Length: 250 word minimum
Content: An overview of your essay topic, with inclusion of sources.
Directions:
State which topic you’ll be writing about.
Give a draft of your thesis and overview some basic information about your topic.
Consider answering some of the questions suggested in the assignment guidelines.
Provide your two sources, with full citation information. Consider using KnightCite citation service. (Links to an external site.)
Sample:
1. Science
2. Thesis draft: Scientists have been studying how ocean-dwelling creatures can help fight climate change.
Sea otters
Once hunted nearly to extinction, sea otters are returning to the ocean, thanks to environmental efforts.
They have been revealed not only as a vital part of their ecosystem, but an integral link in the chain of climate change prevention.
How do they do this?
Sea otters eat huge amounts of sea urchins to keep their metabolism up and their bodies warm.
The sea urchins, unchecked, destroy kelp forests.
Kelp is a major storage for carbon, a greenhouse gas.
When kelp dies a natural death, it sinks to the ocean floor, where it traps carbon for centuries, thereby saving the carbon from entering the atmosphere and warming the planet.
However, when kelp’s roots are devoured by sea urchins, the kelp rises to the surface of the sea and the carbon returns to the atmosphere.
Sea otters help kelp maintain their vital role in the carbon-storing process by eating sea urchins and letting kelp live out its natural cycle.
Giant larvaceans.
[same as above – describe the process, answering the question of how they help fight climate change, the point of my thesis]
3. Citation information:
Chobrak, Ula. “How sea otters can fight climate change.” BBC Future, BBC, 14 Sept. 2021, www.bbc.com/future/article/20210914-how-sea-otters-help-fight-climate-change. (Links to an external site.)
Xia, Rosanna. “This fantastical sea creature helps remove planet-warming gases from the atmosphere .” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2020, www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-07/deep-sea-mucus-larvacean.
