The Position Paper Mistakes That Recur Across Conferences and Cost Award Eligibility

The Delegate Who Wrote Their Own Opinion

A chair at NMUN once opened a position paper, scanned the first paragraph, and closed the file. The delegate had written "I believe the Security Council should intervene" instead of what the Russian Federation would actually do. That paper was marked zero on the rubric. The delegate spent a weekend in committee they could not win an award in, and they did not know it until the closing ceremony. That single mistake, writing personal opinion rather than national policy, is the most common MUN position paper mistake and the one that most reliably costs award eligibility.

Position papers exist to prove you understand the difference between yourself and your assigned country. The dais does not care what you think. They care whether you can represent Indonesia, not your own politics. A paper that fails this test is not fixable by editing the last paragraph. The whole document is wrong.

Position Paper Errors to Avoid: the Full Catalogue

Below are the mistakes that recur across HMUN, NAIMUN, YMUN, THIMUN, MUNUC, and that consistently remove participants from award consideration. Each one comes with the dais's actual reaction, drawn from published rubrics and chair debriefs.

Late Submission or No Submission

At every event that requires a position paper, late submission voids award eligibility. Most set a hard deadline 48 to 72 hours before committee starts. A paper that arrives after that window is not scored. The participant still joins committee, but they cannot win anything. The rule is rigid because the dais needs time to read 80 to 200 papers before opening session. A late paper disrupts that workflow and signals poor preparation.

Plagiarism Consequences

Copying text from the study guide, a Wikipedia article, or another participant's paper triggers immediate disqualification from awards at every major conference. Most now run a plagiarism check on submitted papers. HMUN and NMUN both state in their handbooks that plagiarism results in a zero on the position paper and a note to the faculty advisor. The dais does not distinguish between intentional copying and careless paraphrasing. If three consecutive words match a source without citation, the paper is flagged.

Writing Personal Opinion Instead of Country Policy

A chair at a THIMUN conference once described a paper that opened with "I think the international community should" as "an essay, not a diplomatic document." The position paper must use the first-person plural of the delegation: "We, the delegation of Japan, support..." Every statement must trace back to an official government position, a UN voting record, or a treaty the country has signed. If you cannot find the country's actual stance, you have not researched enough to write the paper.

Study Guide Reliance Without Independent Research

Dais members write the background guide. They do not want to read a summary of it back to themselves. A paper that rephrases the study guide's topic background section without adding new sources, a recent UN report, a government white paper, a think tank analysis, tells the chair you stopped reading when the guide ended. The dais description for this mistake is exact: "I already wrote the background guide; I don't need you to summarise it back to me."

Exceeding the Word Count Limit

Most conferences set a strict word limit. NMUN specifies one page per topic. HMUN requires one page total. Papers that exceed the limit are either truncated by the dais or penalised in scoring. The instruction sheet is explicit. Ignoring it is not a creative choice; it is a formatting failure that makes the chair assume you cannot follow instructions.

Pre-Writing Resolution Clauses That Ignore Bloc Politics

A position paper should state what your country wants the committee to do, but it should not pre-write operative clauses. A paper that arrives with fully drafted clauses signals that the participant does not understand how resolutions are built in committee. Resolutions emerge from bloc negotiation, not from pre-written text. Arriving with clauses already set makes you less likely to merge and compromise, which is the core skill the dais evaluates. The paper should propose solutions in general terms, "Japan supports the creation of a regional monitoring mechanism", and leave the clause drafting for the committee floor.

Why Position Papers Get Disqualified: the Dais Perspective

A position paper is not an academic essay. It is a pre-conference document that proves three things: you know your country's policy, you have done research beyond the study guide, and you can write within the required format. At large gatherings with over 2,000 participants, HMUN, NAIMUN, NMUN, position papers are skimmed. The dais has 80 to 200 papers to review in two days. They read the first paragraph, the country policy section, and the proposed solutions. If those three sections are wrong, the rest does not matter.

The disqualification risk is binary. A late or plagiarised paper rules a participant out of awards entirely at most events. A paper that is poorly researched but on time and original still qualifies for award consideration, though it will score low. The difference between disqualification and a low score is the difference between a procedural violation and a substantive failure. One you can survive; the other you cannot.

Generic Policy Statements

Every country supports peace and hopes for cooperation. A paper that says that and nothing else has said nothing. The dais description for this mistake is precise: "Your country 'supports peace' and 'hopes for cooperation', every country says that." A generic policy statement signals the writer did not find their country's actual diplomatic language. Quote the country's own foreign ministry statements or its voting record on the specific issue. That is what distinguishes a real position from a placeholder.

