Geography in the News

As you will proceed to see throughout this course, many of the topics we cowl are relevant to current world occasions and issues. Geography offers a unique way at searching at the world by considering why area matters and why it is important to find out about spatial patterns. For this reflection locate an article from a credible news source that relates to what we have mentioned in class so far&(you are also free to locate an article about future topics; take a peek at textbook chapters to get an idea of what we will cover).

The Assignment

1. Make a research in your own words. Be certain to identify all the relevant details, which includes any or all of the following:
•the setting (that is, the location)
•the people involved
•the event, situation, and/or problem presented
•the geographical nature of the topic, given your understanding of a geographic perspective that we discuss in Lesson 1 and in Chapter 1 of your textbook

[Note: If you selected an article that includes significant maps or images, be sure to discuss the details of those graphics and what each one shows or represents.]

2. Discuss how your perception and understanding of this article, and the event, situation, or problem described therein, has changed after becoming more geographically informed (that is, reading the course materials to date). In addressing this, be sure to make clear and specific connections with and references to the course material. In this part, it should be obvious to your instructor that you have read the material and gained knowledge.
You should also consider the source of the article and the author’s point of view. While some articles might seem to be reporting objectively, and without bias, more often than not the author (and/or maybe the publisher) does have a perspective and keeping that out of their reporting of a story is difficult.

3. Conclude your response by discussing any personal connection that the article has for you and how being more geographically informed in this topic area could benefit you in the future. Perhaps you never considered the topic before now, or maybe you have an interest or knowledge base in the subject area. In this last part, you should draw a conclusion to your writing while sharing your thoughts and reflections.

Guidelines For Constructing a Well-Written Reflection

Although reflections are somewhat less formal other types of writing assignments, they are still an academic exercise. All written work in this course should form a coherent narrative, use complete sentences, be grammatically correct, and scholarly in tone. Here are few guidelines to help you construct well-organized, well-written reflection.
• Look at the assigned topics early so that you have it in the back of your mind while working on the course material.
• After reading a lesson or text selection, spend some time jotting down your reactions, ideas, and responses to the readings. Consider specific elements, examples, or experiences you would like to include in your reflection.
• You do not need a formal thesis statement, but making your central idea clear early on is important. Your first sentence should say what you are going to say in the rest of your entry--think of it as a main idea sentence or the main point of your writing.
• Be sure you introduce any other new ideas with a topic sentence. Follow that sentence with information or evidence (taken from the texbook, outside sources, or your personal experiences) that justifies your opinion, reflection, criticism, or agreement.
• Give your reflection a creative title that appropriately captures the content of your paper.
• Re-read your reflection before submitting it to check for grammatical/spelling errors, concise writing, and a coherent argument.

Technicalities

Crafting a short paper is often harder than a long paper! Papers should be between 400 and 600 words. At the very beginning of your speech, please type your word count in parentheses, for example: (Word count: 499). Responses should be written using tight clear and concise prose that demonstrates the main point or points you wish to convey using a number of different themes or components of being globally aware.
Any and all outside sources (including the online lessons) must have an accompanying citation. Be sure to include a works cited page that is consistent with the citation style used to write your paper. You will turn your document in for grading by uploading it to the Writing Assignment (TurnItIn) Drop Box. We use TurnItIn to scan all documents to detect unoriginal (that is, potentially plagiarized) content--you have access to this report.
Plagiarism, in any form, will not be tolerated and will result in a ZERO for the paper (see syllabus for details about plagiarism). (NOTE: If you receive a zero for plagiarism, you cannot drop that assignment grade if applicable.)

*Tip*

The preferred citation style is the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (author-date). Please see the citation format document in this folder for guidance, or you can use Google to answer your questions about the Chicago Manual of Style format (for example, Google “Chicago Manual of Style, website citation”). Consider generating a citation for your academic journal article in the index you use to select your article--many have this option available.
We also recommend that you use your online lessons as source for your assignment response. Please provide an appropriate in-text citation (for example: Lesson X, page X). Remember that the point of these writing assignments is to get you to make connections or linkages from the lesson content to your own life. It would, therefore, be beneficial to you to keep this in mind as you draft your response.
Information found in Wikipedia can be helpful when working on papers, but because everyone can edit it (that is, it is a wiki), information can be faulty. Therefore, you should not rely on Wikipedia as a source when doing research for a paper. Instead use it as a starting point, then look elsewhere; this will help confirm and substantiate material you may have first read on Wikipedia. If you use Wikipedia as a source for a paper in this course, you will be downgraded.
Be sure to use correct spelling and grammar, and fully answer the question to gain maximum points on this assignment. Reflections are worth 15 points each and will be graded based on how well you answer the question and meet the criteria provided for you on the Grading Rubric (found in the Writing Assignments folder). Writing quality is important and will weigh significantly in determining your grade.