Environmental Science Assignment: RESEARCH PAPER
I. GOAL
Write a clear, focused, well-organized paper that indicates that you can present a researched topic in the environmental sciences.
II. ESSAY TOPICS
As mentioned in class, pick any topic in Environmental Sciences that also reflects your interests and background
III. INSTRUCTIONS
Aim for the paperto be ~8 pageslong. Slightly longer or shorterpapers are OK, but you will lose points if you are off by more thana page. Your list of references does not count against the page limit.
Make sure that you introduce/define all the terms/concepts before you actually discuss their effects. For example, you need to describe what greenhouse gasses, albedo, and the global carbon cycle are before you can clearly discuss how the different factors affect global climate change.
IV. REFERENCES
You must read and cite at least 3 scientific papers in your essay. Scientificpapersare peer reviewed and contain a bibliography (list of references at end). You may use textbooks for your scientific references, but NOT the textbook for this class.
Examples of scientific journals are:
• Nature
• Science
• Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
• Eos
• Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
• Journal of Climate
• Climatic Change
• Geophysical Research Letters
• Scientific American
Include an alphabetical list of references at the end of your essay, structured as recommended by the American Meteorological Society.
• Books: Reference must consist of last name and initials of author(s), year of publication of book, title of book (italicized or underlined), publisher's name, and total pages.
For example:
Wallace, J. M., and P. V. Hobbs, 1977: Atmospheric Science: An Introductory Survey. Academic Press, 350 pp.
• Journal articles: Reference must consist of last name and initials of author(s), year of publication of journal, title of paper, title of journal (italicized or underlined), volume of journal, number of issue (only if required for identification), and first and last page numbers of the paper.
For example:
Archer, C. L., and M. Z. Jacobson, 2007: Supplying baseload power and reducing transmissions requirements by interconnecting wind farms. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 46, 1701-1717.
You must acknowledge and identify the work done by others in your written text by citing the appropriate paper/book. Example:
As mentioned in Wallace and Hobbs (1977), the weather data in the US ...
Quoted material should always be quoted exactly word for word and enclosed in quotation marks, followed by the citation. Example:
"Wind is the world's fastest growing electric energy source" (Archer and Jacobson 2007).