Research Project/Hugo

Human Geography Research & Development project/

The Local Landscape

Writing prompts

  • What would you tell a foreign exchange student about your school, town, county and standard of living?
  • If you wanted someone to visit anywhere in Hunterdon County, where would you go? Why?
  • Where is the best place in Hunterdon County to live?
  • How would you attract commercial investment for Hunterdon county?
  • How would you describe the relative location of Hunterdon County & its sense of place?
  • In what ways does the landscape influence your life in Hunterdon County?

Choose a topic narrow enough to research specific information, but not so narrow that you cannot find enough information. Before committing to a topic, scan a database to see if you will be able to find enough good sources of information on that particular topic.

Introduction -Human Geography is concerned with the ways in which patterns on the Earth’s surface reflect and influence human processes. Maps and geographic information systems are fundamental to the discipline and learning to use and think about them is critical to geographic literacy. The goal of this paper is achieved when students learn to use geographic tools and geospatial data to solve problems.  Thinking  critically about what is revealed in the local landscape and uncovering what is hidden in different places is the motive that drives this project. In this paper you will explain the implications of connections among phenomena in local places. Using sense of place you must demonstrate how population analysis  and cultural norms work together to explain a local landscape.

Essential questions  -this is an example to help you formulate your own.  How does tourism to the area impact  path damage along the cliffs? You will develop 2 essential questions (one for each topic-population/migration & culture) that will be answered in your paper. Write the essential in the EQ cell of special paper.

Field Sketches  -Geographers like to see some evidence of hand drawn work.  Show one interesting diagram/field sketch which demonstrates your prowess and understanding of your project. Use images wisely. Make sure you name and number them (put in sketch/map/photo column), and make sure they are all referred to in the text. Make sure your diagrams follow a logical progression and that the reader understands their order and their meaning. Remember that any writing you do on sketches must demonstrate understandings of the different components of your project and may be entirely your thoughts. Remember to keep your project relevant to the essential questions. Label  field sketches.

Maps Your project MUST include maps and you should remember always to include a title & type of projection. Make sure maps are in sketch/map/photo column on your project. Try to annotate your maps so that it is clear what you are demonstrating on them. Don’t put a map in your project and fail to refer to it. Use color for your maps and you may draw or generate them on your computer. Label all maps.

Photographsuse photographs of the local landscape to demonstrate understanding. Label your photographs so that they add quality to the project. You might want to include a picture of the place in which you conducted any interviews. Make sure you label photographs so that you can refer to them in the text. Label and number all field photographs.

LayoutUse one font throughout your project. This makes your project more rational and measured. If you want, you can use one color for highlights for vocab. Do not use Word Art, or crazy fonts; they may be fun, but they make it look like your work is not serious.  Make your project look professional.  Also set your work with space on the Sketch/map/Photo column linking your writing with your sketch, maps, photo. Start new concepts Population/migration – Culture on new pages, and use clear writing in the INTRO area. Make sure your project has a logical order to it. Read through it and see that it makes sense in the order you have put it. Use as much proper Geographical Vocab as possible without losing flow of ideas. Use the college level text books, but use them as you have need. Try to do something different in your project that sets it apart from the rest. Nothing wild and wacky with layout, but perhaps you could add some other information that other people may not have thought about. Show some flair and originality! There are points for this!!!

A GUIDE TO WRITING GEOGRAPHY PAPERS-The purpose of this guide is to aid students in writing research papers in an introductory college-level geography courses. Consult English department guidelines concerning proper citation format.

Gathering Information: Your objective in writing a geography research paper is to assemble information from a variety of sources of data and develop the paper into a coherent position to demonstrate to your teacher that you understand the material. Often you want to add a different perspective for looking at the data. Therefore, when searching for materials, don’t expect to find a book or article with the exact title of your topic. If you find such a book or article, there is probably little that you can add to the subject. Take advantage of online sources for finding articles. Articles can be found through searches by subject, title, and author. Helpful hint: Look for an up-to-date book or article on your subject, and scan the bibliography. This is a great technique to gather additional sources for your paper.

Acceptable Sources- Journals, data bases, edited chapters in books, and government documents are the most widely accepted sources for a research paper in Geography. Encyclopedias, newspapers, and textbooks usually are not considered adequate sources for a research paper, although they may be used as supportive material.

Materials on the Internet may or may not be appropriate. One of the problems with the Internet is that much of the material has not undergone the process of geographic review. Through peer review, materials are examined by other specialists on the subject and judged for their worthiness for publication; this, however, does not mean that the material is without criticism from others. Government documents accessed through the Internet are acceptable sources of information; check on the website address to see if it has a .gov suffix.

