Effects of private jets on climate change
First and foremost, your purpose for this project will be to understand some aspect of climate change and recognize its complexities as well as how we might respond to it. You’ll seek out conversations that are happening among scholars, scientists, politicians, and citizens to answer your question about a specific aspect of climate change–in realms as diverse as effects of climate change on specific people and geographic locations; the consequences of climate change for human health and wellbeing, economic growth, and social stability; contributors to climate change; and responses to climate change from governments, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and individuals. You will conduct research, reviewing the ideas of experts and thinkers in many fields as well as listening to the voices and experiences of those most directly affected. In this research, you will be looking for a particular “story,” or finding a specific thread, that emerges in the sources.
Your second purpose is then to explain, in writing, what you’ve come to understand. You will not write to persuade an audience so much as to inform and educate them by reporting the information you’ve gathered. Your writing will summarize, synthesize, and analyze what you’ve found in your research so that you advance your audience’s understanding. In true academic fashion, you are setting out to open up a conversation about this topic through your research and writing. See Everyone’s an Author chapter 15 for more information about reports.
Your Audience
Imagine an audience of readers your age who is, like you, are interested in the problem of climate change and eager to find ways to act. They want to learn more but are likely to have diverse opinions and experiences that they’ll bring to reading your work. You will want to approach this audience and your topic with openness, humility, and meekness.