How to write really good!
Confessions of a Bad Writer
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….
Capitalization

Do Not Capitalize




Civil Rights movement
Environmental Justice
movement
Consultant
Country

Do Capitalize





Congress
Congressional
House
Senate
NY State Health
Department
Spellchecker isn’t perfect
 Number
of pubic figures
 Command an control
 Companies may not have bee advocating
 Professional foresters were trained in
silyiculture.
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)
 Argument
 Organization
 Evidence
 Style
If we judge a book by its
cover,What Makes a Good Title?
this is going to be a train wreck
 Our
Nations Pristine Polar Treasure
 Do You Want to Know? What’s in Your
Backyard.
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
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
Originality is Lacking
 The
Clean Air Act of 1990
 The Endangered Species Act

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
 How
the Wilderness Was Won: The
Wilderness Act of 1964
 Stripping in your Backyard : Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation Act 1977
Grade the Title

The Food Quality Protection Act


Protecting America’s Food Supply: The Food
Quality Protection Act Legislation


1- no desire to turn the page
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
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!
What makes a good first
sentence?
The Bland First Sentences
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.
 On August
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.
Snoopy Sentences
 In
September of 1982, North Carolina
Governor James Hunt made a difficult and
terrible decision.
Great First Sentence
 Once
depicted as “the very model of crisisinspired 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.
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
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
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.
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?
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
Body Paragraphs
 Clear
topic sentence
 Transitions-bridges between paragraphs
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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
Quotes
 When
and why do we use quotes?
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
Quote
Necessary 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.”
Quote
Necessary 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.)
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.”
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
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
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)
References
 How
many newspaper and magazine
articles?
 How many scholarly/academic articles?
 How
in-depth does the research seem?
Rewrite for Tuesday
– bold your thesis
 Organization –
 Argument


underline transitions
Outline sheet- paragraphs by topic 1. Intro 2.
 Evidence

Details
 Style
italics
– put your best crafted sentence in
Impact of BODs on Fish
8 ppm
8 ppm
NPEDES
 Rulemaking
Process
 Regulatory Output
 Abatement Costs
 Compliance
 Environmental Impact
 Perverse Incentives
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
Permitting Process

Expensive
 Complex, Long
 Many agencies,
 Separate permit for each media




CAA, Title V
CWA
RCRA
Dynamic nature of process
Regulatory Impact
 Permits
= Bargaining
 Consent of regulated Success
 New facilities versus Renewal
Compliance

Bethlehem Steel, MD



48th biggest toxic metal
polluter
CWA permit expires 1985
Fragmentation- Frigidaire
Power!

Administrative
Discretion = Power!

Manchester Sewer
Overflow
Permit requirements
are in “policy
guidance” to states

No one sues, it is legal

the initial
A Better Way?
“Cheaper, Faster, Better”

“Goals of the program are to achieve a cleaner
environment at the lowest cost.”


President Clinton
"The old way of doing business was that
government dictates every move a business
must take to protect the environment. The new
system, envisioned by Project XL, is to work
cooperatively and focus on the results: a cleaner
environment; a faster, less costly system; with
more input from the local community."

Intel CEO, Gordon Moore
Project XL

Flexibility for Superior
Environmental
Performance (SEP)
 Site-specific plans
 Stakeholder
negotiations
 Voluntary
Intel

Why go XL?
 Deliver SEP?
 Stakeholders?
SEP

Intel trades





EPA


50% less air pollutants
Conserve water
Reduce Chemical
waste 60%
Pretty Campus
Modest flexibility
Sound good?
Weyerhaeuser, GA

500 jobs, $75 million
 320,000 mton of
bleached softwood
kraft market fluff pulp
Weyerhauser

SEP




60% air emissions
Renewable forest mgmt
practices 300k acres
Stricter h2o effluents limits
Innovation



Closed loop
No bleach dumping
Reduce hazardous waste
90%
Merck Stonewall Plant

Trading Ozone for Smog
Substantive Issues
 What
is “superior environmental
performance”




What’s the baseline, Kenneth?
“Clear reduction in risk” ?
Whose environmental priorities– habitat,
green space, parks
Okay to trade for social/political benefits
Procedural Issues
 Role
of “outside stakeholders”
 Power of stakeholders, veto?

Absolute consensus
 Expertise
 Time
Consuming
 Legal?

No protection from citizen suits
Big ?s
 Goals



of Reinvention?
Balance between environmental quality and
reducing compliance costs
When to trade-off
Who makes trade off?
 What
if no-one wanted to reinvent the
process?
Alcoa- Massena
Alcoa’s Massena Operations is the longest continually operating
aluminum facility in the world, serving customers in the automotive,
transportation, aerospace and industrial distribution markets. Currently
employing more than 1400 people, Massena Operations is the largest
private employer north of Syracuse, contributing $250 million annually
to the local economy in payroll, local purchases and tax payments.
prebake (PB) cell technologies
smelters