Geog 335 – Autumn 2007



Geog 335 – Autumn 2007

Final Paper Assignment

Worth: 25% of your final grade

Length: maximum 10 pages, minimum 8 pages, double spaced, 12 pt font

The final paper is your opportunity to reflect on the themes of international development that we have covered, and to draw some of the various threads of the course together. Using the assigned readings, lectures, guest speakers, and films from the course as a starting point, you will explore a specific development issue putting it into context with the themes of the course. The final paper has a research component and is an opportunity for you to explore in more depth a topic and a place that are of particular interest to you.

Case Study: Place & Topic

You may choose any topic dealing with international development that you wish – hunger, gender and work, debt, agriculture, infrastructure, etc. this possible list is quite extensive. You must also focus on a specific country, sub-national region, city or community – or even on a specific case study. I hope you will chose to use the same place as you have been studying in your Media Journal assignments, but you are not required to.

The more specific you make your case study, the easier it will be for you to say something meaningful about it in a short paper (which is why choosing a particular case study might be a good way to go). For example if you are interested in Latin America and in agricultural issues, you might choose to write your paper on women’s agricultural cooperatives in Southern Mexico. If you are interested in development and climate change you might write about foreign aid initiatives to the Marshall Islands to deal with global warming. In other words, be creative, choose something that interests you, and try to narrow the topic to a workable scope. On the other hand, you will want to choose a topic that has enough information to make it viable. An initial research survey will tell you if you will be able to find sufficient source material. If you have questions on how to make it work, feel free to meet with me.

Everyone must submit a topic proposal to me by e-mail no later than ____________. Proposal need only be one or two paragraphs. They should explain your case (topic and place) and should list a number of possible research sources – all as specifically as possible.

Course Themes

Your paper is not to be a simple description of a particular development project or problem. It must link the research to particular themes we have been discussing in class. These themes include both particular development theories and the various dilemmas and trade-offs that development practitioners face in “doing” development.

Sources

You will need to cite course readings to link your case to course themes. You are also encouraged to use these readings as a starting point for thinking critically about your topic. When you make use of these readings, be sure to cite them fully in your final paper.

In addition to the course readings, you must use at least five additional sources (and you are encouraged to use more). At least three of these must be from peer-reviewed academic journals.

Please aim for a variety of sources, including non-fiction research-based books, newspaper and other periodical articles, interviews and essays, articles from news organization websites (CNN, BBC, etc. (especially English or local-language news-sources from case study countries), governmental or organizational documents, fact-sheets, reports and statistics (web and print), and documentary films and other visual media. If you have a question about a source, please ask me.

Be clear about the use to which you put these various sources. Academic sources will add rigor to your theoretical and analytical arguments. Non-academic sources may be useful in providing background or descriptive information, or may be “data” for analyzing how an issue is presented (when performing a discourse analysis, for example).

Citations and Bibliography

You are expected to provide citations within the body of your paper and to provide a Bibliography or “Works Cited” list at the end of your paper (note: the bibliography is not included in the page requirement/limit of this assignment).

You must cite for both direct quotes (which must be enclosed in quotation marks) and for information and ideas from sources that you have paraphrased or summarized. Please note that using direct quotes of phrases or sentences from sources that are not in quotation marks and are not properly cited constitutes plagiarism. It is your responsibility to know what constitutes plagiarism in the academic setting and to avoid committing it. Failure to properly cite your sources constitutes plagiarism and is a serious breach of academic conduct. At the very least, you will receive no credit for your paper, and more severe penalties are possible.

Citation Style

You may use the any of the following reference styles for your bibliography: APA, Chicago or MLA. Just be sure that you use the same style throughout. The UW libraries have handouts (ask a reference librarian on the correct way to reference different kinds of sources for each of these styles, or see and click on “Citation styles” for details.

Grading Criteria

I will provide you with the grading criteria that I will be using in the grading process.

Hints about the Structure of the Paper

Below is a general structure that you may want to follow for your paper. Even if you choose to organize your paper differently, every paper must have an introduction and conclusion and should include the information outlined below in some organized and logical manner.

Introduction (approximately 1-1.5 pages)

Introduce your topic and place (case study), state your argument/thesis and how this topic it is interesting and relevant to development studies, and outline the content and organization of the paper.

Body (approximately 6-8 pages)

Provide background information/description (approximately 3-4 pages)

Outline the topic/case study example and give the necessary background information. Contextualize your case study socially, economically, culturally and politically. Who are the relevant actors and who are the ‘subjects’ of development in this case study? Be sure to discuss how this case study “fits in” to the bigger development picture.

Ground your case study in the literature of development (approximately 3-4 pages)

Highlight how this case study relates to the themes and topics covered in this week’s readings. How does it connect to particular readings we have covered or films we have viewed? If it also fits in well with other units of the class or with other readings you may want to discuss those as well.

Conclusion (approximately 1 page)

Restate the main points of your thesis/arguments and bring your paper to a conclusion.

A word about attribution and authorship

Sources do not always have to be ‘objective’ or ‘scholarly’ – in fact you should aim for a variety of sources. (See “Sources” section above.) But be a critical reader and note any perspectives, positions and biases that you detect in the source and think about how those might influence your evaluation of that source.

Be especially careful when using un-authored/un-attributed sources or open-authored sources. Your sources should be traceable to an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization that takes responsibility and/or ownership for the information provided. The most famous open-source site for information is, of course, Wikipedia. Wikpedia is a great starting point for your research and can lead you to many other valuable sources. Furthermore, the reliability of the information included in Wikipedia entries is very uneven. For the purposes of this assignment, please do not use un-authored or un-attributed sources (including Wikipedia) except, perhaps, as a starting point for locating more reliable information.

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