How to answer this?

Question

Convince your classmates that certain personal modifications and/or actions should be taken by everyone to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that these modifications/actions are enough to mitigate climate change significantly. Or, convince your classmates that human nature, government and industry makes climate change inevitable and rather than attempt to mitigate it, we must prepare to live with the consequences.

Answer 1

This sounds like an argumentative writing assignment; writing a compelling argument can be tricky! Your arguments don't become more convincing simply because you're knowledgeable or passionate about one position or another. That means we must deliver the most hard-hitting and interconnected facts, and we must do so gracefully.

To build a strong argument, I like to adhere to the primary modes of persuasion coined by Aristotle - ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is the appeal to credibility and character. Logos is the appeal to logic and reason. And Pathos is the appeal to emotion. In this order, arguments can establish our credibility, deliver evidence, and call your readers to action with a tug on the heartstrings.

For my students, I prefer to give direct feedback and edit suggestions on drafts and assignments. If you're interested in learning more about crafting this kind of argument, or maybe you just want to know how each position is informed, let's talk! As an ecological researcher with an interdisciplinary master's degree in environmental studies, I have the expertise to chat about this topic until the sun goes down! We can go over an old assignment you have and discuss improvements, or we can tackle this paper and see it through to completion with iterative back-and-forth editing and feedback.