Reflection Paper: Position Paper

A good position paper should be informative and obviously biased simultaneously. In my position paper, I did not meet any one of the two requirements. First, I did not provide enough information for my audience to see the overall picture of what alternative energy source is, instead I spend most of my words to explain why we need renewable energy. Also, I did not provide any information about how solar energy works. Second, I did not show my side obviously. Although my paper is about solar energy, I did not have enough data to show that why solar energy is better than all other alternative energy sources. Even worse, in my conclusion, I stated that “every alternative energy source has flaws.”, but I did not include any other energy source except solar energy in my body paragraph.

I started with my paper with a very simple and straightforward sentence, “Reducing fossil fuel dependence cannot wait.” I wasn’t being creative for my opening because It’s a position paper and I want my audience to be very clear which side I am on.

My body paragraphs were broken into two pieces: pros and cons. The pros of solar energy include: sustainability, various application, and not causing global warming. The cons include: land use and harming ecosystem. Through my whole article, I am arguing that cons and pros might switch over time, because some issues have to be solved right now, but some can wait.

In my conclusion paragraph, I stated that: “Harming ecosystem might be a risk we have to take in order to stop global warming.” Although I am not a scientist, I believe that there’s a great chance that scientists cannot find a way to solve environmental issues without any risk and sacrifice, and more issues might be created by solving the previous issue. The best we the general public can do is that trying to make it easier for scientists to solve the current issues.

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