NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: There will be no need to roleplay at all in this thread, but having noticed that people constantly complain about UN styled resolutions when they pop up, I figured that I'd reinforce Sophista's UN Resolution Writing Guide with a sort of "Work Shop".

First, though the NationStates UN has only a few simple rules, there are informal rules that will make it easier for you to get a resolution adopted:

The process for making resolution looks briefly like this:

Step 1: Idea / Outline
Step 2: Writing a Draft Proposal
Step 3: Deciding on NationStates Proposal Category
Step 4: Submitting a Proposal
Step 5: Campaigning for your Proposal
Step 6: Resubmitting / Changing your Proposal
Step 7: Defending your Resolution

Step 1: Idea / Outline

Step 1a: Restrictions on Proposal Ideas / Subject Matter

There are many ways to participate in NationStates. In the UN forum it is fun to not only debate other nations’ propoals and resolutions, but to start working on your own. The first step is to come up with an idea.

Though it is fun to jump in head first into the cold water of UN politics, there are some rocks in the NationStates UN rules (some ideas and subjects are inappropriate for UN resolutions).

Here are the big three rules (taken from the proposal submission form):
Inappropriate proposals will be removed. This includes proposals that:
• suggest changing how the game works (use the Forum instead)
• contain descriptions that do not match the category and effect
• are not worthy of the UN's consideration

These big three rules have been broken down, and better detailed here:

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=282176

WARNING!
Violating these rules may get your nation removed from the UN, so spend 5 minutes to read the rules.

Here is a list of proposals that fall into Rule 3 “Not Worthy of the UN’s consideration”.

- Offensive Proposal
- Game Mechanics Proposal
- Joke Proposals
- Real-Life Proposals
- Duplicate Proposals
- Category-VS-Description Clash
- Repeals and Amendments
- Copied Proposals

Step 1b: Examples of Bad Ideas

Racism
If you want to propose something that is racist in nature. Don’t. The mods and many of the experienced players have long memories. The NationStates UN isn’t the place for these posts.

Real World Things vs. Real World Ideas
(taken from a post by Cogitation – NS Game Moderator)
General kinds of things may be presumed to exist in NationStates.

You can presume the existence of hippos, but you can't presume the existence of some real-life hippo living at the San Diego Zoo.

You can presume the existence of cities, but you can't presume the existence of Hong Kong, Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Bombay, or San Diego.

You can presume the existence of human beings, but you cannot presume the existence of President Bush, Barbara Streisand, Albert Einstein, or Rush Limbaugh.

You can presume the existence of corporations, but you cannot presume the existence of Pepsi, ExxonMobil, Dow, or Johnson & Johnson.

You can presume the existence of terrorists, but you can't presume the existence of Al Queda, the IRA, Hamas, Timothy McVeigh, or the "Shoe Bomber".

Jokes
While NS is about learning and having fun, humour is not the same for everybody. If one joke proposal becomes a resolution, others will too. It is best to avoid these.

Step 1c: Idea Sources

What Has Been Done Before?

The first step in coming up with an idea is to look at what other people have been doing. You won't redo a resolution, but you can get a feel for what other nations are voting in favour of.

The official NS list of all of adopted resolutions is here:
http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/71225/page=UN_past_resolutions

Wow, NS has already:

- Legalized Prostitution
- Adopted Free Speech
- Created Free Education
- Saved the Forests
Etc.


What is Left?

Lots of things. But if you want to repeat an idea, you will need to make sure that your resolution isn't too similar to one that already passed. This is easier than it sounds, so don't worry! 


Adding Something New

If you want to make a proposal for an idea that already has a resolution, just add something new.

Example: Education
So what if other resolutions said, "Everybody should have a free education!" You and I know that free education doesn't happen over night. Maybe the UN needs to help students more, by providing them with new textbooks. Maybe the UN should focus on the teachers instead? Remember, if your idea looks too much like an existing resolution, your proposal will either be deleted or likely meet strong opposition.

Other Sources for Ideas?

- Newspapers (international section is the best)
- TV News
- NS General Forum
- NS UN Forum (don't take other people's proposals without their permission)

Step 1d: Creating an Outline

This is where the fun starts. Typically when most people have an idea, they write it in a single sentence (this is good):

We think that the spread of HIV/AIDS is bad and that the UN should stop it.

