ATMO research paper (1300 words) a proposal need tomorrow

Simple web searches can be a great way to begin your research. Successful searching requires that you carefully select your search keywords. Vague search inquiries such as "carbon cap and trade" will find thousands of articles and other materials that will not in general be specific enough to use as sources for a focused research paper topic. The more specific you can be in your searches, the better chance you have of finding good, relevant information. Suppose you are considering a topic related to the economic impacts of carbon cap and trade. Searching for "carbon cap and trade economic impacts" is more specific than just "carbon cap and trade," which makes it easier to find specific information about the topic. As you hone in on a specific topic, even more specific web searches should be tried, such as "cap and trade stimulate investment alternative energy."

Check out Web Search 101: The Top Ten Web Search Tricks for ideas on how to have more success with web searches. The University Library has a helpful tutorial on selecting search keywords. Simple web searches are good for background reading on the topic and can help you to decide upon a focused debatable topic for your paper. Even blog entries can contain good ideas or questions for you to consider. However, many internet articles and blog posts do not provide sufficient data or supporting evidence for their claims and in themselves are not good reference sources for your paper. After this upfront research, you can now make new search keywords to look for more reliable source material, perhaps using an information database as discussed below.  

You should not rely solely on Google searches for your research and information. There are databases of information that contain only resources that have been verified to be accurate. The University Library provides a research guide, Pros and Cons of Contemporary Issues, that provides a list of resources that could be helpful for this assignment, which includes search databases and websites. I highly suggest that you use this guide and the links within as part of your research. In particular, the link to CQ Researcher Database appears to be very good for this paper as it has a specific topic on climate change.

Something that you will have to consider while doing research for your paper, especially for internet-only articles, is that the author of an article may be biased.  In trying to push a personal agenda, some authors will misrepresent supporting and refuting evidence.  You should be aware of this possibility when doing your research and check multiple sources where possible. Evaluating the reliability of source material is an important part of the research process. Unfortunately, this is not something that we have time to cover properly in this course, so do your best to select accurate and reliable sources. Here is a brief tutorial on Evaluating Information.