Papers are expected to yield new insights on the topic, and to support those insights with cited research. Perhaps the surest way to accomplish this goal is to start with a hypothesis that you want to examine, either framed as a question or as a statement. After doing so, identify source material that informs the hypothesis, summarize and critique that information, than formulate an argument for how this material supports or refutes your hypothesis. Simply summarizing a series of findings, or expressing your personal point of view without supporting documentation on the other, is suboptimal. This is not intended to be a literature review, devoid of substantial interpretation or insight. Neither is it intended to be an opinion piece, devoid of substantial data to support the interpretation and conclusion.
Organization
Title page: Include your name, the title of the paper, and 4-6 key words.
Abstract: Summarize your paper in 250 words or less. The abstract should capture the question being addressed, the results, and the conclusions.
Background and Introduction: This section introduces the topic, and summarizes available information and thinking, with citations. It sets up the logic and justification for your question/hypothesis, and gives a brief roadmap for the remainder of the paper. 1-1.5 pages would be appropriate.
Methods: Depending on the topic, this section may be very brief, or much more extensive. Particularly if you are manipulating data sets, and/or doing statistical analysis, the methods for doing so should be indicated.
Results: This is the most important part of the paper from the standpoint of illustrating your in-depth understanding of the available material and how it fits together. This is best accomplished by organizing the flow of the presentation in a sequential and logical fashion, clearly labeling sections with subheadings, creating and/or using tables, graphs and other supplemental to capture trends and/or complicated concepts in a readily understandable fashion and more.
Interpretation: This section is your opportunity to synthesize and summarize the major findings. This is not simply a recapitulation of the results, but rather reflects your insight on how to interpret and extrapolate from the results. This section reflects the big picture interpretation. It will be appropriate and in some cases necessary to include interpretation of individual pieces of information in the results section.
Conclusion: This should be a short paragraph, or even a few sentences, that gives the elevator speech you would use in presenting your insights and conclusions.
Position papers should be at least 5-6 pages (double-spaced, not including references, graphs, tables or supplemental material). Depending upon the form of your draft submission, and the nature of feedback received, you may want to emphasize specific sections that are most important for your overall message.
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