Political Geography

Assignments and Exams


Term Paper
Each student will prepare a 10-12 page term paper on a topic of her/his choice within the broad confines of political geography. Suitable topics include, but are by no means limited to the development and evolution of individual political states, the plights of individual nations or ethnic groups, changing political boundaries, voting patterns, ethnic disputes, aspects of imperialism, war, and peace, and contemporary international relations. The paper may further concentrate on historic or contemporary aspects of political geographical patterns, or it may compare the two. Whatever the topic, however, the term paper must draw on the relevant themes and concepts of political geography. All topics must be approved by the instructor and are to be submitted by Wednesday, February 7.

Your paper is to draw from at least 4 books and 2 scholarly journal articles. You may locate suitable books and articles in the extensive bibliographic notes following each section in your text book. Failure to include information from relevant sources contained in these reference lists will detract from your grade. The books from the course may not be used as sources 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, Space & Polity, 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. As a rule of thumb, a scholarly journal is a publication containing articles in which authors cite their sources with footnotes, endnotes, etc. You are welcome to use information from more "popular" publications, like Newsweek, The Christian Science Monitor, or The Economist, but realize that these are not scholarly journals.

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.
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 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.

Late work will not be tolerated or accepted in this course. Instead, consider your term paper assignment due as of the first day of class. You may submit it for credit through Wednesday, April 11, but consider that date to be a deadline. After that date, I will not accept your work for any reason . . . even illness or excused absence. This syllabus contains all of the instructions for the assignment, and you must budget your time accordingly. You should plan on submitting your work at least a week before April 11. That way, you can avoid missing the deadline.


Exams
There will be 3 examinations during the semester, including 2 regular exams and a cumulative final exam. Each exam will consist of 3 sections--short answer, mapping, and essay. Short answer questions will include such items as definitions, identifications, listings, and brief explanations. Mapping questions will include appropriate political patterns, borders, and countries. Essay questions will usually be comparative rather than merely descriptive, especially on the final exam. There will always be an option to select 1 of at least 2 possible essay topics.

Make up exams will only be allowed in cases of extreme emergency and only provided you obtain the approval of the instructor. Missed exams must be made up within 1 week of the test day or a zero will be assessed for that test.


Graduate Credit
Students enrolled in GEO 570 are completing this course for graduate credit. Accordingly, you will have to fulfill requirements in addition to those of the undergraduate students. These additional requirements include the following:

  1. Each graduate student will prepare a 15-20 page term paper instead of the 10-12 page length for the undergraduates, incorporating information from one additional book and one additional article for a total of five books and three articles.

  2. Each graduate student will then make a 10 minute oral presentation to the class on the subject of her/his term paper.

  3. For the final exam, each graduate student will write both essays instead of only one.


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Last revised January 3, 2001, by JTK.