MAE 124/ESYS 103 Spring 2009
Additional Guidance for
Paper 1.
Paper topic: paper1.pdf
Writing Guide: writing_guide.pdf
Sample Outline (put together by 2008 TA's): EXAMPLE_PAPER_OUTLINE.pdf
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can you tell me of any good resources for scientific papers regarding the topics, such as scientific journals that are highly regarded in the field?
We'll
continue to talk about this in class, but here are some starting points.
Visit the websites of:
A good way to find scientific papers is by
using either Google Scholar or the
ISI web of science to search by
key words for refereed
publications pertinent to your topic. If you are on campus or are using
UCSD proxy servers, you should be able to click through to the full publications
that come up in your search.
Scientific journals that come to mind:
Water Resources
Research
Journal of
Hydrology
Journal of Ground
Water
Journal of Water
Resources Planning and Management
Journal of
Environmental Economics and Management
American Journal
of Agricultural Economics
Water Resources
Bulletin
News articles and
environmental websites such as the Aquafornia water blog (from your readings)
or Earth Portal are useful for overviews , analysis, and recent information. These sources may be credible (or not) depending on how they are written, but regardless they are likely to lead you to credible sources, as well as providing perspective. Here are some starting points:
Los Angeles Time
opinion debate
Project H2O (April 7-11, 2008)
2. How
do we use turnitin.com?
See the detailed instructions.
3.
How do I create footnotes? Are endnotes acceptable?
Footnotes and endnotes are both fine. Any consistent format is OK. The
Chicago Manual of Style is one
standard format, and you can find a detailed discussion of its usage
for
term papers at
this University of Wisconsin writing center site.
You may also use citation methods
commonly used for scientific papers, such as numbered references or
in line references to
author
and year, with a full reference list at the end. A sample reference
might
be "[Smith and Jones, 2006]". In this case, you should
be sure to identify specific page numbers where relevant ("[Smith and
Jones, 2006, p. 291]").
This Long Island University site explains the American Medical Association style,
and this University of Georgia site explains the American Physical Association Style.
4.
How should web pages be cited? What types of web pages are acceptable
as sources?
If you use a web page as a source, then you should cite it, providing
as much standard reference information as possible: author, title,
date,
location, etc. Keep in mind that web pages vary considerably in
credibility. In general, the most credible information comes from
peer-reviewed scholarly publications (which could include electronic
journals and electronic reprints posted to web pages---if you use a
journal article or other publication that happens to be posted to the
web, then please cite it the same way you would cite it if you had
found it in the library, with standard information such as author, title,
publication year, journal name or publisher, volume number, page numbers, etc.)
Researched
reports (with citations) from environmental organizations are also
often fairly reliable, although they
may not have gone through a peer review process. Some web pages are
essentially advertising brochures for a particular product, and you
should
probably assume that the authors are presenting a biased view of their
product's features. (Much material also appears in blogs, which can
be interesting and provocative, but may not have much real research or
information
behind them. We don't recommend blogs as primary research sources.)
5.
If I choose to support the plans for a desalination plant at San Onofre,
do I need to address the second part of this topic (propose how San Diego
should diversify its water resources)?
If you can argue that a desalination plant at San Onofre can meet all of San Diego water needs, then you don't need to consider other options for water resources. However, you might want to think about what would happen in the event of a desalination plant maintenance shutdown.
6.
How do I request an extension?
Please contact your TA.
Note that if we grant an extension for the April 9/10 deadline,
that will not extend to the other deadline.
8.
Does the preliminary plan (due on April 9th/10th) need to include references?
Our instructions specify that you must include 2 references, while the final
paper will need at least 4 references. We'll talk in discussion section on
the 9th and 10th about how to track down good scholarly references.
9.
How should I format my paper?
Please use the following guidelines.
- Upload Word or pdf documents only to turnitin.com. (RTF may be OK as well;
plain text can be a little tricky for formatting.)
- Include your name (First, then Last), PID, Date in upper right hand corner, single spaced.
- Use 1 inch margins, with 12 point font for the whole document. Use 1.5
or double spacing for the main text.
- Center your title at the top, but do not include a separate title page.
- Clearly label sections (intro, background, etc.)
