Overview
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| Instructions | |
GENERAL EDUCATION TASK Your objective this term is to research and write a paper that provides a critical analysis of a natural disaster event. You may pick an event caused by any of the natural disaster phenomena covered in the textbook. Not only will you discuss the science behind the causes of this particular natural disaster phenomena, you will explore your case study (disaster event) in order to illustrate the magnitude and impact of this phenomena. For example, if you were to write a paper about Hurricane Katrina, then your paper would cover the topic of hurricanes as well as provide a detailed analysis of how Katrina impacted New Orleans (since Hurricane Katrina will be discussed many times, and used as a example many times as well, it is not available as a research paper topic). For your case study, investigate the initial cause of the event, and the nature of the devastation that followed. Determine if there is anything that the communities involved could have done in advance to lessen the impact of the event? Would early warning have helped? What about improvements in local infrastructure or disaster preparedness? Discuss the impact of the event on both people and property. Determine the energy unleashed by the event. What lessons were learned from this event? Will they be prepared next time? For this week’s assignment, you are going to submit a detailed outline of your case study. The outline you submit must be similar to the following example: I. Title II. Introduction - Thesis Statement - provide your thesis statement for your case study. For example, if your topic was Hurricane Katrina, your thesis statement could be: Hurricane Katrina was one of the costliest hurricanes in US history due to the geography of New Orleans, poor flood prevention infrastructure, and the lack of an effective strategy for evacuating the under resourced population. - Supportive Arguments - In the addition to the thesis statement, you will submit three supportive arguments. These supportive arguments are simply informational statements that support what you are will be exploring in your paper. You need to have a minimum of 3 supportive arguments for your thesis. For each argument, you will write a brief paragraph. For example, if your case study was about Hurricane Katrina, the three supportive arguments could then be: 1. The geography of New Orleans contributed to the magnitude of disaster that followed Hurricane Katrina. 2. Poor levy conditions contributed to a lack of flood control in and around New Orleans. 3. Under resourced community members lacked reliable access to transportation (either private or public) in order to be evacuated in time. III. Natural Disaster Phenomena Background - Discuss the causes, monitoring, and impact of the type of natural disaster phenomena you are exploring in your paper. IV. Event Details - How, when, and where of the event you are covering in your paper. V. Lessons Learned - What was learned this time that might make a difference next time? VI. Conclusion - Summarize what was discussed in your paper. - State some implications based on what you've learned from your research into this event. VII. References - Provide an APA formatted reference list. There are literally THOUSANDS of help sites and YouTube videos on how to do this. I don't expect perfection, but I do want to see a good attempt at provided a properly formatted list. A list of web addresses will absolutely result in a poor score. I'll give you some feedback on your format in the gradebook. Note - When you write your final paper draft, you absolutely must not include any of the numerical and bulleted aspects that you would typically see in an outline. Your paper must be a clean narrative address all of the items in order you list in your outline. Important - I'm not picky on the nature of the format of your outline. Just make sure that your outline shows your paper will have a logical structure supported by information you identified in your research and not solely by your opinion. This outline submission assignment is worth 25 points. Submit your detailed outline with references list by Day 4. Information about the final case study paper: You will complete your case study paper and submit it in week 8. Your final research paper should satisfy these minimum requirements:
This research paper must conform to APA guidelines and be a minimum of 1500 words (exclusive of title, abstract, and references). The content of this paper must be in your own words as much as possible. You may quote and properly cite supporting material up to one complete sentence, but anything longer does not help to show your understanding, and does not count towards the required length of the paper. |