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Summary Paper Assignment: Tying a Local Environmental Issue to Human Drivers of Environmental Change
We live in a complex world and deal with a variety of
environmental problems. Being able to create concise summary papers on
environmental issues is an important skill in the environmental
management field. Summary papers provide relevant information about
environmental issues, how the issues were created, and ramifications of
the issues.
As we have learned, human activity is the driving force behind environmental change today.  
For this course, you are asked to prepare a summary paper on a current (or ongoing) local environmental issue,
tying it to the human drivers responsible for the underlying
environmental changes and the ramifications of not addressing the issue
you summarized.   
Be sure to select a local environmental issue
for your paper, rather than a regional or even global issue. For
example, pollution in the Chesapeake Bay is a regional issue, as the
Chesapeake Bay watershed has numerous tributaries and encompasses a
large and densely populated area covering multiple states that affects
water quality in the Bay. However, if you lived along the Patuxent River
(which leads to the Chesapeake Bay), you could write about pollution
issues in the Patuxent River as your local issue.
Please write a concise summary paper addressing the following:  
Briefly describe the environmental issue and its history (10 points). 
Identify two to three stakeholders, such as local residents and
groups interested in the issue, and briefly describe the problem from
the perspective of one of the stakeholders (15 points). 
Identify major environmental and human health concerns related to this issue (15 points). 
Discuss how the issue is tied to each of the human drivers of change we learned about:  
human population growth and consumption (10 points); 
energy use (10 points); and 
land use (10 points). 
Briefly discuss the ramifications of not addressing this problem (10 points). 
Each section of your paper should be clearly and concisely written
and based on supporting evidence and scientific principles. In addition,
you will also be assessed on the following: 
Writing style (10 points): Your paper should be written in your own
words, with no grammar or spelling errors. You should use of topic
sentences for each section and have clear transitions between sections.  
References and citation (10 points): You should use reliable
sources, include in-text citations where necessary, and create a
references list in APA format. 
The summary paper assignment is worth 15 percent of your overall grade.  
A detailed grading rubric for the Summary Paper assignment can be found in the Assignments area.
Here are some additional tips for writing summary papers:
Please always read the assignment instructions and grading rubric carefully.
Ensure that you address all the required elements in your paper. Your
assignments are graded according to the rubric; thus, check your paper
against the instructions and rubric to make sure that you cover
everything. This helps you avoid missing out on points that you can
easily earn.
Summary papers are meant to be clearly and concisely written.
Organize your paper clearly and logically, avoid repetition and
redundancy by combining sentences with related ideas, strive for
objectivity, and maintain a formal tone.  Headers
are a great way to break up your essays, but only if they are NOT
overdone.  In this assignment, there are some natural headers that you
can use to organize the paper (i.e., description of the local issue,
stakeholder perspectives, environmental and health concerns, connection
to energy, …land, etc.).    
Structure individual body paragraphs
by starting with a topic sentence, providing evidence that you cite in
the middle sentences, and analyzing (or commenting upon) the evidence in
your own words to end the paragraph.  Make sure that each paragraph is
complete.  
Work on using transitions so that your paper
flows from one idea to the next.  The transitions are important to
maintain a flow in the paper.  Otherwise, it is a fact sheet.  You want
to pull the central thesis of your paper throughout the entire
assignment. 
Before submitting your paper, always proof-read your paper
for clarity, grammar, and spelling. Your software’s spell-check
function can help, but it is also helpful to read your paper aloud to
catch errors. Do not lose points on something as silly as a spelling
error. 
Manage your time wisely. It is not easy to
balance work, school, and family life, but try to start working on your
paper early. You do not want to rush finishing an assignment at the last
minute and submit an incomplete paper.
Learn from the Turnitin report. With every
paper, be sure you open the report and look through EVERY highlighted
portion.  Sometimes, the highlights are for large common phrases and you
cannot do anything about it.  However, you want to look for and rewrite
problematic content.  You cannot simply copy and paste sentences or
paragraphs from other sources and add a reference.  You also cannot just
rearrange the sentences or change a word here and there (the system
will pick this up).  You also should not recycle papers from other
classes as these are highlighted as well.  You should always write your
assignments from scratch.  Properly paraphrasing and summarizing are
learned skills that will get better with time.  The Turnitin report will
help you check your progress along the way.  Thus, plan in sufficient
time to revise your paper based on the Turnitin report before the due
date if needed.
Finally, make use of the many great – and free! – resources provided by the UMGC Library and UMGC Writing Center, including:   
https://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/index.cfm  
https://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/gethelp-citing.cfm  
https://www.umgc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/writing-center/index.cfm