How to Write a Conflict Analysis

A conflict analysis paper tackles an issue with an eye toward making recommendations for the resolution of the issue. A simple example is to write about a fight you had with your spouse: The paper would analyze the fight and why the fight happened, and would make recommendations about how to avoid a similar fight in the future. The key to effectively writing a conflict analysis paper is to follow the directions given by your instructor.

Step 1

Choose a conflict for your paper based on the topics provided by your instructor. For a communications course the topic is likely to be a personal conflict, whereas for a political science course it might be a recent act of terrorism, an insurgency or a civil war.

Step 2

Identify the audience for your paper. The audience directs your research. For example your topic is to write about a confrontation you had with a customer service person for a communications course. Your audience might be customer service people, which means you will research the accepted practices in the provision of customer service. Alternatively, your audience might be persons interested in conflict resolution – a different direction of research. For a political science paper, your audience might be civil war protesters or government – different directions of research.

Step 3

Draft a frame of reference for your paper. The frame of reference is the theory or concept you will use to analyze your chosen conflict. Conduct your research.

Step 4

Write your paper in accordance with your instructor's requirements. Generally speaking, a conflict analysis should contain sections describing and analyzing the underlying reasons for the conflict, conclusions about the conflict and recommendations about avoiding future conflicts.