Major Assignment II
A Community Problem/Solution Writing for Environmental Justice
Environmental Advocacy Writing
*Use standard MLA formatting (1-inch margins all around, double-spaced, Times New Roman,
12 pt. font). Each page should be numbered and include your last name, and the paper needs to
include a heading. +1200 words. There will be no works cited page for Major Paper 2 as those
works cited page entries will be included in Part 2: Annotated Bibliography.
This research project asks you to do an independent research study on environmental issues in
your current local community you live in (mostly Houston). Listening to voices from database
scholarly articles, you will explore the social causes and consequences of environmental
problems or other community problems in Houston, including water, air, land, urban planning,
and other issues. Your Paper 2 and 3 will be based on the lens of environmental justice and aim
to advocate marginalized groups of people who are being threatened by the community problem
you investigate. The writing assignment will be a preparation of the work you will do with Major
Paper 3 Research-based Advocacy Writing Paper. In this Major Paper 2 as a preparation work,
you will describe your research process and build your annotated bibliography.
Building Your Research Process and Annotated Bibliography
Start your research probes with the following questions below:
What problems such as environmental risks and public health issues have you observed?
Who has power of decision-making processes about your chosen issue?
Which group of people is excluded from this procedure? Which group of people are more
vulnerable? Whom are you going to advocate?
What kind of tentative actionable advocacy (=solution) statements can you design?
Plan your research process. The procedure of Your Major Paper II will be four steps:
1. During your library session, find out 1 news article (=popular source) and 3 scholarly
sources by using your research keywords.
2. Work on Annotated Bibliography (Part 2).
3. Draft Part 1 and 3 and complete your full draft of Major Paper 2.
4. Revise your full draft and submit your Final Paper 2.
Your Paper II assignment will consist of 3 parts, each of them recording the steps youve taken
in researching your problem or issue and imagining actionable solutions.
Part 1: Research Process Narrative (+200 words)
You are encouraged to create research questions by connecting the keywords, such as bayous,
flooding, air/water quality environment, public health, Houston, with your own
potential major (math, engineering, education, business, science, etc.). You should use your
research question as the title of your paper 2 and will describe how you became interested in that
research question. This portion of the assignment will let the reader know how your process
began and progressed, what sources you found, what they were saying, and how they led you. I
am interested here in the chronological path and the first-person narrative of your process.
ENGL 1302/Dr. Lee
2
Part 2: Annotated Bibliography (3 entries, +250 words for each entry, total +750 words).
In this annotated bibliography, you will include your evaluations of 3 scholarly sources.
An annotated bibliography is like an expanded Works Cited (MLA) page where your reader sees
not only the formal citation but an annotation containing a summary and explanation of each
source. Youll list your sources alphabetically according to MLA as you would in a Works Cited
page. Each formal citation will be followed by paragraphs containing 1) description/summary,
2) evaluation (an indication of the credibility, authority, or bias of the source), and 3) your use
(a statement of how the source might fit into an argument). You can include Joseph Pratts book
chapter A Mixed Blessing as one of these three scholarly sources if you think your keyword
and research questions are closely connected to his book chapter. In this case, you can include 2
other scholarly articles further.
Note: Your sources will reflect how your research develops. There is no expectation that all these
sources will appear in the final paper (Major Paper 3). You might replace them in your Major
Paper 3 process in Module 3 later. In fact, it is unlikely that all the sources will
Bhandari, Shamila. Et.al. Effect of Land Cover Changes on the Sediment and Water Quality Characteristics of Brays Bayou Watershed Springer International Publishing. August 2017. https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10162435
Gardiner, Beth. What are the Consequences of Breathing Dirty Air? TED Radio Hour. January 2021. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/15/956918703/beth-gardiner-what-are-the-consequences-of-breathing-dirty-air
Nowlan, Caroline R. et.al. Nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde measurements from the GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Airborne Simulator over Houston, Texas. Copernicus. 30 October 2018.https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/11/5941/2018/
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