The traditional research essay should be no more than 1500 words. It requires you to examine some aspects of Canadian Geography in one of the nine topics below. This will be written as a formal essay, including an introduction, an appropriate number of body paragraphs and a conclusion. The paper will rely on 4 academic sources. Additional non-academic sources are welcome and expected too. The body paragraphs will represent these themes. The conclusion will summarize the main findings. When writing this essay, it is best to think not so much in terms of answering a question or presenting information and data as of illuminating a problem. To illuminate a problem is to do such things as: explain what the problem is and why it matters:
- consider different ways of thinking about the problem
- construct arguments and counter-arguments
- provide examples
- assess supporting evidence
- explore implications
- make relevant connections
- uncover hidden assumptions
So, this essay should be both descriptive and analytical***. Your essay needs to be more than a summary of other people’s opinions or published data. Some parts of your essay need to have a persuasive argumentative angle.
Use full APA references that can be checked, including in-text references. No ChatGPT is permitted. If you are caught passing off AI-assisted writing as your own, it may result in an F grade. Yes, for the first option I AM BLOCKING THIS TECHNOLOGY.
The second option is to use ChatGPT or other Generative AI. This new AI software could be an opportunity for us.
Select one of the nine topics and get the AI to generate a short essay on that topic:
- It should be 500 words
- Next, your job is to write a 1000 word critical essay that evaluates and analyzes the AI-generated essay
- You may want to include what is good about the AI essay
- what is bad
- what is wrong
- what is missing
- an overall assessment of the AI essay
- You are not necessarily evaluating AI, but the Geography of Canada content that AI produced
- This part should be both descriptive and analytical***
This involves your own research and investigation as you will write a 1000 word essay that evaluates the AI essay. Use many of the bullet points from the traditional research essay above.
Be sure to separate the AI essay and your essay. Label them clearly, so the reader knows one from the other.
We believe that AI is ripe with potential to help students learn in new and innovative ways. It is an opportunity to expand our knowledge base. When it comes to ChatGPT and other Generative AI, as teachers we have a choice here to lean in or run away. I believe that there is an opening to increase critical thinking while also embracing what ChatGPT can do. It can help students think critically about topics they’re already familiar with. Using AI is like talking with a teacher or classmate. It can be an interactive partner that is full of knowledge and information.
Summary: you write either:
1) a traditional 1500 word research essay or
2) a 500 word AI-assisted essay and a your own 1000 word research and investigation essay that analyzes the AI essay.
Both essays require an APA citation system, including in-text references. Be sure to include at least 4 academic references in your essay.
***
*Descriptive writing
Descriptive writing is often used in the findings sections of an essay. Here you’re describing (for instance) the relevant content of the sources you are using. Descriptive writing focuses on answering the ‘what?’ ‘when’ and ‘who’ type questions.
Analytical writing
Analytical writing style is often called for at university level. It involves reviewing what you’ve read in light of the evidence. Analytical writing shows the thought processes you went through to arrive at a given conclusion and discusses the implications of this. Analytical writing usually follows a brief description and focuses on answering questions like: ‘why?’ ‘how?’ and ‘so what?’
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Essay topics:
- What are the three of the most important demographic changes occurring in Canada? Explain what is involved in these trends, and how they will affect employers and workers in the next decade.
- An obvious problem is that urban sprawl leads to a car-dependent culture — and driving is stressful for people and for nature. More traffic means more carbon emissions, more smog. But sprawl isn’t inevitable. It is often the result of poor planning and short-sightedness. Discuss how Canada became a suburban nation and what we can do to manage the negative effects of urban sprawl.
- What are toponyms? How can toponyms take the form of decolonizing the map? Review the insertion of Indigenous place names on the Canadian landscape. Discuss the implications with as many examples as you can find.
- “Emily Carr was one of the pre-eminent Canadian painters of the first half of the 20th century, and perhaps the most original. She was also one of the only major female artists of that period in either North America or Europe. Her bold, almost hallucinatory works depict nature as a furious vortex of organic growth. They have also been criticized as appropriations of Indigenous culture” (Canadian Encyclopedia). Based on this brief entry in the encyclopedia, create an essay on Emily Carr’s legacy in depicting First Nations culture and B.C. geography.
- Fishing technology was critical to the destruction of the cod stocks in Newfoundland. What is the state of the Atlantic fishing industry today? What are the challenges and opportunities?
- Explain how globalization has affected the many small communities throughout Canada. You will need to define globalization and use a few specific examples.
- Canada’s Indigenous population is struggling. This struggle lies along the Indigenous-non-Indigenous fault line. The large number of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls is the dark side of this reality. What, in your opinion, are the root causes? Offer solutions to these root causes.
- The ascendancy of neoliberalism has occurred through a series of interconnected transformations that began with the economic turmoil of the 1970s, the rise of New Right governments across the 1980s, and the deepening internationalization of the circuits of money and industrial capital. Explain how Canada has been impacted by neoliberalism. Use specific examples.
- In various parts of Europe, multiculturalism has earned a bad name for itself. In most of those instances a key problem has been the host country’s efforts to assimilate immigrants. But in Canada, for the most part multiculturalism has worked. Why? What are examples of how it hasn’t worked? Create an argumentative essay based on the implementation of multiculturalism focusing mostly on Canada.
Note: Allstudents’ essays will be checked for academic dishonesty. All submitted work is subject to normal verification that standards of academic integrity have been upheld. All ideas presented which are not your own must be properly referenced using proper APA citation include in-text references. While forms of plagiarism may vary, each involves verbatim or near verbatim presentation of the writings or ideas of others as one’s own without adequately acknowledging the original source. Plagiarism includes (but is not limited to) copying from a book, article or another student, downloading material or ideas from the Internet, or otherwise submitting someone else’s work or ideas as your own. All plagiarism offences result in mandatory reporting to the Dean’s office. Students should consult the Academic Integrity Policy: https://www.capilanou.ca/about-capu/governance/policies/
