Country Paper

Description:

In this assignment students have the opportunity to synthesize a number of concepts from geography and at the same time engage in some research and creative writing. Students are to write a 6-7 page paper on one country of their choice. This country CANNOT be the USA or Canada. However, any other country can be selected as long as you address all the parameters of the assignment. As you will realize, larger countries provide an advantage over smaller countries.

In your paper you are expected to embark on a trip of 2-4 week duration in which you describe the various physical and human (or social) processes at work in your country of interest. The phenomena or process must be accurate and must be contemporary. You must provide examples of each process. For example, let us imagine your country is the state of Washington (just an example - we can't use Washington in the assignment.):

Heading east from Washington's largest city Seattle, we encountered the Cascade Mountains, a volcanic mountain arc typical of a subduction zone. This subduction process involves the Juan de Fuca plate being forced under the North American plate to the east. While we traveled east on I-90 we saw Mt. Rainier, an active 14,000 foot high stratovolcano and a classic feature of the subduction process characterized by alternating layers af tephra and lava due to their explosive nature. Stratovolcanos like Mt. Rainier place the rapidly developing countryside surrounding the mountain at some risk from hazards such as. . .

Note that in this brief passage there are both concepts from our readings as well as geographic detail that is specific to where you are travelling.

Requirements:

• Six to Seven double-spaced, typewritten pages (10-12 point font, 1" margins)

• Be sure to include the following:

1. Written in the style and format of a travel narrative. Places and times visited must be consistent with the geographic context of your country.

2. At least 6 major concepts or processes introduced from our text book or from online lecture materials (examples include subduction, demographic transition, urbanization, the inter-tropical convergence zone, the rainshadow effect). These at least 2 of these concepts or processes must be physical and at least 3 must be human.

3. Your concepts or processes must come from the following sub-disciplines of geography - either: landforms, climate, resources, population, economic, urban or political geography.

4. You must refer to at least 2 latitude and longitude coordinates or a line of longitude or latitude in your paper. These coordinates must occur in the country you are writing about.

5. Students are not required to use citations of their sources within the text in this assignment. However, students are required to include a bibliography or a list of references. You must use at least 5 sources for this assignment. These sources may be from journals, books, or the internet.

6. Be sure to include place names in your description. At least 12 place names must be mentioned in your description (not necessarily from the place name lists from this class!).

Assessment:

This assignment is worth 60 points. You will be assessed on the following:

• Organization
• Content
• Format (this includes bibliography).