Tutorial Assignment 4: Due in tutorial the week of 17 October, 6% of your grade and a

CRITICAL step for a successful research paper!

A. Research Paper Outline

Guidelines and format for the outline of a research paper
A good research paper outline will help you to structure your paper in a logical way and to maintain the focus on your question. Your outline will help you to organise the research you have already done, and will help you to recognise the gaps that remain. Please follow this format for your research paper outline. The title of your paper should either state your research question or your thesis Eg. How are the needs of human users balanced with or conflicting with the ecological integrity of Banff National Park?? Or Between the mountains and Second Cup: Banff National Park, Ecological Integrity and Human use 1. Introduction A. Thesis statement (succinct statement of your answer) The methods used to separate oil from the bituminous sands negatively impact the drinking quality of water used in these processes. B. A road-map identifying the main arguments which will follow in your essay to prove your thesis statement. i)Argument #1: Water allocations and use For various methods of extraction.
In your introduction these will each be summarized in one coherent sentence

ii) argument #2 The process of hydraulic fracturing used for the tar sands is harmful to the water used. iii) argument #3 The use of green additives or non-toxic hydraulic fracturing

C. Background information (define terms, the origin of the question, why is this an important/interesting question...). This can be a separate paragraph. The Tar sands have is considered by many as the biggest environmental concern for Canada. It has been criticized for lack of government regulation, wasting enormous amounts of water, and creating undrinkable polluted tailing ponds. This is an important issue because water is a precious resource and Canada has 20% of the world's freshwater. Protecting this water is in everyones interest. Bituminous sands, sands impregnated with bitumen. Bitumen: An extremely viscous oil. It must be treated before it can be used by refineries to produce gasoline or diesel. hydraulic fracturing: A method used to collect oil and natural gas. The basic idea is that water, sand and additives are pumped underground at high pressure. This causes underground formations to fracture, allowing for a more easy flow of natural gas, oil, etc.

2. Body of paper Make sure that every paragraph has:

a topic sentence: identifying the argument to follow in the paragraph and explaining why that argument speaks to the thesis statement a distinct argument that uses different pieces of evidence from different sources. Make your interpretation the clearest part of each paragraph, but make that interpretation convincing by referring to scholarly evidence. Example i) topic sentence ii) analysis a. evidence/illustration (eg. quote) iii) analysis b. more evidence iv) concluding sentence that summarizes the argument

A. Argument #1 i) The allocation and use of water that goes into processing oil sands is regulated poorly. ii) The four major sources of water used for oil sands operations are the Athabasca River, groundwater from wells, water from precipitation (rain and snow melt) and connate water. (Connate water: Water trapped in the pores of sedimentary rocks.) a. even after this recycled water is accounted for, oil sands extraction still requires anywhere from 2 to just over 3.5 m3 of water from the Athabasca River to produce 1 m3 of bitumen. (Griffiths, pg 33) iii)In the Athabasca River basin in early 2005 53% of the combined total of surface water and fresh groundwater allocations were for oilfield injection or industrial (oil, gas, petroleum) purposes,far higher than in any other river basin. (Griffiths, pg 45)

(Griffiths, pg 49) Allocated use and actual use can vary. iv) The amount of water allocated exceeds the needs of oil sands. The water is also used inefficiently.

B. Argument #2 i) The process of hydraulic fracturing used for the tar sands is harmful to the water used. ii) analysis a. evidence/illustration (eg. quote) iii) analysis b. more evidence iv) concluding sentence that summarizes the argument

C. Argument #3 i) To avoid wasting water and tailing ponds the use of green additives needs to be implemented. ii) analysis

a. evidence/illustration (eg. quote) iii) analysis b. more evidence iv) concluding sentence that summarizes the argument 3. Conclusion A. Restate thesis statement B. Summarize supporting arguments C. Comment on the importance of your findings (the bigger picture)

B. Three Pieces of Evidence

Your arguments must be backed up with evidence. Evidence must be from reliable sources, preferably peer-reviewed. All evidence MUST be properly referenced. Two ways of presenting evidence are quotes and images. Use a direct quote when the specific expression or interpretation of the evidence or idea is contained in the authors words. Use a paraphrase when the evidence or idea is more factual in nature; or when you wish to extract a more general description or conclusion from the source; or when you wish to condense the authors argument. Sometimes an image explains or illustrates something more efficiently than words. An image can be a photograph, painting, flow chart, map, graph, sketch etc. Guidelines for referencing an image with APA style are in the SUST 1000 LibGuide Writing Tools tab. Quote 1 (including proper in-text referencing) Reference 1 (as it would appear in your reference list)

Quote 2 (including proper in-text referencing) Reference 2 (as it would appear in your reference list)

Image (including proper in-text referencing) (Granberg, n.d.)

Reference (as it would appear in your reference list)

What is hydraulic fracturing? (n.d.). In A. Granberg (Author), Pro Publica. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.propublica.org/images/articles/natural_gas/marcellus_hydraulic_graphic_090514.gif