Geography 2000A
World Regional Geography
Geography in January Essay: Terms of Reference
The goal of this assignment is to write a library research paper that provides a
geographical analysis of a world event taking place outside of North America in the
month of January, 2010.
Preliminaries
You must begin your research by browsing one of the following authoritative web-based
news services:
Aljazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/
Xinhua News Agency: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/
Pick one news service and read it every day for at least two weeks. Select an event
that captures your imagination, that shows how contemporary developments are changing
the geography of our world, and that can be understood using geographical concepts.
Be sure to select an event that is relevant to concepts and themes of the course and that
you really want to work on.
Develop a unique theme and research question that you will answer in your paper. After
consulting with a reference librarian in the university library (you must do this),
collect the background information and data necessary to answer your research question.
Be sure to consult the textbook and the “References and Further Readings” section of the
text book’s website for additional sources.
You must decide on your topic by the end of January so that you can prepare your
proposal in time for the February 9 deadline.
Geography in January Proposal
This is a short proposal that is required before you write the essay described above. Your
proposal should include a one page introduction, (including a research question,
hypothesis and an outline of the context and motivation for the work), a one page outline
showing the structure of the essay, and a one page list of at least five relevant references
including at least one from each of the following: a book, academic journal article,
weekly or monthly magazine, newspaper, and a web-based source of data (separate from
the preceding sources).
“Geography in January” Library Research Essay
The goal of the assignment is to do library research on some aspect of the geographic
background of a current event - the broad regional features and geographical concepts
that help us to understand the event, its significance, and the future prospects of the
region under consideration. So, even though the essay is inspired by, and directly relevant
to a current event, it should not be an up-to-the-minute journalistic kind of
treatment. Instead, it should identify and explain the key geographical factors that set the
stage for the event and help us to understand the event in its global and regional context.
Make sure that the event you choose will provide you with the scope to address a
contemporary issue that is clearly relevant to geographical concepts addressed in the
course.
Papers should be no longer than 1,500 words; they must be word processed and follow
the author-date system of citation based on The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). A
number of short and useful web-based guides are available through our library:
http://www.uleth.ca/lib/guides/research/display.asp?PageID=1 .
The CMS website is quite helpful:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html .
The Williams Libraries guide is also useful:
http://library.williams.edu/citing/styles/chicago2.php .
For guidance on academic writing, please consult the “Term Paper Style Guide” on the
course web page.) Use tables, graphs and maps wherever necessary to illustrate the points
you make in the paper.
The Geography in January essay is due on April 9 and will be returned after the final
examination on April 22nd. For still more information, please see the FAQs.
The grades of late proposals and essays will be penalized by 10% for each week day
they are late. Student Discipline Policy will be applied as described in the Calendar and
academic offenses will be penalized accordingly.