Ignoring Committee Mandate

A paper that asks the General Assembly to impose sanctions, or that instructs the Security Council to create a new UN agency, shows the writer does not understand which body they are in. Each committee has a specific mandate. The United Nations Environment Programme cannot authorise peacekeeping troops. The Human Rights Council does not set trade policy. The dais description for this mistake is blunt: "You're asking the General Assembly to impose sanctions." Check your committee's actual powers before writing.

No Citations or Non-Credible Sources

A position paper without citations is not a position paper. It is a letter to the editor. Most conferences require a bibliography with at least three to five sources. Those sources should include UN documents, government statements, and academic analyses, not Newsweek, not a blog post from a student-run MUN site, not the study guide itself. The dais question for this mistake is direct: "Where did this claim come from?" If you cannot answer that for every claim in your paper, you have not done the work.

Mistake	What The Dais Says	Award Impact
Overly long historical background	This reads like a Wikipedia article, not a position paper	Low score; paper judged incomplete
Absence of actionable policy proposals	I know what your country thinks, but what does it want the committee to do?	Low score; fails one of three evaluation criteria
Copy-pasted bloc language	I can tell which delegation you caucus with, but I can't tell which country you are	Low score; no individual voice
Failure to address all topics in the background guide	You skipped topic B entirely	Zero on the missing topic; may fail overall
Treating the paper as a speech transcript	This is rhetoric, not analysis	Low score; wrong register
Submitting after the deadline	Position paper marked as late; award eligibility reduced or voided	Disqualification from awards
Plagiarised content	Plagiarism check triggered; paper rejected	Disqualification from awards; faculty advisor notified
Wrong country for the committee	You wrote for the actual member state, not your assigned character	Zero on roleplaying assessment
Past-tense framing of current policy	Is this still your position or are you describing what your country used to do?	Low score; policy section failed
No mention of past committee actions	You're acting like this committee has never discussed this topic before	Low score; no context provided

MUN Position Paper Writing Pitfalls That Invisible Delegates Make

Every mistake above is avoidable with a systematic approach. But there is a deeper pattern: the people who commit these errors are almost always the same ones who become invisible in committee. The position paper is the dais's first impression of you. A strong paper gets your name remembered. A weak one means the chair starts the weekend with no reason to call on you.

The most common writing pitfalls cluster around two failures: not reading the submission instructions and not doing independent research. The submission instructions tell you the font, the spacing, the word count, the file format, and the deadline. Conferences that specify 12-point Times New Roman, single-spaced, one page mean exactly that. Sending a double-spaced, 14-point document in Calibri is not a harmless preference; it signals you skipped the instructions.

The research failure is harder to fix because it requires time. A position paper built entirely on the study guide and one UN resolution sounds thin to a chair who has read 80 other papers that week. Find the country's actual diplomatic statements. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website for most countries publishes press releases and policy papers in English. The UN Digital Library contains every country's voting record and statement from the relevant committee. Use them.

Formatting That Ignores Submission Instructions

Conferences publish submission guidelines for a reason. At NMUN, the position paper must be one page per topic, 12-point Times New Roman, single-spaced, with the delegation name and committee in the header. At HMUN, the requirements are similar but the page limit is one page total. A paper that ignores these specifications is treated as non-compliant. The dais may read it; they will not score it fairly.

Inconsistent Voice In Double Delegations

When two people write a joint position paper, the voice must be consistent throughout. The dais description for this mistake is exact: "The first half and second half read like different countries." One writer cannot write from a hawkish perspective while the other writes from a conciliatory one. Write the paper together. Do not divide sections and assemble them later.

The One Thing That Ends Award Eligibility Faster Than Anything Else

Plagiarism is faster than late submission because it requires no deadline. A paper submitted early but containing copied text gets flagged when the dais runs their check. The delegation of the country you are representing does not write its foreign policy by copying Wikipedia. Neither should you.

Every other mistake in this catalogue, generic language, wrong committee mandate, no citations, ignoring topics, pre-writing clauses, can be fixed before you submit. Plagiarism cannot be fixed after submission because the dais keeps a record. The consequence is not just a zero on the paper. The faculty advisor receives a note, and at some conferences the entire delegation's eligibility for awards is reviewed.

This material is for the first-time participant who has just joined a school club and needs to understand what the dais actually evaluates. It is for the faculty advisor who must prepare a team without having done MUN themselves. It is for the experienced competitor chasing a gavel who needs to know what separates a strong paper from a forgettable one. It is for the university student looking for chairing roles who needs to know how dais evaluation works. It is for the parent evaluating whether MUN is worth the cost. It is not for readers looking for analysis of actual UN peacekeeping operations, current geopolitical news, or a debate club where one side wins on the merits of an argument. MUN rewards consensus-building, not clash.