The problem is, some players stop right there. They skip ahead to Step 3 and in some cases, they pay little attention to their idea.

If NationStates was full of cavemen or telepaths, this might be a good stopping point, but you are a leader in your country. You probably deal with daily issues everyday and have learned that sometimes you need to be a bit more specific than that.

This is where you can sit down and begin to brain storm and play with your idea. Basically you should be asking two questions:

- Why is this a problem?
- What can the UN do about it?

Why is HIV/AIDS bad?

That one is easy. If you got your idea from the TV or newspaper, no doubt you'll see or read about the number of people whom die from AIDS. Write that number down. But if you continue to read, you may see other reasons why HIV/AIDS is a serious problem. Perhaps a person infected with HIV/AIDS can't work on a farm? That obviously is bad, because one less farm worker means that much less food is produced.

Write down all the reasons you think your idea is a problem.

What can the UN do about HIV/AIDS?

This is a bit harder, but ultimately this is the really important part. While you will see resolutions that say, "AIDS is bad for the Earth, so let's stop it," do you really think that is enough? If so, you are done with your proposal. But if you think others might say, "So how are we getting rid of AIDS, you never said how?" then maybe you should continue brain storming:

- Prevention programs for drug users
- Prevention programs for sexually transmitted diseases
- Blood Screening programs
- Research into finding a cure to HIV / AIDS

That is just a short list. You can then go back and expand upon any of those ideas. Spend a day talking to your UN region members and working on the problem. Write down possible solutions.

But My Outline is Short!

A great brain storming tool is Google (http://www.google.com). Your idea is a keyword. Type it in google and education yourself. Not only will you be working on a NS proposal, but you'll end up actually learning a bit more about your idea, and you'll need to be an expert when Step 7 comes around.

It is always easier to cut out ideas than to hunt for other ones. The really good NationStates resolutions spend the most time here.

A wholly impressive work by one of the United Nations' most impressive minds. If education truly is nine tenths of prevention, than this should make enourmous strides towards improving the quality of what we see in the forum.

At the risk of having two stickies about this topic in the UN forum, I think we should combine the two threads. With a moderators help, we could unsticky or delete the current writing guide, then post it again with this workshop following immediately thereafter. I had planned on updating the UNRWG to account for new trends, and this would provide the opportunity to do so without disrupting anything.

Interested?

A wholly impressive work by one of the United Nations' most impressive minds. If education truly is nine tenths of prevention, than this should make enourmous strides towards improving the quality of what we see in the forum.

At the risk of having two stickies about this topic in the UN forum, I think we should combine the two threads. With a moderators help, we could unsticky or delete the current writing guide, then post it again with this workshop following immediately thereafter. I had planned on updating the UNRWG to account for new trends, and this would provide the opportunity to do so without disrupting anything.

Interested?

*blushing*

Thanks. Actually I was hoping that would be / planning to use your guide in Step 2: Writing a Draft Proposal. :)

Though I've not written that part, I did go through and convert from pdf ---> html ---> MS Word a real UN resolution, 58/36 (which New Cheney and I are hoping to also use as the basis for a new NS UN resolution), as an example.

But I also wanted to add to the guide a brief talk about the three other "styles" of NS UN resolutions:

- Declaration / Convention Style
- "Debate" Structured Resolutions (personally I hate these)
- Freeform (which I also call fire & forget resolutions -- I hate these even more)

I'd rather players steer towards either the UN or Declaration / Convention styles, since we do have to dig up the old resolutions. Why play a game if you are gonna do a 1/2-axed job at it? I'm optimistic that most fire & forgets are done mostly out of experience, and that showing people how easy these things can be, will reduce the number of resolution missiles that are launched at the UN. ;)

I'm optimistic that most fire & forgets are done mostly out of experience, and that showing people how easy these things can be, will reduce the number of resolution missiles that are launched at the UN.

Or so we hope, anyway. I have no qualms with putting the UNRWG into the final draft version of this thread. There seem to be other noteworthy hints about resolution writing in a few threads that should be incorporated as well. With the good grace of those nations I'd be willing to write that advice into a section that could be added to this collaborative project.

Or so we hope, anyway. I have no qualms with putting the UNRWG into the final draft version of this thread. There seem to be other noteworthy hints about resolution writing in a few threads that should be incorporated as well. With the good grace of those nations I'd be willing to write that advice into a section that could be added to this collaborative project.

