Writing Papers Guidance

Introduction 

So, you’re a community leader who has been invited to contribute a paper to a committee by KCL. For example, you’re a member of King’s Doctoral Students’ Association and you’re asked if you want to submit to the Postgraduate Research Committee.  This may seem like a daunting task, but let’s break it down together.  

What do we mean by committees? 

‘Committees’ mean any of the different types of collective body which the College has formally established to conduct its business, including: 

• Committees and Sub-Committees 

• Working Groups 

• Project Steering Groups  

• Boards 

So, what is a paper? 

A paper is written to inform a committee and/or ask a committee to take an action. These actions are: 

• To note (committee members read information that is relevant to the committee’s business) 

• To discuss (the chair should dedicate a section of the meeting to discuss the information and any actions that could adopted by members).  

• To Approve (the committee votes on a course of action or recommends for approval to a higher committee if they do not have the necessary powers).  

What papers does KCLSU already write for committees? 

KCLSU produces standing reports for the following committees: 

• College Council 

• Academic Board 

• College Education Committee 

• Student Experience Sub-Committee 

These reports update the committees on what is happening at KCLSU by covering the progress made by our elected officers and the wider strategic work undertaken by our Community Engagement Team at KCLSU (Events, Student Groups, Student Voice, Volunteering, Elections and Training). 

If you only have a short amount of content, you could contribute to a section of one of these existing standing reports submitted by the KCLSU officers each month. If this is the case, please email representation@kclsu.org to discuss feasibility.  

On a case-by-case basis, officers or staff have submitted papers for other committees on more specific topics. For example, last year the Vice President Postgraduate submitted a paper sharing decolonisation best-practice case studies with the University’s decolonisation working group. It is good practice to ask the chair of the committee in advance if they are happy to receive these extraordinary submissions and give an indication of topic to gauge if it would be a good fit for the committee in question. If you’re not sure if you have the right content for a paper, email us and we’ll let you know our thoughts.  

Great, I still want to write a paper, Tell me how 

1. Step one: Have something to say in your paper. ​Ask yourself two questions: 

   1. Why am I the right person to provide this information? 

   2. What new information can I provide to KCL. 

If you’re not confident in your responses to the above, go back to the drawing board. 

1.1 What if I want to share negative information, e.g. what King’s is doing wrong? 

Often, King’s already know what they are doing wrong. They receive thousands of pieces of feedback from students throughout the year, from the NSS to module evaluation questionnaires. Spend more time on the vision of what could change and how they could get there. 

To do so, you can use a problem statement to frame your response: 

1.2 What should I include in my paper? 

What you include is dependent on the ‘Action Needed’ by the committee.  

1.3 What can bolster my paper? 

Logos, pathos and ethos are all modes of persuasion that appeal to an audience. Depending on the content of your paper and what you’re trying to achieve, the inclusions listed below may be a good starting point to transform your paper from a note-of-information to a well-rounded response that convinces KCL to take a fresh course of action. 

1. Step Two:  Think about the audience. 

You need to determine the audience for your paper, as this will determine the specificity of your content.  

The governance of the University is complex, but we can help you navigate it. The highest decision-making body at KCL is College Council. All other committees and boards feed into Council and aids its decision-making processes. Papers usually start lower down in the chain of groups and committees, and then if higher level decision making is needed, papers are escalated up through more senior committees.  

2.1 What are the types of committees and what do they do? 

Below Council are standing boards, committees and working groups. Just by looking at their name, you can start to see the differences in scope of each of these decision-making spaces. For example, Academic Board has a broader view of the academic work of the college, the Estates Strategy Committee covers the development of the University’s estate and allocation of space, and then the Academic Calendar Working Group has a specific purpose and scope to decide on the college’s academic year dates.  

You can find many of the committees that KCL has on their website here. You can also find Terms of Reference (ToR) which explain the powers of the committee, who sits on it, their duties and responsibilities, the frequency of their meetings and their reporting procedures. This is a helpful starting point.  

1. What are the actions required for papers? 

All papers should identify clearly the action that the Committee is asked to take.  

Ask yourself: who needs to know this information, and what would you like them to do with it once they have it? There are three available options: 

• To note 

• To discuss 

• To approve. 

Usually, officer led papers are to note or to discuss. 

Step Three: Put your content into the right format/style. 

Style guidelines: 

• Maximum of five sides (not including the cover sheet).  Annexes to count within the five pages – other wider reading to be provided by link or request outside of the committee papers. If this is not possible, please contact the committee secretary for guidance.   

• Papers relating to changes in ordinances, regulations or procedures should clearly indicate the ‘with effect from…’ date and detail any transitional arrangements that may apply. 

• Key factors or questions that members need to take into consideration should be readily discernible. 

• Papers should be written from the perspective of the body that is to consider them. In many cases this will require fresh writing, not copying previous iterations. 

• Paragraphs and sub-paragraphs should be numbered according to the following convention:  

1. Heading  

1.1 Sub-heading  

    (a) sub-heading  

        (i) sub-heading  

• Spell acronyms in full the first time they are used e.g. College Education Committee (CEC) is chaired by Adam Fagan. The KCLSU officers attend CEC. 

• 11-point calibri font. 

• Left aligned paragraphs, 6pt spacing between. 

• You should list annexes like this at the bottom of your paper. 

[List annexes to the report] 

Annex 1 – [title] 

Annex 2 – [title] 

Annex 3 – [title]