Public Administration Essay Writing Guide: All You Need to Know

Writing guide
Posted on January 22, 2019

Public Administration is a complex academic discipline that studies the implementation of government policies and prepares students for working in the public sector. The field of public administration has a diverse scope of application, including the management of public and state programs, the analysis of government initiatives, and appropriate approaches to creating alternative policies. Undoubtedly, public administration is a difficult discipline for many learners who eventually want to become public administrators and work at all levels of the government such as labor, energy, security, commerce, agriculture, and many others. Therefore, public administration essay writing provides students with an opportunity to enhance their skills, enrich their knowledge, and gain useful experience in the field of public services.

public administration is applied

Apart from understanding what public administration deals with, the following list of questions will help you become confident about your essay:

  • Are you aware of public administration basics?
  • Do you have the profound knowledge of the essay topic?
  • Can you apply your knowledge in practice effectively?
  • Are you able to explain government policies and regulations with the use of relevant public administration theories?
  • Can you distinguish the main arguments and draw proper conclusions?
  • How can your work be valuable in the field of public administration?
  • Are you satisfied with the research ideas and subsequent results?
  • Will you write an identical essay if you have a chance to change it somehow?

With these questions in mind, you should plan your writing process, showing attention to every detail. Looking through this list of questions will help you understand your professor’s expectations regarding your future public administration essay. Before writing an essay, you should make up in your mind what you will write about and how you will approach the topic. The given guide is to help you with writing a perfect public administration essay.

Choosing a Suitable Topic for a Public Administration Essay

Certainly, there is a wide range of topics that can be used in public administration essay. However, your main task is to develop an interesting and original topic that will express as many points as possible. If you do not have a particular topic for your essay, you should create it by yourself. For this, you should be:

  • Creative. Apply all creativity you can and let your mind wander along the most interesting essay topics in public administration. For example, if you take Medicare, namely the latest health care reform in the United States and write about its advantages and disadvantages for society, it will be an essay of little value and importance. Many professionals in public administration have already analyzed Instead, try to think big and write about how public administration approach to healthcare changed over time using the example of the Medicare reform.
  • Try to be objective when analyzing facts and forming judgments. Choose a complex topic that will have different definitions and various treatments in the field. Perform a rational and unbiased analysis of the topic instead of listing the benefits of a particular matter. For instance, if you want to write your public administration essay about the death penalty, make it multifaceted instead of just criticizing or praising the reform implementation. Thus, you should attempt to show many perspectives, including cultural, social, criminal, and historical points of view, to show that you see a big picture concerning the issue.
  • Open-minded. Do not focus on a particular area of public administration for your analysis. You should be open-minded and willing to consider different ideas when choosing a suitable topic for your essay. For example, if you want to write on drug control policies in businesses and cannot create a right topic, write about drug control policies in media, schools, religious organizations, or healthcare institutions. Remember that the more time you spend on your choice of the topic, the less time you will have for the writing process.

Thus, being open-minded, critical, and creative, you will have more chances to choose a suitable topic for your public administration essay. Besides, the following list of topics will help you organize your ideas and make up your own title for an essay:

  • The Influence of Public Administration Policies on the Public Interest;
  • The Comparison between Fraud and Stealing as Popular Public Issues;
  • The Practicability of Max Weber’s Classical Model Theory in Public Administration;
  • Net Neutrality in Public Administration Discourse;
  • The Connection between Public Administration and the Organizational Environment;
  • Rourke’s Views on Federalism and Bureaucracies;
  • The Impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 on Policy Formulation;
  • The Role of Political Pressure on the Success of Public Administration Services;
  • The Main Causes of Tense Relationships between the Public and Political Leaders.

You should also remember that whatever topic you aim at, it can encompass various disciplines as well, for example, Law, Politics, Business, or Economics.

interdisciplinary approach

3 Main Aspects of Public Administration Essay Writing Our Experts Highlight

Before you reflect upon a particular topic that you have chosen, review the three pillars of the public administration essay writing: efficiency, effectiveness, and economy.

  1. Efficiency is a very important concept in the field of public administration that is highly valued by educational instructors. It means that you can wisely utilize your resources and demonstrate the relationship between them in the essay. If you can show the logical connection between your sources of information, your essay can be called efficient. For example, if you write about the pay and benefits package for social and government workers and mainly use the information from the National Security Agency website, it means that you don’t appropriately distribute the resources throughout your essay, and your work is inefficient.
  2. Effectiveness is also an essential aspect in public administration essay writing. As such, your professor is likely to assess the extent to which you achieve your objectives or goals determined in the introductory paragraph. If you manage to justify your point of view, your essay is effective. For instance, if you set a goal in your introduction to define measures of corruption and human rights violations, but in conclusion, you reflect upon methods for dealing with them, your essay is ineffective.
  3. Economy is a central concept in administration essay writing since it is vital to use the minimum amount of sources cited and the maximum amount of your personal analysis and justification. If your public administration essay is filled with many in-text citations, it will resemble a simple literature review. In particular, it happens when you write about a macro issue in public administration such as the range of governmental activities from failed states to complete socialism. As a result, your essay is full of in-text citations from different journals and encyclopedias. It implies that your concept of the economy failed.

The Well-Developed Structure of a Public Administration Essay

When you choose an appropriate topic for your public administration essay, you should look through and understand the structure of this type of assignment. It is true that the public administration essay structure is similar to the essay structure in other disciplines. The skeleton of the essay, which includes an introduction, main body, and conclusion, is the foundation of any writing assignment. The only difference is in the way you use your sources and present them to the reader. That is why it is significant to review all segments of your future essay in detail.

