A position paper is written to present one side of an argument and generate support for that side, using facts, inductive reasoning, and critical thinking. After deciding on your topic and position, conduct research in Education Databases.

• To find academic articles, make sure to limit results to peer-reviewed articles for authoritative references.
• To find current issues, limit to newspapers and/or magazines. 
• See the statistics page on this libguide for appropriate stats.
• See below for how to find published position papers. 

Common components of a good position paper:

• Found in a peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal, and/or published by organizations related to the topic.
• Divided into sections with names like:
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Arguments
  • Conclusion
  • References (Bibliography)

For more information on writing position papers, including structure, check out these websites:

• Writing a Position Paper (Courtesy of Simon Fraser University)
• Argument Papers (Purdue OWL)
• Position Paper Libguide (Bowie State University)
• How to Write a Position Paper (Xavier University)

1. Start with Education Source, our primary education database.

2. Click the Choose Database link near the top of the screen.

3. Select ERIC, a free governmental database that you can also search through EBSCO simultaneously with Education Source. Select any other databases that may be relevant such as SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, or Gender Studies.

4. For your first search term, enter position paper

5. Select Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

6. Enter more search terms as needed.