How to write really good!

1. How to write really good! Confessions of a Bad Writer

2. Obvious grammatical mistakes • It’s versus its • It’s raining outside • The tiger licked its paw • Affect (v) vs. effect (n) • The effect of the law was …. • The oil industry affected the outcome….

3. Do Not Capitalize Civil Rights movement Environmental Justice movement Consultant Country Do Capitalize Congress Congressional House Senate NY State Health Department Capitalization

4. Spellchecker isn’t perfect • Number of pubic figures • Command an control • Companies may not have bee advocating • Professional foresters were trained in silyiculture.

5. Acronyms • Spell out first, use acronym subsequently • The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) • Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), • Rest of paper– CCC or SDWA • Members of Congress (party-2 letter acronym, all caps) • Al Gore (D-TN) • Henry Waxman (D-CA)

6. Argument • Organization • Evidence • Style

7. If we judge a book by its cover,What Makes a Good Title?

8. this is going to be a train wreck • Our Nations Pristine Polar Treasure • Do You Want to Know? What’s in Your Backyard.

9. More Train Wrecks • Environmental justice: Where has all the sympathy gone? • Legislative Measures for Oil in the Ocean • Environmentalism and the Clean Air Act: an anomaly of nature

10. Organization is going to be an issue • Because marine mammals will always have a place in our hearts, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972: the initial controversies, legislation, and outcome

11. Originality is Lacking • The Clean Air Act of 1990 • The Endangered Species Act

12. RCRA: Another Solid Waste Plan Gone to Waste • Asbestos: Magic Mineral or Four-Letter-Word? • The End of Ocean Dumping: Frightened Vacationers and Outraged Public Prompt Legislation in Response to a Shocking Shoreline Discovery • The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, Pure Vision, Contaminated Processes

13. How the Wilderness Was Won: The Wilderness Act of 1964 • Stripping in your Backyard : Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act 1977

14. Grade the Title • The Food Quality Protection Act • 1- no desire to turn the page • Protecting America’s Food Supply: The Food Quality Protection Act Legislation • 2- might be okay, I’m curious • The Food Quality Protection Act: Warning-- May Contain Some Cancer Causing Chemicals • 3 – truly outstanding, I can’t wait to turn the page

15. Introductory Paragraph • What should be in the Intro? • 4 Things • First sentence • Thesis statement • Statement of the importance of topic • Structure of argument • Write the Intro Last!

16. What makes a good first sentence?

17. The Bland First Sentences • On August 18th, President Bush signed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 into law. • On October 17, 1986, the Emergency Planning and Community Right to know Act (EPCRA) was enacted.

18. Oh Please Sentences • The 1970s marked a time of great environmental activism in response to the harmful effects of previous disregard, ushering in a time of great environmental policy change.

19. Snoopy Sentences • In September of 1982, North Carolina Governor James Hunt made a difficult and terrible decision.

20. Great First Sentence • Once depicted as “the very model of crisis-inspired legislation at is worst” by political scientist Walter A. Rosenbaum (2004, 45), the Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988 has become the poster child for impulsive and rash policy making.

21. Thesis Statements • Underline the thesis statement • What makes a good one? • Clearly identifiable • Specific (reveals specific information/argument about the substance of the essay) • crisply stated

22. Problematic Thesis Statements • written so specifically that it runs on too long, or occupies an entire paragraph rather than one tight sentence • written so generally that it does not reveal much specific information about the substance of the essay • written as a road map for the essay rather than an argument that the essay will defend • difficult to identify or quite difficult to understand

23. Thesis Statements • Before the advent of the NFMA, environmental concerns stood largely at the periphery of the forest policy regime, and such economic concerns as timber production largely dominated the policy agenda. Since this time, aggressive environmental litigation, growing national environmental concern, and congressional legislation have worked to expand the managerial role the Forest Service play in habitat and species preservation.

24. Evaluating the 1st Paragraph • Is there a clear thesis? • Statement of the importance of topic • Is it clear why this is an important issue? • Structure of argument • Do you know what is coming?

25. Body Paragraphs • What makes a good one • Organization • Clear how paragraph relates to previous one • Paragraph has clear theme or point • All examples support the theme/internally consistent • Evidence- details/specifics • Frequent concrete examples • Skillfully analyzed

26. Body Paragraphs • Clear topic sentence • Transitions-bridges between paragraphs

27. Beautiful Transitions • While the event in Warren County gained crucial public support for the environmental justice movement, the driving forces had long been simmering in unrepresented and environmentally degraded regions of the US.