Well, I'll be out for about a week starting tomorrow night ... though work is getting a bit hairy. I can normally poke around online when my forecasts (I run water quality forecasts) are in the process of running. I had little success today, so tomorrow may command most of my attention. Grrrrh.

But this sounds like a wonderful idea. I *do* feel we should include discussions about the other forms of resolutions, even those fire & forget forms.

As an aside I got a laugh about how some guy on the NationStates Broadcasting Network has been covering UN resolutions and he goes off on the real UN format. They guy doesn't know jack about the UN, and it is entertaining to here him left with nothing to do but focus on the keywords.

But these are a very important part of the next step, so yes ... let's *all* work together on this. :)

- "Debate" Structured Resolutions (personally I hate these)

What's wrong with those?

What is a "Debate" Structured Resolution?

I tend to like the Declaration / Convention style as well. It's easy to glance through. You can easily locate the various parts of the resolution. It is harder to write resolutions that claim to do one thing and actually do another because the action clauses are clear within the resolution.

What is a "Debate" Structured Resolution?

I tend to like the Declaration / Convention style as well. It's easy to glance through. You can easily locate the various parts of the resolution. It is harder to write resolutions that claim to do one thing and actually do another because the action clauses are clear within the resolution.

The UN format the action clauses are numbered as well. I think things with "articles" are better suited for resolutions where people are trying to codify things. A Bill of Rights is a good example.

A "Debate" Structured Resolution is my loose term for ...

Whereas cheese is made from milk,
Whereas milk is made from cows,
Whereas cows live on farms,
Therefore Let it Be Resolved that farms should be protected.

I could be wrong, but if memory serves people who go to "Youth Government" programs might be taught a resolution format where you say "Whereas" and "Resolved" to start each sentence. I'm guessing the origin of this might actually be tied early structured debate competitions, but I want to poke around before I put this in a "guide".

The format certainly exists. Look around here and just in general, and that many people structuring their thoughts in the same way can't be that creative in the exact same way. ;)

I don't like this format, as when converted into a long sentence it is hard to read and tell what different sentence fragments are. Technically it is a "resolution" because it says "resolved" all the time, but the United Nations started numbering and changing the text to streamline things.

* Wants Mikitivities work merged with Sophista's.

...

* Wants people to read and learn from it too.

I hope we get one of those, ;)

excellent post - it's not going to stop the newbie nations doing their own thing, however.

These so-called "debate" style resolutions are written in the format used by the majority of student debaters in the American National Forensic League. There is a seperate form used for writing bills, but since the word bill rarely comes up in the United Nations, it tends to be ignored.

However, that isn't the only kind of debate resolution out there. The National Parliamentary Debate Association, an American collegiate debate organization, uses resolutions in their debate, but not in the exact same way. When the two teams enter a round, they're given a topic that is either metaphorical (Resolved: This house would hit below the belt) or literal (Resolved: This United States should adopt a policy of mandatory conscription for all males over the age of 18). It's easy to see that these wouldn't work very well in the UN either.

Because this agency is designed in the same way as the United Nations, I feel most comfortable sticking to that kind of language. The more we use it, the more people become familiar with it, and the less we look like wankers when people read the past resolutions list. Beyond that, the greater variation of lanaguage (ie; "calls for," "encourages," and "inisists that" instead of resolved) allows an author to be more precise in his or her intentions.

Unforuntatley, when push comes to shove, the only differences between debate and UN style resolutions are technical. They both encourage policy, and they both can be adapted to legislate on any topic. It comes down to a matter of personal preference, or the unwritten rules of the forum.

excellent post - it's not going to stop the newbie nations doing their own thing, however.

It thought the word on the street was that the Confederated City States is a nation of optimists. ;)

We won't stop nations from jumping in, but *after* nations jump in, instead of having to say, "Look at the old resolutions", I thought a few pointers on the entire process would get nations that show lots of promise into the fray quicker and reduce tensions.

There is somebody out there that has been asking newbies in their region to telegram me asking for pointers. And I've been extremely happy to help them, but figured that for every telegram that is being sent, 10 more aren't.

Basically my nation has effectively declared war on UN inactivity, and has a two pronged attack:

(1) improve the quality of resolutions & debate (which will bring others who are actually interested in quality back), and

(2) reduce tensions by making time focus on discussions and details instead of rehasing UN 101s (this includes my other idea to have a UN Delegate call list).

