Research Proposal

Jenna Layton Preparatory Assignment #1 1/29 As I was assigned this research paper, I had no idea what I wanted to write about.

Of course, my first thoughts were abortion and bullying, but those topics seem too predictable/easy. I wanted to choose a topic that I was interested in, but also a topic that I didn’t know much about. As I searched through lists of research topics I came across the topic of littering and immediately knew that was the topic I wanted to research. Littering is a big pet peeve of mine; therefore, when researching this topic I will continue to have an interest and passion for this issue as I learn more about it.

My passion for littering began, when I lived in Wisconsin and got my license for the first time. Being an observant, cautious driver, I would notice all of the little things either on the road or on the side of the road that should not have been there. There were mostly thinks like fast food cups and bags tossed on the ground and these objects began to really bother me as years went on. Three years later, still driving, I am continuously bothered by the amounts of garbage on the streets. I now drive down the streets of Tallahassee and never fail to spot those pieces of litter. I first noticed the amount of garbage on the streets over two years ago and realize littering is still an issue today as it might always be. This countries issue with littering has gotten noticeably worse and we may never be able to fix the harm that has been done, but we can try to reduce the amount of littering overall. How can we ever get everyone to stop littering?

The research question I came up with is “How much does littering really effect our environment and what steps can we take to reduce these effects?� I believe this question is important because all of the garbage on the sides of roads, in sewers, etc. just sits there until an animal ingests it, or someone trips on it, or worse, it ruins our environment and people do not understand how littering effects our planet. Not only is that garbage just sitting there either, it is also rotting and polluting our earth.

With this research paper I hope to inform my audience on the effects of littering and also how we can make moves to reduce these effects for our future. The ways in which I plan to research this topic is through various reliable, peer reviewed texts, studies, and websites.