human activity is NOT contributing to global warming or cooling

General Rules:

Project 4 – Opposing Viewpoint Guidelines

1. The purpose of this paper is an exercise in the effective debate of a position by researching and understanding an opposing viewpoint.

2. There is no minimum or maximum page limit, but 2-3 pages, double spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font, is a reasonable target.

3. Papers must be written by only one person, you! Use appropriate formatting.

4. Grammar and spelling will form a significant portion of the report grade.

5. Reference citations of the papers should conform to the CEE department’s CEE Writing

   Guide (provided on Moodle) and/or the official ASCE Authors’ Guide to Journals and Practice Periodicals, which can be found on the ASCE Publications website http://www2.nuk.edu.tw/cee/AuthorGuideJournals_ASCE.pdf. (or http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=29605 ) A complete bibliography must also be included.

6. Papers (1 hardcopy) must be received by April 2, 2013 at 9:30 AM Eastern Time.

Opposing Viewpoint Paper Guidelines:

• Each student will research the argument against man-caused (anthropogenic) climate

  change and present a persuasive paper highlighting several areas that challenge the idea that human activity is significantly contributing to global warming or cooling.

• Be careful not to argue against climate change in general—rather you should focus your efforts on disproving data that indicates human activity is significantly affecting the global climate.

• You will be expected to conduct research in this area using reputable sources (suggestions listed below).

• It is likely that research for this particular assignment will be a little more difficult than the previous research project. Therefore, the use of peer-reviewed publications is not a requirement, but you should look for sources that hold positions of authority in academia or science (engineers, scientists, reputable researchers, think tanks, scientific institutes, etc.).

• Excessive poor grammar and/or spelling errors will result in a whole letter grade reduction. Proper formatting and spacing is also important. If needed, reference the University Writing Resources Center for help.

• Failure to use reputable sources will also result in whole letter grade reductions. Use of sources identified as prohibited below (or a complete omission of References, including in-text citations) will result in a two-letter grade reduction for this project.

Reference Guidance

Suggested References

• Peer-reviewed journals • Technical publications • Scholarly articles
• Symposiums

• Government reports
• Professional publications
• National think tanks
• Industry reports that are backed by solid research

• Wikipedia
• Forums
• Online Q&A websites
• Newspaper and/or magazine articles that do not list sources
• Any other websites that do not list sources (an exception would be websites for

organizations that are authoritative in their field, such as www.usgs.gov)
• Political commentators (Rachel Maddow, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ed Schultz, etc.) • Sources whose primary purpose is political (MoveOn.org, Organizing for Action,

Infowars, Americans for Prosperity, etc.). 501 (c) (4) status or designation as a “PAC” or “Super PAC” generally indicates a primary function in politics.