The purpose of the assignment is to;
• get you to become familiar with regional geography concepts,
• develop essay writing skills, and
• develop research techniques for geographical analyses.

An Analysis of Geographical Region(s)

This is an individual and independent research to measure of your understanding of the subject matter of this course.

The final research essay can be either:

a. a time series analysis on one region in British Columbia over two different points in time, or
b. a cross-sectional comparison of two regions in British Columbia at a single point in time.

Any topic in this course can be the focus of the research essay, but it must relate to other relevant course topics, such as how natural resources are related to the physical geography, or how land use relates to population. Your research essay should cover at least three elements from the following list to secure maximum marks:

• Physical geography
• Population characteristics
• Social and cultural patterns
• Urban and settlement patterns
• Transportation and communication patterns
• Main economic sectors

For this assignment, a region is defined as one regional district in size. Other regions such as development, college, and districts like school and provincial electoral, can be used in your Research essay have several key elements. They include:

1. Research Topic – it must have at least a single objective to be investigated in a scientific manner
2. Data and datasets– these are the collected facts that allow examination to realize the objective, and can be primary (e.g. field collection), secondary or tertiary
3. Graphics – these include maps, charts and tables, and are important means of
   • summarizing the data, and
   • displaying patterns within datasets, both spatial and attribute

References – they provide evidence and support for your research (Please adopt and be consistent with any of the three common styles – APA, research with prior approval from me.
The research essay must be:
• word processed, double spaced
• 8 or less pages in length (inclusive of figures and references)
saved as pdf
An ideal research essay will consist of the following

1. Introduction – this section provides the reason for the research and defines its objectives
2. Method – this section describes how the research was conducted, and includes a discussion of the datasets and the methods used to analyze them
3. Results – this section details the findings of the analysis
4. Conclusion – this section assesses how well the objectives were met, and discusses the potential for future research

All essays must include at least one map and one other graphics (charts, tables, etc.). These must be placed within the text of the essay, and not at the end as appendices.

Note: Essay must be 6-7 pages long including maps, charts, tables or graphics.

Sample Solution