Essay One Topic: The Region’s Natural or Economic Environment (Process Analysis)
Due: Monday, 9-15-14
Daily life in any area is shaped by many natural factors outside our direct control: what crops grow there, what mineral resources exist, what waterways provide transit, and so on. Similarly, any area is shaped by its primary industries in direct and indirect ways (for instance, a Farmville restaurant’s workers might owe their jobs to hungry students from Longwood University—but what happens when students disappear for the summer? The construction boom in Northern Virginia keeps construction companies busy and profitable—and the Chesapeake Bay full of run-off). The academic disciplines of the sciences and business/economics help us to understand how such factors shape the material world and our lived experience of it.
For your first, three-page assignment, you will examine one of the basic forces that affect life in your region. Your essay should first clearly and specifically identify and explain a principal natural resource or industry from your area. Next, it should explain the process by which this resource is harvested or by which this good or service is produced. Finally, the essay should explain how the region benefits (and/or suffers) from the process you have described. You will use at least two substantial sources; one may be from a reliable web page, but at least one should be from Longwood library’s databases or print collection (no one covers local news like local newspapers!). I encourage you to think broadly about other possibly useful means of conducting research—feel free to consult family members, friends, teachers, religious leaders, etc., as you seek to understand more fully the process you will be describing and analyzing. (Be sure, of course, to cite any such outside contributions accordingly.)
Your essay should be composed according to this basic format:
1. Introductory paragraph. Introduce your readers to your topic: explain what region and which natural resource or industry you will be discussing. Specifically and concretely define your natural resource or industry for the uninitiated and use quantitative data (statistics and empirical facts) to show its importance to the region. Give your readers the background they need to understand and be interested in your paper.
2. Thesis. In one or two sentences, concretely summarize 1) the process you will be describing and 2) how it affects your region (i.e., “Detroit’s automotive assembly-centers produce best-selling cars and trucks from component parts made all over the world [process]. Due to outsourcing, however, the Detroit area suffers from high unemployment even when the auto industry is doing relatively well [effect]"). The thesis should be the final sentence or sentences of your introduction.
3. Body paragraphs. This section should be clear and objective and should comprise the majority of your paper. Each body paragraph should begin with a narrow, focused topic sentence that relates to your thesis. This sentence should spell out a particular step in the process by which resources are harvested or goods are produced. The rest of the paragraph should explain this stage of the process in sufficient detail for the uninformed reader to follow. For each stage of your process, be sure to use specific, concrete examples (and, where applicable, statistics) to illustrate your points. Be sure as well to define any uncommon terms. Logical transitions should connect the stages in your process together into a whole, showing how each step leads to the next or proceeds from the previous. Help us see, quite precisely, how all this works; go beyond what you already know from general knowledge, and don’t be afraid to get technical.
4. Conclusion. Remind your readers of the main point of your paper (in different words) and explain why it matters. Show how the region benefits and/or suffers from the process you have described (here you may give a reasoned opinion based on your evidence). Don’t be afraid to echo some of the strategies for concluding that we’ve encountered thus far in our readings (Barbara Kellerman’s essay, to take just one example, ends with a series of unanswered questions [see p. 184].)
5. Works Cited Page. For this paper, I would like you to use MLA format. Be sure to cite sources consistently throughout the paper and to employ accurate spelling and grammar.
Due: Monday, 9-15-14
Daily life in any area is shaped by many natural factors outside our direct control: what crops grow there, what mineral resources exist, what waterways provide transit, and so on. Similarly, any area is shaped by its primary industries in direct and indirect ways (for instance, a Farmville restaurant’s workers might owe their jobs to hungry students from Longwood University—but what happens when students disappear for the summer? The construction boom in Northern Virginia keeps construction companies busy and profitable—and the Chesapeake Bay full of run-off). The academic disciplines of the sciences and business/economics help us to understand how such factors shape the material world and our lived experience of it.
For your first, three-page assignment, you will examine one of the basic forces that affect life in your region. Your essay should first clearly and specifically identify and explain a principal natural resource or industry from your area. Next, it should explain the process by which this resource is harvested or by which this good or service is produced. Finally, the essay should explain how the region benefits (and/or suffers) from the process you have described. You will use at least two substantial sources; one may be from a reliable web page, but at least one should be from Longwood library’s databases or print collection (no one covers local news like local newspapers!). I encourage you to think broadly about other possibly useful means of conducting research—feel free to consult family members, friends, teachers, religious leaders, etc., as you seek to understand more fully the process you will be describing and analyzing. (Be sure, of course, to cite any such outside contributions accordingly.)
Your essay should be composed according to this basic format:
1. Introductory paragraph. Introduce your readers to your topic: explain what region and which natural resource or industry you will be discussing. Specifically and concretely define your natural resource or industry for the uninitiated and use quantitative data (statistics and empirical facts) to show its importance to the region. Give your readers the background they need to understand and be interested in your paper.
2. Thesis. In one or two sentences, concretely summarize 1) the process you will be describing and 2) how it affects your region (i.e., “Detroit’s automotive assembly-centers produce best-selling cars and trucks from component parts made all over the world [process]. Due to outsourcing, however, the Detroit area suffers from high unemployment even when the auto industry is doing relatively well [effect]"). The thesis should be the final sentence or sentences of your introduction.
3. Body paragraphs. This section should be clear and objective and should comprise the majority of your paper. Each body paragraph should begin with a narrow, focused topic sentence that relates to your thesis. This sentence should spell out a particular step in the process by which resources are harvested or goods are produced. The rest of the paragraph should explain this stage of the process in sufficient detail for the uninformed reader to follow. For each stage of your process, be sure to use specific, concrete examples (and, where applicable, statistics) to illustrate your points. Be sure as well to define any uncommon terms. Logical transitions should connect the stages in your process together into a whole, showing how each step leads to the next or proceeds from the previous. Help us see, quite precisely, how all this works; go beyond what you already know from general knowledge, and don’t be afraid to get technical.
4. Conclusion. Remind your readers of the main point of your paper (in different words) and explain why it matters. Show how the region benefits and/or suffers from the process you have described (here you may give a reasoned opinion based on your evidence). Don’t be afraid to echo some of the strategies for concluding that we’ve encountered thus far in our readings (Barbara Kellerman’s essay, to take just one example, ends with a series of unanswered questions [see p. 184].)
5. Works Cited Page. For this paper, I would like you to use MLA format. Be sure to cite sources consistently throughout the paper and to employ accurate spelling and grammar.