Introduction That Works Well

The main aim of the introduction is to present your topic to the reader and give sufficient background information about the major issues. As such, you should provide your rationale behind the work and demonstrate its significance in the field of public administration. The introduction is designed to grab the reader’s attention and raise his/her interest. The hook can include a bold statement, surprising statistical data, or some quote from a popular public administrator. Make your introductory paragraph as concise as possible to provide only an overall review of your essay. The concluding statement of the introduction should be your thesis statement in which you present your position on the essay topic.

In general, a thesis statement represents an accurate summary of the objectives you want to reach in your essay. It is one of the most important elements of the essay because it tells the reader what arguments you will justify in the main body. It is important to write a thesis statement in one sentence which will serve as a basis for your subsequent argumentation. To make your thesis statement as effective as possible, you should ensure that it directly answers the question of the essay and makes a claim that can be disputable. The following list contains examples of strong and effective thesis statements:

  • In the field of public administration, the most significant organizational challenges include the advancement of technology, ethical governance, and human resource management.
  • A role of citizenship and benevolence in a fair public administration is discussed in relation to the main causes of the tense relationship between the public and politics.
  • Corruption is detrimental to the welfare of the public administration domain due to wrong decisions, decreased public interest, and possible violation of human rights.

Main Body That Develops Your Thesis Statement

The main body is probably the most significant part of your essay because your thesis statement will not work unless you prove it using strong arguments. In the main body of your public administration essay, you should show how you analyze a topic. Every question you are going to discuss should appear in a separate paragraph. In addition, every paragraph should begin with a topic sentence in which you present your argument and a concluding statement where you decide whether the further analysis proved or refuted your argument. You should not add any irrelevant information to your essay simply to meet the word count. It would be a great idea to organize your main body in the way that more important arguments appear first.

Conclusion That Completes Your Essay Logically

After your essay is finished, you come to writing a conclusion as a logical completion. In other words, frame your analysis in the best logical way to make your work more appealing to the reader in conclusion. Hence, you should restate your thesis statement and summarize the main arguments mentioned in the essay body. Logically, your conclusion should show the results of all findings briefly. You should consider the conclusion as the last opportunity to convince your professor that your essay is efficient and effective at the same time. Thus, it deserves a good grade. Remember that you cannot introduce new concepts and ideas that are not mentioned in the main body of your essay. Instead, you should focus on the essential arguments of the public administration essay and formulate the ultimate meaning.

General Public Administration Essay Recommendations on Citing

If you already know how to choose a suitable topic, structure your essay, and express your thoughts proficiently, you should know how to choose and use information sources. In the process of writing a public administration essay, you will significantly rely on the others’ ideas. Indeed, it is vital to cite them in the text correctly. A list of references used in the essay can contain various scholarly books, scientific articles, and online articles from educational and governmental websites. You should note that the extended information about the used sources should be placed on the last page of your essay. Additionally, organize your bibliography in an alphabetical order. Remember that each time you use the opinion of other people, you should cite it according to the rules of referencing. Every piece of information that is not the common knowledge should be cited in your public administration essay to avoid plagiarism issues.

  • Example of the in-text citation in MLA style: The modern public administration is independent of social and political systems, representing a cooperative group effort in a public setting (Fry and Raadschelders 56).
  • Example of the in-text citation in APA style: The integral view on public administration was endorsed by L.D. White and Dimock who supported radical actions plans and reform processes (Fry & Raadschelders, 2014).
  • Example of the extended reference in MLA style: Fry, Brian R., and Jos C. N. Raadschelders. Mastering Public Administration: from Max Weber to Dwight Waldo. Sage, 2014.
  • Example of the extended reference in APA style: Fry, B. R., & Raadschelders, J. C. (2014). Mastering public administration: From Max Weber to Dwight Waldo. Los Angeles: Sage.

Proofreading Tips You Need Right Now to Improve Your Essay

After you write your public administration essay and identify the main sources, it is important to check your essay for different errors you can make as a budding specialist in writing.

  1. Remember that you cannot use the first person “I” and “We” in your essay because it will make your work more informal. All statistics, ideas, facts, and statements should be presented in a scholarly manner.
  2. Examine the paper content.  Double check whether your essay looks appealing and raises the reader’s interest. You also should check the consistency of your paper and assess the effectiveness of your analysis. All information presented in your public administration essay should be up to a point and in its place.
  3. Get rid of all possible mistakes in grammar, syntax or punctuation. The correct writing of words in a rush can be one of the obstacles in the academic way to get high marks. You can’t let yourself to spoil the student’s reputation by making a mistake in some words, for example, in ‘achieve’, ‘beginning’, ‘environment’ or in any other words from the list of common spelling mistakes.

Use these public administration essay writing prompts to produce an excellent academic paper that is worthy of high marks. Being supported in academic writing helps you make progress not mistakes.

References

A Short List Of Interesting And Unusual Public Administration Research Paper Topics. (2017).             Retrieved from http://www.biodieseluniversity.org/original-topis-for-a-public-            administration-research-paper.jsp

Bibliographies in Public Administration. (2016). Retrieved from                    http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/aspa/unpan020143.pdf

Fifteen Topic Ideas for Creating a Great Research Paper in Public Administration. (2016).             Retrieved from http://www.shawndaviswrites.com/a-list-of-research-paper- topics-in-     public-administration

Fry, B. R., & Raadschelders, J. C. (2014). Mastering public administration: From Max Weber to             Dwight Waldo. Los Angeles: Sage.

Public Administration Dissertations. (2018). Retrieved from             https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/pubadmin_theses/

Research Guides: Public Affairs, Public Service, and Public Administration: Home. (2018).             Retrieved from https://libguides.rutgers.edu/c.php?g=336441&p=2265877

Writing Centre Resource Guide: Home. (2017). Retrieved from             http://dal.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=257176&p=1718033

cta
Upgrade your essays with these FREE writing tools!
Get started now