Article 4 - 101

Purpose: For this article, you will be bringing together research skills in finding sources and evaluating perspectives.

Task: In Article 4, you’re writing a 400-word article about your topic.  You should use at least two scholarly sources to give outside perspectives at least two of your sources from prior articles.  Quotes from all four (or more) sources should be integrated to explain your topic.

Criteria for Success: A successful article will provide:

Here's an example with full MLA Formatting: Example of Perspectives on Climate Change.  Although you don't need full formatting at this stage, you will need it for Project 2.  Also, your in-text citations and your works cited do need proper MLA citation format.

The two perspectives you use do not need to disagree with each other, but they should not be saying exactly the same things.  I don’t want repetition — I want multiple viewpoints.  The opinions can be complementary, they can disagree, they can be saying unrelated things — your job as a writer is to help us see how these perspectives fit together in understanding your topic.

You may also use additional primary and secondary sources if you like, but the 1 primary and 3 scholarly sources are required.

You are not required to use your past sources, but you are certainly welcome to use sources from your past articles.  However, please don’t recycle specific quotes or your own writing — try to say something new.

Evaluating Knowledge and Perspectives

Soon, we’ll begin Project 2, the major research paper for English 101.  In Project 1, we’ve been using a series of shorter articles to look at the different types of sources and to practice good citations.  Here in Article 4, the goal is to extend these basics into the more complex aspects of academic writing: reading the hard sources, telling your readers what those sources say, and then using your own judgment to help us better understand what those outside sources say about your topic.

Essentially, I’m looking for how well you evaluate knowledge.  What do we know about your topic, and how do we know it?  I want you to specifically talk about whether your primary and secondary sources may be biased or inaccurate.  Explain just how relevant or related your scholarly sources may be.  And you do not need to give complete answers — in fact, you may find some questions have no known answers.  In these cases, tell your readers what we don’t know, and how come that knowledge remains unknown.

Examples

Here’s and example of the kind of writing I’m looking for.  To better show the MLA Formatting

According to Mohan Munasinghe, climate change will cause major disruptions to the global economy, and these impacts will be the most damaging for those already living in poverty.  “Climate change is one major global outcome, but equally serious issue is the degradation of local water, air, and land resources. Ironically, the worst impacts of climate change will fall on the poor, who are not responsible for the problem” (8).  McKibbin and Wilcoxin seem to echo this sentiment when it comes to national economies.  As they write, “The effects tend to be small—or even positive—in developed countries. Developing countries are more vulnerable to climate change and are likely to suffer more adverse impacts” (113).  To understand how some countries might benefit from climate change, you can look north, to Canada, where the melting ice in the Arctic Ocean may open new shipping lanes for global commerce — the melting ice has led to a major dispute between the United States and Canada regarding the status of these waters (Burke).  But for nations without the infrastructure to adapt, the changing nature of the oceans may cause devastating damage, as seen in the rapid erosion of Micronesia.  Photos from Majuro Island show of cemeteries being washed out to sea by the rising tides (Harris).

Works Cited

Burke, Danita Catherine.  “The Northwest Passage Dispute.”  Oxford Research Group, 26 Feb. 2018, https://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/blog/the-northwest-passage-dispute.  Accessed 22 June 2020.

Harris, Mark Edward.  Photograph of tombstones and markers slipping into the sea on the west end of Majuro island.  “Climate Change: ‘The Single Greatest Threat to Our Existence.’”  Honolulu Civil Beat, https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/10/climate-change-the-single-greatest-threat-to-our-existence/.  Accessed 22 June 2020.

McKibbin, Warwick J., and Peter J. Wilcoxen.  “The Role of Economics in Climate Change Policy.”  Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 16, no. 2, pp., 2002, 107-129, https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/0895330027283.  Accessed 22 June 2020.

Munasinghe, Mohan.  “Addressing sustainable development and climate change together using sustainomics.” Wires Climate Change, vol. 2, no. 1, 2011, pp. 7-18, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/wcc.86.  Accessed 22 June 2020.