PAPER TOPIC: policies encouraging college students to be taught about health nutrition in order to prevent obesity
Second Writing Assignment
This assignment will be approximately 3-4 pages in length with 1” margins.
For this second assignment, you will submit a full outline of your policy memo. You will need to
include all of the elements of the policy memo:
Background
Stakeholders
Discussion
Analysis
Be as specific as possible (without writing paragraphs for the sections) with this assignment.
The purpose is to provide yourself with a solid guide for developing a full draft.
If you have questions, please post them to the General Discussion board as you are probably
not the only person with your question.
Policy Analysis Paper
The purpose of this policy analysis is to take an historical look at a policy (law, rule, decision, etc.) and explore:
Why and how your particular issue became a problem?
Who were the stakeholders that were for and against your policy of choice? Why did they hold
their particular positions? Who was in power and how so?
Is the policy still in existence today? If so, what have been its impacts? If not, was it changed or
completely taken away? What impacts did that cause?
More Detailed Steps for Policy Analysis
Your policy analysis will be 5 parts:
Executive Summary
Background
Stakeholders
Discussion of the solution (policy, law, rule, decision, etc.) Analysis of the solution
Executive Summary [1 page]
The purpose of this section is to: provide an introduction to the problem, introduce the stakeholders and their interest in the issue, present the solution and why this particular solution was chosen. This section should be written last as it is a summary of the other sections.
It should be written in a way that brings the reader in and even though it gives an overview, makes the reader want to read the rest to find out how it all came about in the first place.
Background [2 pages]
The purpose of this section is to set the stage of the problem. This is the section to bring in your data from the research conducted, i.e., number of people affected, studies that demonstrate there is a problem, etc.
You will need to include at least five (5) peer-reviewed journal articles as resources. You are also encourage to include information and data from other resources such as Podcasts, newspaper articles and/or articles from magazines (The Atlantic, The Economist, etc.).
Stakeholders [2-3 pages]
In this section you will need to identify at least two (2) and no more than three (3) key stakeholders for this issue.
Who are they?
What do they have at stake?
Where does their power come from? Do they have people (numbers)? Money? Both? Why were they for or against the change?
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When it comes to change, every problem has at least two perspectives, i.e., a group or organization that is for a change and a group that is not. In this section, you will present your stakeholders, describe their positions and present the issue through their lens (how they view it).
Each stakeholder should have at least one but no more than 2 pages dedicated to them.
Solution [1-2 pages]
In this section, you will present the change that was implemented.
Was it a law, rule, decision, etc.?
Who was in charge of making the change(s)?
How long was it supposed to take for the change to be implemented? Which group(s) or population(s) is the change targeted at?
What is the goal, purpose of the solution? What is it intended to do?
Analysis [1-2 pages]
In this last section, you will provide an analysis of the solution. You should include some recent facts or descriptions of the solution (success or not?). This is also a space for you to provide your personal opinions on the solution.
Given the problem, was this a viable, successful solution? Would you keep it the way it is or make any changes?
Why or why not and what changes would you suggest?
2|Page
Potential Topics/Policies to Explore
This list provides some suggestions for you to explore. You can use one of these or if you have a different idea, please run it by me first.
Creation of private, for-profit prisons
Mandatory Measles Vaccination in New York City, July 2019
Regulations for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Passenger Cars and Trucks by EPA and the
Florida Amendment 4, the Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative
Safe needle exchange program in Lowell, MA (or another geographic location)
Smoke Free Air Act, New York City
Food Assistance Program or Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (MHPA)
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program
National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984
Title X, the government’s only federal funding program dedicated to family planning for lower-
income women
The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act or Federal Assault Weapons
Ban (AWB) was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
3|Page
Template/Example for Draft Outline
Executive Summary
a. Write out the problem
b. Name and describe stakeholders i. Stakeholder1
ii. Stakeholder2 c. Solution
d. Why you chose it
Background
a. What’s the problem?b. How serious is it?
c. What is your data?
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3, etc.
Stakeholders
a. Stakeholder A
What do you know about them?
Who are they?
Why are they a stakeholder?
What do they have to win or lose?
b. Stakeholder A
i. What do you know about them?
ii. Who are they?
iii. Why are they a stakeholder?
iv. What do they have to win or lose?
Solution
a. Name it
b. Who is in charge of making changes?
c. How long was the change supposed to take to be implemented? d. Who is targeted for the change?
e. Did it reach its goal?
Analysis
a. Was it successful?
b. Would you make any changes? c. Why or why not?
For this assignment, I’m not looking for full complete paragraphs – although you may have some. I’m looking to see that you have thought out the entire memo and so you can also identify where you may need more material/documentation, etc.
This is not a draft of the memo…it’s an outline so please use this format