- Include page numbers, centered at the bottom of the pages.
10.
Now that I've turned in my preliminary position statement, how
soon will I get feedback to let me know if I'm on the right track?
We're planning to get these marked and returned by discussion sections April
16/17, and we'll give you feedback, particularly if we think you've
drifted off track. If you have doubts, please see your TA before then,
and do not stop working on your paper while you wait for comments.
11.
I'm planning to consider the thesis "The benefits of utilizing nuclear energy in desalinization for freshwater outweigh the costs that it provides to the city of San Diego." Would focusing on nuclear energy and its benefits/costs be appropriate?
Your approach sounds fine. You may want to extend your consideration of costs and benefits beyond simple economic costs so that you consider other types of societal costs. And you'll want to make sure that your analysis is specific to San Diego water issues. How much water can be produced with what costs/risks?
12.
Is it desalinization or desalination, or are both acceptable?
Both are acceptable. See for example http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Da-En/Desalinization.html.
13.
My position statement is at the end of an opening
paragraph that is more than half a page single-spaced, which means it will
be on the second page, double-spaced. I know that some professors prefer
smaller, and in turn, more paragraphs for papers, and would actually
subtract points if paragraphs were more than a page double-spaced.
There is no formal requirement for the length of paragraphs, but it is probably a good idea to make sure that people reading your paper can find your position statement fairly quickly, before they get to the end of the first page, for example.
In addition, you also will want to avoid confusing your reader(s) by having
paragraphs that are extremely long.
14.
Should the background section use subtitles to identify separate subsections
for economic and environmental pros and cons, as the outline did, or should
the text flow continuously?
Make your paper easy to read. That means that you probably want to
put headings on major sections, but not on every paragraph. So if you
develop an extensive multi-paragraph discussion on economic issues, then
you might want to add a section heading. But otherwise you probably
won't need a heading for every issue.
15.
I have been searching for sources for the gray water paper topic.
Using BIOSIS, I did not find much with a key word search on either "grey
water" or "gray water". Google scholar seems problematic because it
produces many sources that I seem to need to pay to see.
Please be sure to run Google scholar (or Web of Science or BIOSIS) from
on campus or using a UCSD proxy server (or VPN), which will allow you to
access journal articles using the University of California
subscriptions. The UCSD library has
a
page explaining both. You should not have to pay money to read articles.
The TA's will talk about search methods in greater detail in section
on April 9/10.
16.
I have found that
there are many documented reports on the use of reclaimed water, not
necessarily grey water. Can you distinguish between grey water and
recycled water? I have found that a few of my sources say that reclaimed
water is that which has been treated to a tertiary level and disinfected
while grey water is purified by plants and soil. Is this distinction
correct?
A common definition of gray water (or grey water) is that it is "Water
that is not clean enough to be potable, such as having been used for
washing, but that can be recycled, such as for flushing toilets"
(wiktionary.org). As you note reclaimed water can be dirtier to start
out, but it is purified (either to
secondary level for irrigation, for example, or to a higher level for
full reuse as drinking water. Clearly there is some overlap in the
terms, and you may find that literature on reclaimed water is useful.
The term paper assignment specifically asked about gray water, because
that is a lower cost treatment option. Your page count is very limited,
but you might find it useful to consider the relative benefits of
reclaimed water systems versus gray water systems in meeting Southern
California water needs.
17.
Does 1000-1250 the word count include headers and references?
No, we're looking for 1000 to 1250 words of your own writing. We do not
want to penalize your length if you find many good references
to cite and therefore end up with a long reference list.
18.
I have a hard copy of the "City of San Diego Long-Range Water Resources
Plan(2002-2030)." The other info on the front cover is:
"Adopted Dec. 9, 2002, The City of San Diego Water Department."
Then in side it states, "This report was prepared by:"
and lists 10 people.
Should I treat this like a book citation?
What do you suggest?
Yes, you can treat it as a book.
Another option is to cite it as a City of San Diego government document, as I see is done in an article by Jan C. Bush in the May/June 2007 issue of Southwest Hydrology (see http://www.swhydro.arizona.edu/archive/V6_N3/feature6.pdf):
City of San Diego Long-Range Water Resources Plan
2002-2030, www.sandiego.gov/water