I have already started the essay so who ever is writing this paper will already have the ISSUE and LESSON learned from the unofficial migrant camp, Calais. Below is the Essay description given to me by my professor.
I) Writing the Final Paper
In the final paper, you should address the following. First, tell us about how this particular space for displaced persons came into being. Then, discuss one issue that the international community has encountered in establishing this space (many of you have already mentioned some of these in your mid-semester presentation—water scarcity, sanitation, education—this is where you delve deeper into those issues). Finally, examine one lesson that the international community has learned in the lifespan of this space. Note: the issues do NOT have to be connected to the lessons.
The easiest way to think of the final paper component of the Research Portfolio is to break it down into disparate parts. Our final paper has 4 distinct parts: Introduction and Thesis, Background Information, Body Paragraphs, and a Conclusion.
*Introduction and Thesis (about 1 page)
In this section, you provide the historical context (or general “background information”) on your space and articulate your thesis or argument (i.e., your answers to the above questions). Your thesis must be debatable; it should not be vague or a mere observation (thesis statements such as “Humanitarian agencies learned many lessons from X” are not concrete enough to be debatable; an argument crafted in this way would earn a grade of approximately 70%). In this section—as we have seen in our short papers—be specific and avoid overgeneralizing.
*Historical Context (about 1-2 pages)
Here you want to provide a relatively comprehensive account of how your particular space for displaced persons came in to being. Did conflict precipitate it—if so, which/how? How can we understand the history of that conflict? When did aid agencies intervene and what did that intervention look like? Which ones intervened? What were their primary goals in providing assistance? Was this a state-mandated space? If so, why was it created—to what ends? These are just some questions to get you thinking about the context—you certainly cannot provide an exhaustive or comprehensive history of the factors that led to the creation of this space, so try instead to include the most significant aspects of the history and what a reader unfamiliar with this space really needs to know.
*Body Paragraphs (about 6 pages)
Here you incorporate the various sources you have identified in your research process, largely to address the paper’s primary questions: What kinds of problems/issues has the international community (states/governments, humanitarian aid agencies, etc.) encountered in the creation of this space? What kinds of lessons have they learned? You should clearly articulate two issues or problems and two lessons. Each paragraph should have a single, distinct point that begins with a topic sentence that connects to the paragraph immediately preceding it. Be sure and support your claims with evidence (or direct quotes drawn from your sources). Your argument should build upon itself, with each paragraph contributing to and elaborating upon your overall thesis.
*Concluding Paragraph
Recap your argument briefly, in a sentence or two. Avoid the tendency to restate every intricacy of your argument. Rather, try and articulate why this research is important, what exactly do we learn from this space about asylum-seeking, refugeeness, and humanitarian assistance? Your conclusion should leave your reader with a sense of the importance of this research.
