impact on
economic relationships between international players and enabling trade
but also affecting the overall condition of the national economy (Richards,
2015). Consequently, the primary goal of this essay prompt is to unveil the
spheres of influence of the currency exchange rate and describe its effect
on inflation, interest rates, trade, GDP, and Foreign Direct Investments
(FDIs). In the end, conclusions are drawn to summarize the main findings
of the paper. Impact of the Currency Exchange Rate on National Economy
Inflation In the first place, there is a strong correlation between inflation and
the currency exchange rate. Inflation implies a rapid increase in prices for
goods and services, and these changes reduce the purchasing power of
the currency in the foreign exchange market while the currency exchange
rate also defines the intensity of inflation (Richards, 2015). Thus, it is critical
to describe this interdependence with the help of a historical example. In
the recent past, fixed exchange rate limited the actions of countries and
made them less flexible and responsive to various political, economic, and
social events. According to the Jamaican Agreement, the major solution to
this issue was introducing a mechanism of floating exchange rate that
implied a dependence of the IMPACT OF THE CURRENCY EXCHANGE
RATE 4 currency’s value on the laws of supply and demand and the
invisible hand of the market (Richards, 2015). Unfortunately, for the United
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States of America, it resulted in the depreciation of the US dollar and its

constant decline in value in the foreign exchange market (FOREX). This
instability triggered a gradual rise in inflation rates causing a continuous
decline in aggregate demand and provided a well-developed rationale for
the government to pay attention to this economic factor.
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Research writing is writing that uses evidence (from journals, books,

magazines, the Internet, experts, etc.) to persuade or inform an audience
about a particular point. Research writing exists in a variety of different
forms.

Behavioral Study of Obedience

Abstract

There are few facts about the role of obedience when committing acts
against one’s personal conscience (1961). Most theories suggest that only
very disturbed people are capable of administering pain to an ordinary
citizen if they are ordered to do so. Our experiment tested people's
obedience to authority. The results showed that most obey all orders given
by the authority-figure, despite their unwillingness. The conclusion is that,
contrary to common belief, personal ethics mean little when pitted against
authority.

Introduction

Current theories focus on personal characteristics to explain wrong-doing

and how someone can intentionally harm others. In a survey, professionals
such as doctors, psychologist and laymen predicted that a small proportion
of a population (1-3%) would harm others if ordered to do so.
In the recent war trial with Adolph Eichmann, he claims to only have been
“following orders". The author wanted to test this claim. Can people harm
others because they are merely obeying orders? Can people be ordered to
act against their moral convictions?
The experiment will test whether a person can keep administering painful
electric shocks to another person just because they are ordered to do so.
The expectation is that very few will keep giving shocks, and that most
participants will disobey the order.

Methods

Participants
There were 30 male participants. They were recruited by advertisement in
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a newspaper and were paid $4.50.

Instruments
A "shock generator" was used to trick the participants into thinking that they
were giving an electric shock to another person in another room. The shock
generator had switches labeled with different voltages, starting at 30 volts
and increasing in 15-volt increments all the way up to 450 volts. The
switches were also labeled with terms which reminded the participant of
how dangerous the shocks were.
Procedures
The participant met another "participant" in the waiting room before the
experiment. The other "participant" was an actor. Each participant got the
role as a "teacher" who would then deliver a shock to the actor ("learner")
every time an incorrect answer to a question was produced. The participant
believed that he was delivering real shocks to the learner.
The learner would pretend to be shocked. As the experiment progressed,
the teacher would hear the learner plead to be released and complain
about a heart condition. Once the 300-volt level had been reached, the
learner banged on the wall and demanded to be released. Beyond this
point, the learner became completely silent and refused to answer any
more questions. The experimenter then instructed the participant to treat
this silence as an incorrect response and deliver a further shock.
When asking the experimenter if they should stop, they were instructed to
continue.

Results

Of the 40 participants in the study, 26 delivered the maximum shocks. 14

persons did not obey the experimenter and stopped before reaching the
highest levels. All 40 participants continued to give shocks up to 300 volts.

Discussion/Conclusion

Most of the participants became very agitated, stressed and angry at the
experimenter. Many continued to follow orders throughout even though
they were clearly uncomfortable. The study shows that people are able to
harm others intentionally if ordered to do so. It provides evidence that this
dynamic is far more important than previously believed, and that personal
ethics are less predictive of such behavior.