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My Big Biofuels Bet Rhetorical Analysis

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Position papers and proposal papers require various different ways to convince an audience. In "My Big Biofuels Bet", Vinod Khosla tries to prove his theory as to how our biofuels can be replenished. He provides many details and facts to help his opinions. However, he acts in a sanctimonious manner occasionally. Position papers include more opinions than proposals. In a position paper, one has to pick a side and try to prove why they are right. The whole point is to get others to believe that point is right. A proposal paper just suggests why something is or is not correct. Although neither really has to have a right or wrong answer, one just has more convincing to do than the other. In order to convince an audience for a position paper, there …show more content…

He provides a bar graph predicting how his research will play out. By 2016, he believes that plug-in hybrids can be biofuel compatible, and a product called Butanol is introduced at commercial scale. By 2022, he thinks that chemists can introduce biofuels that surpass Butanol, and can produce a very efficient world of biofuels. Khosla states,"As we migrate from biomass derived from corn to biomass from so-called energy crops like switchgrass and miscanthus, I estimate that biomass will yield will reach 20 to 24 tons per acre, a four- fold increase. At the same time, new technologies will enable us to extract more biohols from every ton of biomass, potentially to 110 gallons per ton. The result: We 'll be extracting 2,000 to 2,700 gallons of fuel per acre (as opposed to about 400 gallons with today 's technology). With better fuels and more-efficient engines improving mileage by about 50 percent, we can safely predict a seven- to tenfold gain in miles driven per acre of land over the next 25 years. Given this biohol trajectory, a future of independence from gasoline becomes not only possible but probable. And the trajectory begins with garden-variety corn ethanol" (My Big Biofuels Bet). Khosla lays out a plan as to what he thinks will happen based on his

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