Human Geography Fall
2006
Guidelines for
Comparative Report
Deadline:
Monday November 27
12:00 Noon
Please
research and write a 2-3 page analytical report on a topic related to human geography. Select as your topic a specific human phenomenon having spatial variation and compare its presence between two equivalent
geographic units
(state, country, etc.). The report is
worth 50 points out of 700 in the class.
The report
will have two parts to it. The first part will be a description of how the
phenomenon is different or similar in the two places. The second part will be
an analysis, in which you offer one or more plausible explanations for why this
difference or similarity exists. In this
class we have learned to ask where and why about many things.
Your analysis should reflect your learning in the course: It is very unlikely
that there will be a single right answer.
Your answer will be graded on the quality of your analysis.
Please follow
these guidelines:
Composition: Submit your work as a Microsoft Word (.doc) file or a text file (.txt or .rtf). Other kinds of files may be unreadable and won’t be gradable.
Submission: Please submit your report electronically. The subject line must say Geography Regional analysis, followed by your name, e.g., Geography Regional Analysis, Shaquille “O’Neal.”
Title: Give
your report a title.
Font: 12-point
font
-
- -
-
Spacing:
Double-space
Length: More
than one page of text, but not more than three.
References: At
the end of the report have an additional page listing at least three
sources you consulted to research this topic. For the sake of your own
experience, I would prefer you use at least one non-Internet
source, but this is not mandatory.
To help you
better understand the nature of the assignment, here are some sample
topics:
- Compare a
county (or state, country) with the lowest divorce rate (or graduation rate,
birth rate, etc.) with the one having the highest. (example:
Within a particular state,
- Compare the
amount of public transportation available (or recycling, etc.) in one city with
that in a similarly sized city in the same country or in another country.
- Compare the
percentage of gross national product (GNP) a country spends on a particular
need (defense, education, etc.) vs. the percentage spent by another country.
- Compare a
variety of crop (or breed) farmers prefer in one area with the variety they
prefer in another (example: one wheat hybrid may be preferred in one place, but
a different wheat hybrid is preferred in another--is this due to spatial
variation in climate, soil, cost, personal preference, availability of the
hybrid, market for the hybrid, etc.?)
Note: be
careful not to plagiarize and try to put things in your own words as much as
you can. If you quote or borrow heavily, reference your source.
If quoting
directly, use quotes:
“By utilizing
the throw-out-the-window method, the beans were found to grow rapidly
overnight” (Beanstalk, 27).
If not an
exact quote, but borrowing heavily (i.e. either paraphrasing someone or using
that person’s idea), don’t use quotes, but at least give credit to that person:
Residents
reported seeing large glowing potatoes in the sky for three consecutive nights
(Scully, 35).
Format for
sources page:
1. You may
title your reference page either “References” or “Sources.”
2. Below is
how I recommend you annotate your sources--
If a book:
Jock, Ima. Sports around the
World.
Divine, Dan
W., and Deborah K. Bliss. The World’s Great Religions: From
Beginnings to Modern Times.
If a newspaper:
Munny, Moe. “Nigerian Incomes on the Rise.” Wall Street Journal, 13 August 2003, 12B and 16B.
If a magazine:
Scully, Dana. “Unusual
If a scholarly journal:
Beanstalk,
Jack. “Cultivation of Legumes in
If a Website:
GeoStats website, “Country Data” <www.geostats.com/country.html>
(accessed 9 March 2004)