MAE 124/ESYS 103 Spring 2008
Paper 2 Advice from the TAs.
- I cannot emphasize this enough, MAKE SURE YOU STAY ON TRACK!
The purpose of this paper is to do an LCA analysis of a strategy
to
SIGNIFICANTLY reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. To
this
end, MAKE SURE YOUR PAPER MAKES IT VERY CLEAR HOW YOUR STRATEGY DOES
THIS, AND BY HOW MUCH (I.E. SHOW ME THE END ALL NUMBERS).
- Data: The need for real data in this paper cannot be
overemphasized.
You are one person, in reality there are normally huge teams of
people
making these LCA's in the professional world. THAT BEING SAID,
YOU
SHOULD NOT BE REWORDING SOMEONE ELSES LCA. You can draw data from other
LCA's, but the data should be a combination from multiple sources, and
THE END FINDINGS SHOULD BE YOUR OWN.
- In case this wasn't
clear after the first paper, WIKIPEDIA IS NOT A REPUTABLE
REFERENCE.
It's not a bad place to HELP FIND other references, but it should
NEVER be used as a reference.
- NEWS SOURCES are also NOT
reputable references. This includes the wall street journal,
signonsandiego.com, the economist, CNN, the BBC... don't use them.
- The Abstract: The abstract is a summary of the important points
of the
paper. It should be CONCISE and INFORMATIVE and describe the
fundamental premise and findings of the paper. Period.
- The
LCA and Eval: The LCA and eval should focus on environmental impact at
each life cycle stage, specifically greenhouse gases. Cost is
important for feasibility, but NOT THE FOCUS OF THE PAPER.
Paraphrasing other LCAs is acceptable so long as it describes GHG
emissions / environmental impact or can be related to GHG emissions /
environmental impact directly. This comes back to, you're not a
huge
team of people, but we still want you to do your own thinking and
research and form your own ideas here.
- Other than that, there
were some definite improvements after the first paper. Keep it
up!
Good luck, with your papers, and try looking through the
Questions and
Answers at http://www-pord.ucsd.edu/~sgille/mae124/Paper_2.html
. There are questions from your peers there answered BY THE
PROFESSORS, and most likely something ON YOUR TOPIC. So skim
through
THE WHOLE PAGE, it might help you out more than you'd think.