That said, I'll make suggestions to improve resolutions that I still feel are fundamentally flawed and/or against my nation's beliefs, because I've had enough of the really bad proposals:


Category: Free Trade
Strength: Strong

Description:
When women buy a miniskirt, they want to go out and show it off. If women go out, so will guys. This leads to more encounters, which in turns provides a boon for the food and leisure industries.

It will probably help world peace too!

NOTE: I stole this idea from a joke that Twoslit posted. When I first read it, I just cried, because we have proposals just like this submitted all the time. :(

A "Debate" Structured Resolution is my loose term for ...

Whereas cheese is made from milk,
Whereas milk is made from cows,
Whereas cows live on farms,
Therefore Let it Be Resolved that farms should be protected.

OK. Generally speaking the Whereas ... Resolved format is best for formal declarations, where the bulk of the resolution is basically extolling the virtues of something or someone and the actual resolution is to place a official name on a date. In the simplest form with only one whereas, the form can be quite effective. One famous case where the actual terms are not used is in the second amendment to the US Constitution.

(The whereas clause) "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,"
(The resolved clause) "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

I don't think there is a good reason to use the whereas ... resolved format in a Nationstate UN resolution. On the other hand, using the declaration style can be just as frustrating.

OBSERVING that cheese is made from milk,
AFFIRMING that milk is made from cows,
DEEPLY REGRETTING that cows live on farms,

REQUESTS that farms should be protected.

I tend to worry more about verbosity as a means of obfuscation. In either form the resolution is short enough for anyone to spot the hole in the argument (yes this is a swiss cheese resolution) that the operative clauses are not supported by the preamble clauses and in fact have nothing to do with them.

Remember that the UN format actually looks like:


OBSERVING that cheese is made from milk,
AFFIRMING that milk is made from cows,
DEEPLY REGRETTING that cows live on farms,

1. REQUESTS that farms should be protected.


1st Reason
It is actually easier to find a numbered clause and later make reference back to it.

2nd Reason
The preamble uses different words instead of "whereas" in order to pull attention to certain facts. In your rewrite of my "Farm Protection Act" you felt that the fact that cows live on farms is "bad". Not just bad, but bad enough that you felt that our regret is "deep". (It really doesn't make sense to regret that cows live on farms, but it would be better if it read say APPROVING of the fact that ...)

I'm also a fan of using white space in resolutions. Numbered clauses add a bit of that.

2.0 Writing a Draft Proposal

Once you've come up with an outline for your proposal ideal, the next step is to start writing your draft proposal.

In NationStates, proposals are the term we use to describe motions before they reach the UN floor. Once a proposal reaches the UN floor, no matter what it looks like, we call it a resolution. Proposals and resolutions are nothing more than written motions. Some are very simple and others can be very complex. But since the NS UN is a body of international law, it is important that all UN motions be written down.

The most important thing you can do is to actually write your draft proposal in a word processor. While typos and grammatical errors can still slip by a word processor, they will catch those embarrassing errors that haunt us for the rest of our NationStates career.

There are four basic formats of proposals:

- Free Form
- Standard Resolution
- United Nations Resolution
- Declaration



Personally, I would recommend players use the United Nations Resolution or Declaration formats. Free Form resolutions are often what I call "Fire and Forget" proposals, and often are poorly constructed (meaning people will tend to vote against your idea).

2.1 Free Form Format

Many of the earlier NationStates UN resolutions were based on a free form style. Essentially a free form is exactly what it sounds like: there is no fixed structure to the resolution.

In order for nations to understand what you are talking about in a free form proposal, they have to read your entire proposal. Often NS players mix their justification and facts with their actual policy actions, making them difficult to read.

Here is an example of a very bad free form proposal:


Category: Free Trade
Strength: Strong

Description:
When women buy a miniskirt, they want to go out and show it off. If women go out, so will guys. This leads to more encounters, which in turns provides a boon for the food and leisure industries.

It will probably help world peace too


What is this proposal really saying? That women should buy skirts? That governments should give women skirts? That governments should just sell more skirts?

It is possible to have free form proposals that are more clear, as shown by this next example:


Category: Social Justice
Strength: Strong

Description:
All nations should provide a free college education to all citizens.


