Position paper on Conflict Management, an essay concerning your skills and their improvement during this class. Write in the format of a formal paper (APA).

Introduction—Thesis and Overview (approximately 1/2 to 1 page)
This section should create reader interest, giving the reader some idea of your attitudes toward conflict as you began the semester and your attitudes toward conflict today (is there a difference?). In addition, it should contain a thesis statement and a foreshadowing statement that lets the reader know what will be covered in the paper.
Section One: Skills Assessment (approximately 3-4 pages)
This section focuses on Course Learning Objectives 2, 4, & 5 – Consider these ideas as you discuss your skills assessment:
What are constructive and destructive patterns for handling conflict you recognized in your experience? What skills do these involve? Were the skills you chose to assess the most pressing ones for you to improve? As you have recorded your conflicts this semester, have other skills for improvement become apparent? Are you more aware of the kinds of things you do which aren’t beneficial in conflict situations?
Are there limitations to using communication during a conflict? Have you noticed you communicate less during a conflict now compared to before this course? Why/why not? How has the semester increased your awareness of your and your partner’s communication behavior during conflict? What are you thinking about during your conflicts? The next step after awareness is improved behavior—behavioral changes take time, what do you want to continue to change? Understanding is the most important goal of this course.
What are your own strengths and weaknesses regarding conflict interactions? How have the conflict reports helped you to recognize your own conflict behavior? Are you more aware of the way you typically respond to conflicts? Have you found that conflicts with some people are more “controllable” than with other people? How do the conflict reports indicate this awareness? How can you put this awareness to use?
Section Two: Theoretical Connections (approximately 2 pages)
This section focuses on Course Learning Objective #1 – Consider these ideas as you discuss theoretical connections with your ideas and the course material:
How does understanding different types of conflicts and the existence of conflict cycles increase your understanding of your own behavior? What are some connections between conflict theories/concepts, your experiences, and your skills? Explain your understanding of the difference between theories and skills, and indicate which theory of conflict was most useful for understanding your behavior.
Section Three: Analysis and Plan for Future Behavior (approximately 2 pages)
This section focuses mainly on Course Learning Objective #3 – Consider these ideas as you analyze your own behavior:
Overall, how far have you come this semester? What has changed? What hasn’t changed? How do you assess your learning in the class?
Develop a “conflict behavior plan” you can use in the future. Make it specific – consider how you can pull information from the different chapters to remind you of lessons learned throughout the course. Discuss how you want to engage in conflicts in different relationships and situations moving forward? Will your approaches be the same for everyone, in every situation? What will you look for as clues to help you be more successful? How will you approach each partner with whom you have conflict? How will you overcome obstacles that get in the way of you handling conflict in constructive ways?
Close the project with a brief Conclusion (approximately ½ page)
Wrap up the paper with a summary of your experience in the course, the most important lessons you want to take away with you and how you have grown over the semester.
(Don’t forget to include a separate “References” page to list your sources, and to paste each of the nine “Conflict Reports” to the end of your final project.)