Wolf hunting

A hunting season on wolves has been a big debate where I live. I know people that are for and against a hunting season on wolves. I have worked with people who agree with the proposed wolf season, and I have many friends who disagree with it. As a hunter I feel that wolves would make for a very challenging animal to hunt. Having worked on a cattle ranch, I know why people think that the wolf population needs to be controlled. Also I see why people think they need to be protected, especially since wolves were only recently reintroduced. The main disagreement is whether or not too many wolves will be killed. Another point that is disagreed over is whether or not wolves have had a chance to establish a stable population. This topic has been covered by national media sources, such as the New York Times. Also More local newspapers have numerous articles about this. The question that remains is whether or not a wolf hunting season can be effective at controlling the population while making sure wolves continue to have a stable population.

Wolf Hunting

I am writing about the legalization of wolf hunting. I grew up in Idaho where wolves were reintroduced and have been a huge controversy ever since. Many ranchers as well as others have tried to stop wolves being introduced, since their live stock is now at potential risk from the wolves. Enviromentalist on the other hand have been big supporters of reintroducing wolves, since they claim that it will help keep other animals, like deer, in check Recently there have been talks about a proposed wolf hunting season so some of the wolf packs can be kept in check. Ranchers and others are strong proponents for this season, whereas environmentalist and others argue against this season since wolves were only recently removed from the endangered species list. Both sides of this argument have written many articles about the pros and cons of this proposed season, so I think it will be fairly easy to find information. My question whether or not this season is viable and can be enacted by the government.

Ethnography

The subculture I decided to research, is the cutting horse subculture. This is a pretty distinct subculture and Fort Worth is considered the center of this subculture. The sport of cutting, as it is commonly called, involves a person on horse back “cutting” a cow from the herd and then trying prevent the cow from returning to the herd. Like a lot of subcultures, this one has people who say they are a part of it, then those people who actually belong. When competing, the competitors are required to wear a certain style of dress, which I have found a vast majority of these people will wear when not competing. To the casual observer, these people will look like your stereotypical cowboy. Certain words cutters, those who ride cutting horses, use that have either a different meaning or are altogether different than words used by people who do other rodeo events.
I have a few friends and my grandfather, who compete(d) in cutting and to them the belt buckles they have one hold a special significance to them. Every sport gives out trophies, and belt buckles are the trophies of cutters. The belt buckle cutters will wear represent their highest achievement in the sport. My friend Cole wears his Futurity finalist belt buckle because that is the best he has ever done, and he would have done better were it not for a minor mistake. To him that belt buckle symbolizes more than just doing well, it lets him know that he can do better. My grandfather displays his most important belt buckle by itself, whereas he keeps all his others lumped together in unimportant places around his house.
While money is a large motivation for the sport, the cutters do it for the love of riding horses. This love is more than just riding a horse, it is the competition involved with cutting that drives them. Two of my friends quit because of college, and as soon as both of them got on a horse again, they instantly decided to start up again.
This topic is interesting for me because I know people who do it, and more importantly when I was growing up my grandfather competed. Though I have never tried it, I have thought about cutting, especially since I have moved to Fort Worth.

Revising Solar Power rough draft

One of the recurring themes is the economic viability of solar power in the current market place. This is one of the main points of the paper since it is also the topic. Another recurring topic compares solar panels to wind power, since wind power is the other popular form of “green” energy. I was surprised with the theme of wind power because when I had started writing my paper I did not think about it. I should probably go into the pros and cons of wind power and how it affects the economic viability of solar power and then compare and contrast the two. There is little personal information in this essay mainly because I have not really dealt with using solar power. That being said I have done research for classes in high school and I have friends whose houses run off solar power.

researching

I did have to narrow down my topic to find relevant information. Solar energy is such a broad topic that finding information that pertains to a specific aspect of it makes it hard to find the information that you want. The best advice that I can give to other people using these web resources is to start with a very specific topic and become more broad if you do not find enough information.

I am going to write about solar power. Solar power is not a new technology, but is becoming increasingly popular with the “green” movement, and people’s growing concern with global warming. The scientific facts behind solar energy, and its positive and negative impacts on society, make it a promising topic. The politics involved with global warming though will affect what I find out about solar power. This topic raises a lot of questions, most importantly why isn’t solar power more widely used?
I want to research this topic because I find alternate energy to be an interesting field of science. I find it interesting mainly because of how innovative it is, and it looks at problem from a very different perspective. Also it is the “way of the future,” so it is important to know as much about it as possible.

Based on what the comments made by my reviewers, I plan to a few revisions. First I plan to clarify my essay so that it is clear what I am going to write about, especially at the end of the first paragraph. Both reviewers said that the end of the first paragraph was unclear so I will pay particular attention to that part of my paper. Secondly I will try to show more about where I am fishing so the reader has a better idea of the setting, so they can better visualize the whole story. Finally I need to make sure that my paper doesn’t jump from the past tense to the present tense and if it does, make sure that reader does not lose their sense of time.