Geography Assignment – Role-playing Paper

You’ve signed up for a city or province in China to study for the semester; now what?  This geography assignment is your chance to become the class expert on a particular place in China by taking the semester to get to know it.  The geography assignment really has four parts:  1) an ongoing research phase - wherein you look for reliable information on your chosen area and keep that research in a folder/journal with brief annotations of each; 2) a presentation phase, coming near the end of the semester, during which you give a brief presentation to the class introducing your locale and letting us know what the main contemporary issues are; 3) a three-page written summary of those contemporary issues; and 4) a role-playing paper, which should be connected to your geographical area and should be a minimum of eight pages. 

Part One:  Researching your area – journal-keeping:  In order to research your chosen area, you should look for books, articles and other reliable sources that give you an overall picture of life in your area, with a special focus on current issues.  While there is no magic number about how many pieces of material you need to gather on your area, you should shoot for a rough figure of at least two items added to your journal a week.  Keep all the materials you gather in your journal, with a brief annotation about how each piece of material has been helpful. 

Part Two:  Presentation:  You’ve already signed up for a presentation time.  Your presentation should be about 10 minutes in length.  It should first briefly sum up (no more than three minutes) what the area is known for, with any interesting facts you uncovered about it that you think the rest of us should know to gain a good overall picture of the city/region.  The rest of the presentation should be a summary of contemporary issues.  These presentations collectively will help us better understand what is going on in China today.   As the class syllabus indicates, you should feel free to exercise your creativity and may bring in any audiovisual or other material to enhance your presentation.

Part Three:  Written summary of contemporary issues:  This three-page paper is a summing up of what you discussed in your presentation in terms of the current issues facing your area.  You should turn this in, along with your journal, on December 8. 

Part Four:  Role-playing paper:  As noted in class, a sample role-playing paper is included in the back of your course syllabus.  While the syllabus example is focused on Latin America, it gives you a good picture of a quality role-playing exercise that is based on research.  This writing assignment asks you to draw at least partly upon the research you’ve been doing in Part One in order to formulate a realistic fictional character who lives in that part of China.  Then you’ll create a realistic scenario for him/her, and tell a story.  You are, of course, welcome to bring in additional research besides just what you’ve gathered for your geography assignment, though your role-playing paper should be set in the area you’ve been researching.  You should cite your sources in text, as you would with a research paper.  This paper should be a minimum of eight pages, excluding title page and bibliography.  You should cite a minimum of seven sources.  Please see the Writing Guidelines in the class syllabus for further guidance.  This paper is due December 1.