World Regional Geography Research Paper / Presentation

            One quarter of your final grade is dependent upon a short research paper and a presentation. The subject of this project is a country randomly assigned to you during class.  In order to give each of the papers the same general appearance and setup, each paper must adhere to the following rules:

·        Font size 10, double spaced

·        Normal Margins (top and bottom : 1”, left and right :  1.25”)

·        All pictures, images, tables, charts or graphs will go in an appendix section after the main report text and appropriately labeled.  For example : (…. The population density has increased in Namibia by 52% in the last 20 years as evidenced by the graph in Figure 2.)

The report will be divided into 7 sections.  Each heading will be labeled exactly as below in font size 12, bold font.  Besides the opening section, each section will be preceded by one complete blank line (there is no need start a new page after each section).  The length of each section is based on your discretion depending upon the information that you uncover in the course of your research.  The written portion of your paper (sections 1 – 7) should not exceed 6 – 7 pages.

1.      Physical (location, size, dimensions, physical features, etc.)

2.      Political (borders, types of borders, administrative capital, major cities, type of government, leaders, etc.)

3.      Demographics (CBR, CDR, RNI, doubling time, population pyramid, other demographic statistics)

4.      History (how / when did this country become an independent state, changes in land area, borders)

5.      Culture (religion, language, traditions, ways of life, etc.)

6.      Economy (primary industries, % of people involved in agriculture, per capita GNI, PPP)

7.      In the News (People and this country in the news or related to current events.  How and do these events affect the United States)

8.      Appendix (All pictures, tables, graphs)

9.      Works Cited (according to MLA or other citation format).  Be sure that all sources you use are placed in this section.  Unless placed in quotes, be sure to paraphrase information accordingly.  There is no need for in-paper citations, unless you are using a direct quote.

The presentation will merely be the culmination of your research.  Each presentation should be no more than 10 minutes.  You can use any presentation format, but PowerPoint would be the easiest from a logistical standpoint.  A good rule of thumb is that 1 slide is equal to about 1 minute.  As a result, each of the aforementioned chapters should be summarized using 1 slide. 

The paper and presentation will be worth 25% of your final grade (paper 20%, presentation 5%).  For the presentation, the only requirement is that you show up and present your country in a timely and efficient manner.  The use of maps would be extremely useful, as would graphs or tables so that you can get across key points within the 10 minute time constraint.  Please try to avoid extraneous media such as random images or sounds that would detract from the main focus of your presentation.  You will see one question from each person’s presentation on the final exam, so it is strongly suggested, not only from an etiquette standpoint, that you attend and partake in each student’s presentations.  If you have never used PowerPoint before, let me know and I can get together with the ACC to schedule a tutorial session. 

For the paper, your grade will be dependent upon your ability to follow all directions and present useful information in a coherent and readable manner.  Be sure that you put in correct information, as you know that information found on the Internet may be unreliable at times.  Visual affects such as graphs, tables, charts and pictures should be used where you feel necessary, but please don’t overuse these visual tools.  A breakdown of your paper grade is as follows.

Directions : 15%

Content : 70%

Grammar / Punctuation : 15%

  Below are the assignments for the countries.  If you have any questions, ideas or routes you would like to take with your paper, please see me.