The Geography of Europe Assignments

Case Studies & Simulation/Debate

While much of the material covered this semester will be in the form of lecture, there will be several opportunities for organized class discussion and participation, namely a series of short case studies and a semester-ending simulation/debate. These sessions will require you to prepare before class mainly by reading selected materials and considering various questions.

The case studies consist of short, 10-15 page items on specific issues confronting Europe in recent years and months, namely East German migration, the Greek/Turk conflict in Cyprus, and Switzerland's place vis-à-vis the E.U. The cases we will use are Pew Case Studies from Georgetown University's School for Foreign Service, and they are designed to facilitate learning through the analysis of real-world events. The success or failure of our case discussions depends entirely on your preparation, willingness to engage the topic in class, and ability to interact within a larger group setting.

Near the very end of the semester, we will employ a mock analysis of Norway's recent referendum on E.U. membership. We will simulate the decision-making process of this vote, with groups of students representing/playing the role of various parties in the debate. Each group will be responsible for researching its party's position and rationale in the debate by using assigned readings on reserve in the library and finding additional sources. Community "forums" held in class will serve as the venues for the formal presentations of the competing arguments in the debate. Again, the success or failure of this exercise will depend on your group's preparation and initiative.

Book Reviews

One of your assignments this semester involves preparing a review of the following book:

Michael Heffernan, The Meaning of Europe: Geography and Geopolitics. (Arnold, 1998).

When reviewing a book, you should do more than demonstrate that you merely read it; you should also demonstrate that you have thought about it. For this reason, a review is more of a critical assessment of the material in the book than a report on its contents.

Content

Specifically, your review should consist of three major components: a section of general information, a section of content analysis, and a section of evaluation. In addition, your review should begin and end with an opening and a concluding paragraph, respectively.

Introduction: The opening paragraph should be an introduction in which you put the review in an appropriate context and identify the book itself. Do not begin your review with "This book . . . "!

General Information: The section on general information should be brief, containing the who, what, where, when, and how of the book. The following items should be included in this section:

• a description of the scope, aim, and purpose of the book, including mention of why and for whom the author wrote this book

• a brief description of the book's contents

• a simple explanation of the structure or organization of the book

• what is stressed in the book?

• what are the various themes and major conclusions of the book?

• what is the author's overall interpretation of the subject?

Evaluation: The third major section of the review—that of evaluation—is perhaps the most important. This section is the place for your opinion of the book. That opinion must go beyond a simple statement of whether or not you liked the book. It should instead reflect your serious thought about the substance of what the book presents.

In this section of the review, you should also assess the effectiveness and significance of the book. For example, you might include some, but by no means all, of the following items:

• did the author present a fair argument or was he overly biased?

• did the author describe but not analyze?

• did the author succeed at what he set out to do in the book?

• did the author suggest alternate interpretations at key points or not?

• are the arguments/conclusions advanced in the book well supported, or did the author generalize and speculate loosely?

• was the book well-organized and well-written, or was it repetitive, obscure, confusing, or awkward in some way?

• how convincing was the book?

• did this book prompt reflection on your part; did it make you think?

• how was your perception and understanding of and your attitude towards the subject affected by this book?

• how worthwhile or valuable is this book?

Format

As you prepare your review, format your paper according to the following guidelines:

1. The review should be roughly 3-5 pages in length.

2. The main body of the review should be typed in double space.

3. Include the name of the author, the book's title, and the facts of publication in a single-spaced bibliographical entry preceding the main body of the review.

4. Enclose direct quotations from the book with quotation marks and include the appropriate page citations, like this (p. 101).

Finally, pay careful attention to the quality of the writing in your review and to its overall appearance. In other words, pay attention to "craftsmanship." A well-crafted paper is one that is accurate, concise, organized, well-written, neat, and otherwise "polished." A well-crafted paper is also free of typographical errors, misspelled words, incomplete sentences, run-on sentences, and contractions. Crafting a paper instead of merely writing one does require a greater investment of time, especially for careful editing. You may even consider seeking feedback on your work from a classmate, a friend, or someone at the Writing Center.

Your ideas are an important part of the book review. Remember, however, that how you express those ideas and how you present them to the reader are equally important.

Term Paper

Each student will prepare a 10-12 page term paper on some aspect of European geography. The paper may have either a contemporary or historical focus. Students may select their topics themselves, by consulting the textbook or by consulting the instructor. In any event, all topics are to be typed out and submitted no later than the topic due date for approval by the instructor.

Each paper is to draw from at least 4 books and 3 scholarly journal articles, a number of which are listed in the reading lists after each chapter in your textbook. The textbook may not be used as a source to meet the required number of books for the paper. Where there are shortages of book-length material for particular topics, you may substitute journal articles at a rate of 3 articles to 1 book. If you use a single chapter from a book as a source, that is equivalent to a journal article. Suitable articles appear in journals like the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the Geographical Review, the Geographical Journal, the Professional Geographer, Political Geography Quarterly, Economic Geography, Current History, or International Affairs. You may also locate a variety of appropriate sources by consulting Current Geographical Publications, an index found in the periodical room of the library.

That Moellering Library does not contain adequate information for your paper will not be an acceptable excuse for an insufficient number of sources or for neglecting important basic sources. If the Library does not have the sources you want, request them on Interlibrary Loan as soon as possible. That way you will be sure to have all your sources well in advance of the paper due date.

To ensure that each student is acquiring her/his sources in a timely fashion, everyone will prepare a typed annotated bibliography. In this bibliography, you will summarize each relevant book or article and assess its value to the topic selected for the paper. These comments should be brief, limited to just one or two sentences. The bibliography will be graded on a satisfactory/ unsatisfactory basis, with an unsatisfactory mark resulting in a full letter grade penalty on the paper grade. The due date for the topic, annotated bibliography, and final paper are all included on the course schedule above. Late work will be accepted only in extreme cases.

In terms of style, you may utilize any standard form of referencing or citation so long as you are consistent. Regardless of what citation form you use, you must include a bibliography (without annotation) at the end of your final paper. You should also pay careful attention to grammar and, above all, editing in preparing your paper. Typographical and spelling errors will detract from the paper grade. To avoid this, consider visiting the Writing Center before submitting your final draft.

To accompany the paper, each student will also prepare a map illustrating the most relevant geographical pattern. For instance, if you were to choose to do a paper on the ethnic composition of Switzerland, a suitable map would illustrate the appropriate cultural areas of the German-, Italian-, and French-Swiss. This map should not merely be appended to the paper, but rather there should be an appropriate reference to the map in the text of the paper, thereby reinforcing the geographical nature of the writing assignment. You must also cite the source of the map.