NGOs

The body of your essay needs to be broken up into various parts, each ofwhich should address a different issue, and each ofwhich should develop a different ‘piece’ of your overall argument. Think about what tasks you need to undertake in orderto make your central argument clear and convincing:

Are there key terms, concepts oftheories that need to be explained? For example, if you want to argue that Realism helps us to understand China’s foreign policy, then you need to explain what Realism is. You might start, therefore, by explaining Realist theory in a few paragraphs. Generally, your discussion oftheories or concepts should come first, before you move on to explain what that theory tells us about a specific example.

Do you need to explain what a particular concept or theory suggest regarding a specific ‘reaI-worId’example? In the case above, this is where you might state what Realist theory tells us to expect from a China whose power is growing. In this section, your general or abstract discussion oftheories or concepts must be related to the specific example you want to explain.

Are there specific historical or contemporary examples that you want to introduce to demonstrate the accuracy of your argument?

pick out some specific examples of Chinese foreign policy – Chinese-Taiwan relations, China and the South China Seas,etc.
.