Journal Article Structural Analysis Memorandum – Part One

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 1 in the Martin (2015) text and Chapter 1 in the Steiner (2015) text, and access and review the required websites. In addition, please consult Krasner et al (2009), which includes a collection of perspectives by prominent authors on the distinctions between policy writing and academic writing within the context of security issues. It will assist in your preparation of the interactive memorandum assignment across Week One and Week Two.

For this assignment, you will take on the role of an employee at a federal agency. Select one of the following agencies:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

Your immediate supervisor has requested a memorandum from you that identifies a current issue in homeland security through the lens of scholarly research. In addition, your supervisor has directed you to review research summaries completed by your co-workers (other students) and to propose new research questions that are based on the summaries of scholarly findings. The article that you select does not need to pertain directly to your chosen agency (although it may), but you will need to explain how it is relevant to your chosen agency. Your supervisor has indicated that you must interact with your hypothetical co-workers as below indicated.

You may select a scholarly journal article from the recommended resources list. Alternatively, you may research and select a scholarly journal article, utilizing the UAGC Library.

The expectation is that you are able to analyze not only the import or findings associated with a given article, but are able to also understand the mechanisms employed by the author to facilitate the findings. The memorandum consists of five article summary elements, and two interactive elements. The elements are allocated across Week One and Week Two. You must use the provided Policy Memorandum Template  Download Policy Memorandum Template.

Re-read the literature review section within your chosen article. The following elements must be addressed in Part One of your memorandum:

•  Add your chosen agency in the header section of the template where indicated. Double click on the placeholder “Add Federal Agency Name Here” to access the header. To exit the header section, double click anywhere in the body of the document.
• Complete the following: “To,” “From,” “CC,” and “Date.”
• Provide a title in the “Subject” line that briefly reflects your main point.
• Introduction: This first section explains the context of the issue or message and also sets the tone. Similar to an abstract in a longer written paper, the first paragraph should give an overview that includes a brief explanation of the topic of concern and a forecast of what is to come. Include the author and title of the chosen article in an in-text citation.
• Literature Review: Summarize the literature review section within the article. Please consult Literature Review (Links to an external site.) samples through the UAGC Writing Center. Explain how the literature review section of the article contributes to an understanding of responsibilities and functions across agencies at various jurisdictional levels that mitigate hostilities, threats, hazards, and consequences.  
• Research Objective: Explain how and to what extent the author’s research objective contributes to an understanding of the responsibilities and functions across agencies at various jurisdictional levels that mitigate hostilities, threats, hazards, and consequences. The research objective represents the author’s central purpose in writing the article. It is typically understood as the attempt by the author to explore research questions through research methods.
• Theory: Identify the theoretical basis for the research objective(s) and explain whether the author uses a deductive or inductive approach. As indicated by Weida and Stolley (2013), within material available through the Purdue Owl website (Links to an external site.), in deductive work, researchers typically justify their research questions by identifying an underlying theoretical basis that would support the research question. In inductive work, researchers look at observations to generate a theory. To further your understanding on the difference between deductive and inductive approaches, you may wish to consult other scholarly sources, along with the above referenced Purdue Owl website (Links to an external site.) for additional information. Gerring (2004) indicates that researchers may seek to discern or to identify factors associated with causation, and in other contexts, may seek to corroborate an existing proposition on causation.
• Reference: At the end of the memorandum template, include a full citation of your chosen article.

Be sure to save your memorandum as you will use it in Week Two. Attach the memorandum to your initial post, and submit to the forum.

Guided Response: In this interactive component of your assignment, review at least two other memoranda posted by other students (Paragraphs One – Three). Your response must contain two elements in at least 200 words: 1) Explain how Paragraph Two (the author’s research objective) in your peer’s memorandum is relevant to the interests of your chosen agency, and 2) Provide at least one constructive comment that would improve, augment or clarify content in your peer’s memorandum. The purpose of this second step is to provide a “peer-review” element to the memo development process. Your responses must be posted by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You are encouraged to post your required replied earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and interactive discourse.