Students may assume that National Geographic is a geographical journal. However, it is a popular magazine. Although you may refer to an article from National Geographic in your paper, it has not undergone a rigorous peer review process and is more geared for general information.

Some Noted Geographical Journals:

  • Annals of the Association of American Geographers
  • The Professional Geographer
  • Geographical Review
  • Progress in Human Geography

Geography’s interrelationship with other social sciences should not be forgotten. Sociological and economic journals may also be of benefit to your paper.

Writing the Paper: Introduction: In your introduction you will need to provide your thesis statement developed from the position you will pursue throughout the paper. You will probably also want to inform your reader why this is an important issue to examine. The introduction should also provide the reader with an overview of the topics and the order in which they will be covered within the paper. Examples of Thesis Statements from Geography:   Not Acceptable: In this paper I will discuss global warming and the increased incidence of hurricanes in the Southeastern U.S.   Appropriate: The frequency and intensity of hurricanes in the Southeastern U.S. has risen dramatically since the 1990s (source). Scientists have noted that some of the warmest average global temperatures over the past 100 years have also occurred since the 1990s, suggesting that there is a causal link between global warming and hurricane development (source). 

Body: The body of your geography paper is basically going to be a case study. Thus, you are presenting data & providing evidence from other specialists in a clear and logical fashion that will eventually lead to the drawing of conclusions from that data. Make sure that you connect all evidence to your Intro/thesis. Do not present a collection of facts, theories, etc. which the reader must fumble through; ideas must flow. Make sure you provide clear transitions from one idea to another. You must subdivide the body into 3 paragraphs. Students often forget that papers written for geography classes need to have a solid connection with geography. This is easy to forget, given that geography overlaps with other disciplines. Connecting your paper with vocab from the course is an the only way to demonstrate understanding of concepts learned in the course. Just adding a map to the end of the paper is not sufficient to declare your paper geographical. Many other disciplines use maps to express a certain idea.

Citations: All information taken from sources must be cited, as shown below or follow the English departmental suggested foermat.  Even if a student puts a source’s thoughts into his/her own words (paraphrasing), the student must still give credit to the author.  Plagiarism is the stating of facts or ideas without giving proper credit to the original source of the statement or idea. Some students try to circumvent this process by quoting long sections by an author; this often comes across to the reader as the writer simply filling space.

Often students have trouble deciding when citations must be used. Some general rules can guide you when in doubt reference what you learned in ENGLISH classes:

  • If an idea is completely original, then no citation is necessary.
  • Statements of common knowledge need no citation.
  • Specific statements, ideas, or data not commonly known must be cited.

Examples from Geography:

  • After reviewing numerous sources on the motives for migration of Mexicans to the United States, the student proposes a new model to explain this process. (Since this is an original idea of the student, no citation is necessary.)
  • Mexico is a major source of immigrants to the United States. (This is common knowledge and no citation is required.)
  • In 2000, 1.5 million Mexicans crossed the border into the state of California. (This is very specific data unlikely to be known by most people, and therefore needs to be referenced.)

Citations within the Text and Bibliography: The following material has been adapted from the APA documentation style, and is based upon the author-date system of citation.

Journal Article:  MacLachlan, I. and R. Sawada. (1997). Measures of inequality and social polarization in Canadian metropolitan areas. The Canadian Geographer, 41(1), 377-97.  In-text citation should appear like this: (MacLachlan and Sawada, 1997)

Article from electronic journal-accessed through a database:  De Sousa, C.A. (2005). Policy Performance and Brownfield Development in Milwaukee,Wisconsin. The Professional Geographer, 57 (2), 312-327. Abstract retrieved        August 22, 2007, from WilsonSelect database. In-text citation should appear like this:  (DeSousa, 2005)

Website: National Weather Service. (2004). Thunderstorm, tornadoes, lightning: A preparedness guide. Retrieved from http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/ttI.pdf In-text citation should appear like this:  (National Weather, 2004)

Book: Cutter, S. (1993). Living with risk: The geography of technological hazards. New York:     Routlege.  In-text citation should appear like this: (Cutter, 1993)

Chapter from an Edited Book: Furley, P.A. (1998). History and destiny of Middle American forests: The inheritors of the Maya landscape. In B. Maloney (Ed.), Human activities and the tropical rain forest: Past, present, and possible future (pp. 101-32). Amsterdam, Holland: Kluwer.  In-text citation should appear like this: (Furley, 1998)

 

12 TOTAL pts. (6 pts. Per concept)

Due  Nov._______Dec.__________

 

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