Highlights
Objective
The commentary exercise is designed to assess the student’s ability to put forth an analytical piece that is highly concise, well-structured and yet not sacrificing research rigour despite the absence of citations that are commonly found in a full research paper. The ability to write a proper commentary can come in handy for various professional sectors – such as government policymaking, military staff work, private consultancy, policy think-tanks and journalism.
Practitioners – in particular, those in the government policymaking circles – desire short, hard-hitting analytical pieces that go straight to the point, and are policy-relevant; i.e., of consequence and direct utility to their day-to-day work. Commentaries can be found in newspapers and often constitute the primary publications of open-source, international affairs outlets, for example The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, East Asia Forum, just to name a few. Commentaries are also often meant to inform the wider general public, especially given their access to full research paper are often hampered by the subscription paywall that is common to many mainstream journal outlets.
What Makes a Good Commentary?
A commentary is usually short, hard-hitting and can be seen as a timely response to a particular current affairs event/development; or a greatly downscaled and “simplified” version of a longer, full research paper. For the purpose of AS6008, no topics shall be proposed to students. Each student is encouraged to craft a commentary based on his or her prevailing research interest that revolve around two main themes – “maritime security” and the “Indo-Pacific”.
A good commentary tends to have the following attributes:
• It is often couched in a narrow focus, usually on a particular current affairs event/development.
• It is timely and policy-relevant.
• It is short and concise.
• It is given a punchy title that properly encapsulates the gist of the commentary, and draws the reader to delve into the piece.
• It is well-structured, with an easy-to-follow flow of discussion – the best is to keep each paragraphs short, preferably three to five lines as a guide, and usually containing one major point to be made.
• It goes straight to the point, spending less time pontificating on theories/concepts than to put forth a hard-hitting argument backed by well-researched facts and data.
• It is analytical, not descriptive, and it must logically lead the readers to a certain conclusion the author is making.
• It is written with not only professionals in mind but also the general public reader who could be a layman on the particular topic; hence the use of technical jargons and abstract languages tend to be minimized.
Sourcing
A commentary, as mentioned above, is more than an opinion piece. What distinguishes a commentary written in the policy think-tank context, from one that is published by news agencies, tends to be the amount of research rigour.
While journalists might not necessarily be versed in the background knowledge and contemporary issues of a particular topic, policy analysts are expected to write commentaries in an informed, analytical manner that is grounded firmly on thorough research and at least basic background understanding of the said topic.
While no citations are required in a commentary, students are urged to incorporate well-research facts and data in the piece to back the argument. This can come in the form of in-text mention of the data, and where possible, the student may direct the reader to the sources using hyperlinks.
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