Student Guide: How to Research and Write on Sustainability?

 

by Debbie Howard
Sustainability has become something of a buzzword right now. And it’s for a good reason! We all live on the same planet! Every person is a little bit responsible for a better future. You can live a greener life, develop sustainable habits today, and change the world for the better tomorrow! It’s all about making choices that help the environment and future generations every day.

Students definitely have some influence in the modern world. For example, you can lead by example in person. You can also bring positive change through research and writing. Sustainability is a pretty complex subject, so you need to understand how to live this life before you can create a paper about it. At the same time, it’s easier if you put some effort into it.

Sustainable living helps you meet the needs of the present without compromising the lives of future generations. In some way, learners already know a little about it while studying at college. It’s all about finding ways to live and work in a delicate balance with your surroundings. They also develop their ability to think critically and communicate their ideas.

All of these skills can help you create an excellent paper on any topic. However, researching and writing on sustainability can be difficult for those learners who don’t use it in real life. In this guide, you will find helpful tips and tricks on how to create a paper about sustainable living from scratch. Just remember that you need to approach this paper as any other academic challenge!

Focusing Your Paper

This is the first step in any academic task. You need to settle on a topic before you can actually start writing! There are lots of different questions about sustainability to choose from right now. For this reason, students often struggle with narrowing down their topic. Sometimes, your professors can give out a specific question to answer.

But, in most cases, you need to find your focus for your paper by yourself. Here is some advice to get you started:

  • Start with what interests you. In case you don’t have a specific subject to write about, choose something that genuinely interests you. You can talk about anything you like, from renewable energy sources to sustainable agriculture. Your paper will have more impact when your passion shines through!

 

  • Explore local or global impacts. As mentioned before, there are different aspects to sustainable living. For example, your chosen issue might be local, like reducing plastic waste in your local town. Or you can choose a global issue, like the impact of climate change. It’s essential to choose a scale that speaks to you personally.
  • Talk with your professors. If you are still not sure what angle to pursue, you can always consult somebody at your college.

Now that the first step is done, it’s time to move on to research.

Researching Your Topic

As you conduct your research, it’s very important to evaluate the sources for your future project critically. You might want some help with my lab report with Writepaper or any other kind of homework if you don’t have enough time for everything. It’s always a good idea to delegate some of your assignments to professionals and focus on your project! Here are some other tips for you:

  • always double-check every fact and statistics;
  • be cautious of the information you find online;
  • don’t accept everything you read as a fact, even if it sounds plausible;
  • try to understand different aspects of your issue;
  • create your unique point of view and stick to it.

 

Don’t forget to use reliable sources for your paper! Not everything that you find online is worth believing or 100% accurate. So, your trusted sources can include peer reviewed resources, books, official websites, and government reports. It’s also a good idea to look for official statistics from peer-reviewed articles.

Now that you have enough information for your project, it’s time to move on to actual writing.

Organizing Your Thoughts

Organizing your thoughts before you start writing is an excellent way to create a cohesive paper. This trick helps students to clearly see if something needs to be added to the paper or removed from it. They can also notice if some arguments don’t have enough evidence to support them. One way to organize your thoughts is to create an outline with a list of the main points in it.

There are some general things that you can include in your outline. Usually, teachers expect their students to add the following to the papers:

  • introduction, where you present the issue;
  • thesis statement, which is the most important sentence of the whole paper;
  • body paragraphs that start with a new argument and evidence to support them;
  • conclusion that restates your point and shows that you achieved your goals;
  • bibliography with a list of sources that you used for your paper.

Creating Your Paper

So, you have your thoughts organized on paper. Now, you can move on to the actual writing. As your topic is focused on sustainability, why not include the concepts of sustainable living in your writing? For example, to be as clear as possible. Your readers need to understand you without any additional research or context for your problem. Also, don’t use any jargon!

Citing Your Sources

Some say that this is the most important part of any academic paper, especially on such an important subject as sustainable living. You need to persuade your readers that you have used only respectable literature for your research. Also, citing your sources is a great way to avoid any plagiarism, where you use info or statistics from another source without changing it.

Takeaway

With the help of this student guide on how to research and write on sustainability, you will deliver excellent papers every time! You might need to spend more time looking through credible sources, but it will be worth it when you find the perfect support for your arguments!