It is pretty clear what this proposal does (though we may disagree if this is a realistic idea). But even in this case something is still missing. Namely, why should governments provide a free education. This proposal also doesn’t tell nations how they should go about providing a free education.


Category: Social Justice
Strength: Strong

Description:
All nations should provide a free college education to all citizens, by providing every citizen a scholarship, because more college graduates will help the economy. It also is important that this college education be well rounded. The scholarship needs to last at least four years.


While the modified proposal is a bit better, in that it explains how and why the UN should be debating free college educations, it is still pretty vague. Furthermore, the proposal is harder to read. What is an action and what is a justifcation?

My advice: don't use Free Form formats for your proposals.

2.2 Standard Resolution Format

Many real life organizations use a standard format that basically divides resolutions into two easily recognized parts: (1) a preamble to present facts to support your resolution, and (2) an activating section to state your proposed policy change.

Each sentence fragment / phrase in the preamble is preceded by a WHEREAS. Each sentence fragment / phrase in the activating section is preceded by a RESOLVED.

Groups that tend to use this standard format include: professional societies, religious organizations, special (political) interest groups, and parent-teacher associations.


Here are some links to a few good on-line guides:

American Medical Association’s Medical Student Section:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/article/1575-4199.html

Two points taken from the AMA-MSS:

- WHEREAS clauses are factual clauses to support your resolution. They should be concise and highly relevant.

- RESOLVED clauses state your proposed policy change. RESOLVED clauses should be only one sentence in length and must be able to stand alone as they are the only part of the resolution that will be debated.

The reason WHEREAS and RESOLVED are capitalized, is because NationStates will unformat your resolution if it passes. That means you can not use bold or italics. These are just keywords, so capitalizing them helps people find them.


Southeastern Minnesota Synod (Lutheran Chruch page):
http://www.semnsynod.org/river_crossings/2004/jan/rivercrossings0104.pdf

Pay attention to page 5, which has an excellent example of how to format a standard format resolution.


New York State Conservation Council:
http://www.nyscc.com/nyscc_resolution_format.htm


Emergency Medical Residents Association:
http://www.emra.org/resources/pdf/resol.writing.guide.pdf


California Parent-Teachers Association:
http://www.capta.org/sections/convention-2005/resolutions.cfm


The real United Nations modified this general form. Personally I'd recommend you use the UN format when possible, since this is a "UN" simulation. Furthermore the UN form is more flexible and easier to read and debate, since the activating clauses (i.e. opinions) are numbered.

Since Frisbeeteria, Sophista, and Komokom are cleaning up prior tools, I think there may be value in revisiting the following as well.

Of course I'm totally biased here. ;)

As stated earlier, I'd be more than willing to place this information on the first page of the UNRWG thread. I've still got posts close to the top that I could edit if the text is too long to place within a single post. I can do that now, or I can wait until you're done.

As stated earlier, I'd be more than willing to place this information on the first page of the UNRWG thread.
I've posted a link to this thread in Sophista's sticky. See Post 16 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=16). Also 15 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=15), 17 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=17), and eventually 18 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=16) have some good useful links.

I'd like to see some of the intermediate posts cleaned out of the sticky, and I recommend that Mikitivity do a complete repost of this series in a new topic once it's all done. Any sticky that contains a link could then point to the finished (and uninterrupted) copy of this topic.

I've posted a link to this thread in Sophista's sticky. See Post 16 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=16). Also 15 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=15), 17 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=17), and eventually 18 (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7040804&postcount=16) have some good useful links.

I'd like to see some of the intermediate posts cleaned out of the sticky, and I recommend that Mikitivity do a complete repost of this series in a new topic once it's all done. Any sticky that contains a link could then point to the finished (and uninterrupted) copy of this topic.

I was actually planning on formatting this all in MS Word and created a printable PDF, so that authors could print a hardcopy and read it.

And then continue the series by talking about "low telegram" campaign techniques. Xtraordinary Gentlemen, Cheney-Land, Randomerica, and my nation have been practicing these ... testing out our theory that we can (with patience) get UN proposals to the floor without burdening UN Delegates.

But I certainly see GREAT benefit to having stickied threads pointing to clean discussions that we can link and copy from.

This is very well-thought out, perhaps, if this is saved on your computer you can e-mail it to me and I'll put it on the web site... ;)