Instruction for the Written Assignment (200 pts): Due Thursday, April 1
This assignment is intended to introduce you to a useful website that contains information connected with all four of Geography’s areas of study. The assignment is also intended as an opportunity for practicing your critical thinking and writing skills.
Instructions:
1. Explore NASA’s Earth Observatory website at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov .The amount of time you should spend exploring this website is approximately one hour.
2. Select ONE of the areas of study in geography, which are described on pp. 17-19 in your textbook, to cover for your assignment.
Next, select three complete articles from the website (look under the Features tab for full articles, which are listed by theme under links to the right) that mostly closely fit the tradition that you have selected. (Reminder: Information on the four areas of study, as well as Tools and Techniques of Geographic Analysis can be found on pp. 17-18 of the textbook.
3. After reading three complete stories related to your selected area of study, or tools and techniques, that you have chosen, you are ready to begin writing a 2-3 page report. Follow the format presented below carefully.
4. Your 2-3 page report must be written in essay style (i.e., Introduction, main arguments, and discussion/conclusion), and must include the following, to be considered for credit:
• Introduction: provide 1) the name of the area of study, or tool(s) or technique(s) in geography that you have selected, and then provide a brief description of what types of research fall within that particular area of study, then 2) provide the names of the three articles that you chose which fit into that tradition, including the names of the author(s).
You need to also provide a list of references in Chicago of Style author, date parenthetical style that includes the three selected articles, as well as any outside references that you cite in your report (additional references are not required, but you can use them, as long as they are relevant to the topic covered).
• Main Arguments: 3) Discuss each of the articles selected, describing at least three things that you learned from each article (Please do not just provide a laundry list: i.e., “the three things that I learned from this article are…)—integrate it into your discussion of the article).
Also, briefly explain why you think each article provides an illustration of the area of study or tool/technique of geographic analysis that you selected.
• 4) Your overall opinion of the website that you selected the articles from, especially concerning its use as an educational tool.
5. Your report should be at least one-and-a-half pages in length, typed in 12 pt font, double or 1.5 spaced, and no longer than three pages.
6. If you want to qualify for the maximum points associated with this report, it must be turned in on or before the DUE DATE listed on the Course Schedule (last page of syllabus) and at the top of this page. Assignments not turned in by this date will lose five points per day that they are late, up to a total of 35 points, after which time, they will no longer be accepted.
