The Outline
Your next task will be to write an outline (see example below). Outlining your paper will help you gain a better understanding of your ideas by arranging them according to their interrelationships. If, in this planning stage, you carefully arrange your ideas, it will provide a basic structure for the body of your paper, and make the job of writing your paper much easier.
Below should be submitted on a Word Document, using Times New Roman 12 point Font and following the format below. Please make sure to include the purpose/central idea statement.
Banning Jet Skiis
General Purpose: |
To persuade/inform |
Specific Purpose: |
To persuade listeners to a certain point of view. To inform an audience of an issue |
Central Idea: |
Jet skis should be banned in national and state parks because they make too much noise, harm the environment, and harass wildlife. |
INTRODUCTION
- Attention Grabber (one or two sentences outlines severity of the issue)
- This is a jet ski.
- Some people love them and want to use them on all waterways.
- Other people hate them and want them banned.
- I have a love/hate relationship with them.
- I enjoyed driving a jet ski on the ocean a few years ago.
- But my vacation recently at a beautiful lake was marred by the constant noise of jet skis.
- This is a jet ski.
- Orienting Material
- More than 1.3 million jet skis (also called personal watercraft) are in use, with annual sales of about 200,000—one-third of all boat sales.
- Jet skis should be banned from lakes and other waterways in national and state parks because they make too much noise, pollute air and water, and harass wildlife.
- However, I am in favor of permitting them on the ocean and private lakes, provided they stay away from shallow water.
- My information comes from The National Parks and Conservation Association; the Environmental Protection Agency; Dr. Joanna Burger, professor of biology at Rutgers University, and Dr. Ken Cordell, wildlife expert at the University of Georgia.(Transition: Let’s examine the first reason why jet skis should be banned.}
BODY
- Jet skis destroy peace and quiet.
- People go to national and state parks to get away from noise and enjoy the sounds of nature.
- A jet ski makes loud, intrusive noise.
- A person on shore 100 feet away hears 80 decibels (equivalent to a police siren).
- Two or more jet skis traveling together can create over 100 decibels (equivalent to standing next to a chainsaw).
- These decibel levels were figured by the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
(Transition: While jet skis are creating noise, they are also creating an environmental mess.)
- Jet skis cause serious pollution of air and water.
- One day’s worth of jet ski production of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide equals what a car would produce in 100,000 miles.
- Jet skis have inefficient, two-stroke engines, which dump up to one-third of their fuel—unburned.
- Each year 165 million gallons of oil are spilled into U.S. waterways by jet skis.
- Jet ski emissions can harm humans, animals, and plants, says the Environmental Protection Agency.
- A lot of the toxic chemicals are long-lived.
- Example: polycyclic hydrocarbons can kill zooplankton, an important part of the food chain.
- In lakes that have heavy jet ski traffic, fish populations have declined.
(Transition: Pollution is not the only way that jet skis harm animals.)
- Jet skis harass wildlife.
- They are so small, they can enter shallow waters.
- These waters are used by wildlife for reproduction and nesting.
- Jet skis cause alarm and flight and sometimes death, says Dr. Burger.
- Many birds abandon their nests permanently.
- This exposes their young to predators and bad weather.
(Transition: Let’s summarize.)
CONCLUSION
- Summary
- Jet skis should not be allowed in national and state parks.
- They create noise, cause pollution, and harass wildlife.
- Clincher
- Please sign a petition that I will send to our U.S. and state legislators asking them to support a ban.
- When we go to these parks, we have a right to find peace and quiet.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Use current APA citation style