28. Beautiful Transitions • (flipper, Jacques Costeau, seal clubbing) These and many other examples that could be cited of growing public awareness of the need to protect our environment set the stage for legislative action to protect marine mammals.

29. The Value of Specifics to Your Argument • The amendment would require 10% of motor fuel sold by refiners would be considered “alternative”, such as ethanol, methanol, etc. Members from oil producing states were staunchly opposed to such provisions.

30. The amendment would require 10% of motor fuel sold by refiners would be considered “alternative”, such as ethanol, methanol, etc. Members from oil producing states were staunchly opposed to such provisions. Don Nickles (R-OK) argued that oil refiners in his state would not be able to produce alternative fuels. He reasons that it is “like trying to mandate to the apple tree that you produce 10% oranges.” Coupled with the Bush Administration’s threat of veto, this amendment was tabled with a voice vote.

31. Details Require Analysis • The appealing idea of burying nuclear waste “out of sight” quickly overruled suggestions of taking time to develop technology which would nullify radioactivity. Instead, money was “thrown” at the seemingly simple solution of “digging holes” for the waste.

32. Quotes • When and why do we use quotes?

33. Quote Necessary or Unnecessary • “Efforts to allow development of the coastal plain of the ANWR in northeastern Alaska effectively ended with the Exxon Valdez oil spill.” • Don’t use quotes to describe factual events

34. QuoteNecessary or Unnecessary • Since the House leadership failed to establish procedures for a multicommittee bill before it met to amend the legislation, Each version approved by the committees created a “thicket of jurisdictional conflicts.” • Or about ANWR divide, “It’s a theological issue.”

35. QuoteNecessary or Unnecessary • Citizens blamed species extinction on hunters, not the larger issues of habitat degradation. • (fn To Save a Tiger, New York Times op ed.)

36. Great Quotes • Post Bhopal accident- VP for CMA remarked that “It will be difficult for the industry, not just for Union Carbide, to recover public trust.” • (About compromise energy bill) Few interested parties were thrilled, yet “virtually all factions found something to like in the bill.”

37. Writing • Eliminate Unnecessary Words • These and many other examples that could be cited of growing public awareness of the need to protect our environment set the stage for legislative action to protect marine mammals. • It is important to understand that…. • The compromise was important. • Important! DO NOT USE THIS WORD

38. Reverse Outline • Write your thesis • Write the controlling idea and topic sentence of each of your body paragraphs • Does each paragraph have specific details (your opinions supported by textual evidence) that refer back to the topic sentence and clarify the controlling idea of the paragraph

39. Acronyms • Spell out first, use acronym subsequently • The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) • Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), • Rest of paper– CCC or SDWA • Politicians (party-2 letter acronym, all caps) • Al Gore (D-TN) • Henry Waxman (D-CA)

40. References • How many newspaper and magazine articles? • How many scholarly/academic articles? • How in-depth does the research seem?

41. Rewrite for Tuesday • Argument – bold your thesis • Organization – • underline transitions • Outline sheet- paragraphs by topic 1. Intro 2. • Evidence • Details • Style – put your best crafted sentence in italics

42. Impact of BODs on Fish Normal clean water organisms (Trout, perch, bass, mayfly, stonefly) Trash fish (carp, gar, leeches) Fish absent, fungi, sludge worms, bacteria (anaerobic) Trash fish (carp, gar, leeches) Normal clean water organisms (Trout, perch, bass, mayfly, stonefly) 8 ppm Types of organisms Dissolved oxygen (ppm) 8 ppm Biological oxygen demand Clean Zone Recovery Zone Septic Zone Decomposition Zone Clean Zone

43. NPEDES • Rulemaking Process • Regulatory Output • Abatement Costs • Compliance • Environmental Impact • Perverse Incentives

44. Permitting • “Permits are the legally binding terms that a control authority imposes on a pollution sources as a conditions for building or operating the sources. Permits are designed to reconcile what the source emits with what standards allow. Permits are the basis for compliance, the key to pollution control, the nexus between the control authority and the pollution sources.” • Davies, Reforming Permitting

45. Permitting Process • Expensive • Complex, Long • Many agencies, • Separate permit for each media • CAA, Title V • CWA • RCRA • Dynamic nature of process

47. Regulatory Impact • Permits = Bargaining • Consent of regulated Success • New facilities versus Renewal

48. Compliance • Bethlehem Steel, MD • 48th biggest toxic metal polluter • CWA permit expires 1985 • Fragmentation- Frigidaire

49. the initial Power! • Administrative Discretion = Power! • Manchester Sewer Overflow • Permit requirements are in “policy guidance” to states • No one sues, it is legal

50. A Better Way?