ESSAY

Social Justice and Family Policy Dr. Williams

Instructions for the Critical Essay

Utilizing seven to ten outside scholarly sources students are to write critical essays (5-7 pages not

including title and reference pages) documenting an essential issue with regard to the course’s influence

on a policy. Students may also include official and organizational research reports as part of their

allotted references too1. These essays are positional in nature (you’re arguing a stance using scholarly

evidence), and will be written in an academic and scholarly tone. Arguments must be cogent, logical,

and supported by facts (which will come from one’s research). APA citation and reference lists are

required. These essays will be well proof-read before submission. Font: Times New Roman, 12. The

essay should be double-spaced and numbered. Below are instructions regarding the format:

1. The assignment requires a traditional APA title page. Students may assign the essay its own

title, be creative. Again, the title page and references are not counted in the page requirement.

2. The structure of the paper should be sectioned like such:

a. Introduction

b. The Policy (here you will provide an explanation/background of your chosen policy)

c. Corresponding Issue #1

d. Corresponding Issue #2

e. Suggested Policy Change

f. Conclusion

g. References

3. The Introduction should provide a thorough roadmap of where you intend to take the reader;

thus, here you want to establish a clear but brief outline of your policy of choice and the issues

you plan to uncover—leave the rest for folks to see in the essay. This should be no more than a

good thick paragraph.

4. The proceeding pages should be well structured by sections/headings which will correspond to

remaining four points mentioned after the introduction. For example, for a policy one may

choose sentencing, and then his/her two issues may be mass incarceration and reentry (you’d

use those titles as the headings for your sections in the essay, or you can be more creative and

call them something else, but the sections need to be distinct from each other). The

information contained in each respective section will include a meshing together of your

scholarly sources and your understanding of your chosen policy. This part of the essay will

become more refined as one continue to engage in research. Remember, all points/arguments

explained in these pages must be cited and backed by evidence. Your writing should be both

informative and persuasive, which means you should be explaining to your reader the gist of the

1. These are the sources that will give one the statistics he/she would need to describe the scope of the problem/issue which will be covered in the essay. It is important that the essay has some stats in it to substantiate all arguments. For instance, for crime stats see the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, or the FBI UCR report (each has websites). For stats on people, businesses, the economy, or geography see the Census Bureau website. Other helpful sources (which can be found online) would be the Urban Institute, the Sentencing Project, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, and the Pew Research Center (this source will have public opinion poll data). Feel free to seek a librarian for further help or see me during office hours.

issue while also persuading the reader of your argument (and while doing both of these you will

be citing/providing evidence).

5. After you’ve wrapped up the major areas of your essay you will write your conclusion (in a

paragraph) simply providing a concluding commentary on the issue, perhaps giving your last

word on the depth of the issue as it stands now, and what the future could look like if your

advice is taken seriously.

6. The final pages of your essay will be your references which are to be done using APA.

Key suggestions:

 Overall, to be ahead of the curve, the window to get the initial stages of research and

analysis completed would be from week 1-9, as the concept paper is due shortly after. The

concept paper will require you to submit a semi-draft of what the beginning stages of your

essay will look like; therefore, you’ll want to have completed the bulk of research by this

time.

 It is important to pace oneself and have a set schedule for completing the critical essay. This

assignment will be heavily scrutinized as this is your capstone course for the Justice and

Families minor. Therefore, this is not the kind of assignment that one starts at last minute.

Take heed to the advice in this document, utilize library resources heavily, and office hours if

you should have questions. There will be library instruction provided to the class that all

should take full advantage of as well.

 Familiarize oneself with the writing rubric located in files on Canvas.