-Selecting a Topic
You are strongly encouraged to pick an ENERGY topic that is related to your major. For instance, if you are a policy major, your final paper might focus on some policy aspect of a course topic. If you are in business or economics, your paper might focus on the business or economic aspect of energy. If you are in marketing, your paper might focus on a marketing issue related to renewable energy. If you are in dentistry well, dentists use energy also. There is no major or field of interest that does not have some tie to energy. If you have not yet chosen a major, no worries, think about what major or field you are most interested in and write about a related energy topic. That said, it is not required that you relate your paper to your major. If there is a topic that interests you, go ahead and research it and write about it!
-General Criteria
The following requirements apply to your final research paper:.
Energy: The topic MUST be related to energy!
Your major: We strongly suggest that your paper topic is related to your major or field of study, but this is optional.
Required structural elements: There are some required sections we are wanting to see with section headings–see these below.
Paper length: The paper must be a minimum of 2000 words to get full credit. We will count off points for papers with less than 2000 words (3 points off for each 100 words missing). Papers with less than 1200 words will not be accepted.
Formatting: Spacing should be 1.5 spaced, 12 pt font, and you should use headings and/or subheadings for your sections.
Sample papers: Sample papers are listed in Module 30.
Late Submissions: Submit your paper on time! You will lose 10% for each day your paper is late.
-Objectives and Instructions for your Final Research Paper
The objective of this Final Research Paper is to have you present in-depth information on a topic related to energy. This paper is not a persuasive paper or first-person narrative of your actions or thoughts. Consider this a formal research paper that will help you develop an awareness of how your chosen career passion and interest relates to energy. Everything we do has a connection to energy, and we want you to explore this.
Your topic MUST focus on energy and should be related to your major. Here are some questions that may help you think about energy as it relates to your field of interest:
Where is the bulk of the energy being used in your field?
What are some technologies or practices being done to change or reduce energy use?
Are there some start-up businesses that are helping to change or reduce energy use?
What is driving the change? (Is it policies? Economics? Consumers?)
What are some of the road blocks or barriers to adapting changes to reduce energy use?
How can these barriers be overcome?
Strongly Discouraged topics: ATP, energy for the body, internal batteries recharged by the body, water use or water treatment, recycling, general sustainability,
Audience
Communication is most effective when you have a specific audience in mind. For this assignment your audience is either peers in your major or professionals in the field. You are writing to inform them of all the cool things going on that connect your major to energy!
Required Structural Elements and Organization
Use ALL of the following headers in your final paper:
Cover Page (10 pts)
Paper title, your name, your major, date
2-3 sentence overview or summary of your topic
Executive Summary (10 pts)
An Executive Summary is a roughly one-page document that presents the most important points associated with a topic, and is intended as a stand alone summary. It is usually written for a manager who is very busy and may only have time to read the Executive Summary (and not the full report) to get all the key points.
Your Executive Summary should be comprised of three parts representing each of the main sections of your report: introduction (including quantified energy context), discussion, and specific future actions. Take a look at this Sample and model your Executive Summary after it.
Introduction and Background (10 pts)
Provide a brief introduction to the issue and tell us why it is important to your field or chosen major. Provide background and quantified energy context for the reader to better understand the issue and its significance for how your topic fits into the larger energy picture. Provide historical information and national and/or global energy data where appropriate. Why is energy an issue for this sector or field? (This is a section where you will likely need citations.)
Discussion of the Issue (25 pts)
Go into more depth about the specifics of your topic. What technologies or practices are being implemented? Likely you will have some examples or case studies in this section about real events going on and the impact they are having. Include quantification as much as you can. Is the technology or practice resulting in major energy savings, cost savings, or reduction in carbon? What is driving the change? Who is involved? (This is a section where you will likely need citations.)
Future Actions Needed (15 pts)
Based on what you have studied and learned, students should provide some specific strategies that need to take place to move this topic forward by the year 2025. Support your ideas with information you have researched for this paper. In other words, your ideas should have some grounding in data and evidence that you found in your research.
Tell us the barriers that need to be overcome in order to advance the topic you have reported on.
Propose some specific strategies or actions that will help overcome the barriers you have mentioned above.
What would need to change to advance your topic for the future and make it more viable?
Bibliography (10 pts)
This final section of your paper should include the references used in your paper. You must also include in-text citations that refer to these references. You must use at least three sources (two of them primary)see Sources section for more information.
Quality of Your Writing (20 pts)
We reserve 20 points to assess the quality of your writing. See Writing Resources section. Good writing quality includes:
Proper spelling, sentence structure and punctuation.
Use proper tense (third person, except for future predictions section).
Use of required section headings.
Paper flows well between sections and is easy to follow and read.
Layout makes sense and is professional and clear.
Please limit the use of direct quotes. We are looking for assimilation of information by you.
Proofread before you submit!
