Oceanography Places

(W2) Writing Assignment #2: Oceanography Places

Goals For this assignment, you will choose an interesting place on Earth and describe the unique oceanographic characteristics of that location. This assignment provides an opportunity for you to explore a location in depth and an opportunity for your instructor to assess your ability to research and communicate about a scientific concept.

The Writing Assignment For this assignment, you will choose one of the locations listed at the end of this document and prepare a well- researched, well-written, detailed (750-1000 words) oceanographic description of that place. You will provide a detailed description that covers the oceanographic details of the location, including a map and other relevant imagery. You may decide what you should include, but all of your content must be scientific and geologic in nature. You should not discuss travel, tourism, or history of the area unless it relates directly to the oceanography of that location. Your descriptions should give a thorough overview of the location. You may decide how best to do this, but your essay should be informative, and contain subheadings for each of your major topics. Consider discussing the following:

• geographic location • tectonic setting • geologic history • rocks and sediments • characteristics of waves • weather and climate • characteristics of tides

• currents of the area • marine life • characteristics of the coast • local oceanic resources • pollution concerns • natural and man-made threats • marine protected areas

Possible Locations You may choose any of these locations* as the topic of your essay:

*If you think of another location, not listed, that you’d like to cover, please check first with your instructor.

Aleutian Islands Chesapeake Bay Greenland Coasts North Island, New Zealand American Somoa Christmas Island Gulf of Alaska Nova Scotia, Canada

Antarctic Peninsula Coastal Louisiana Gulf of Finland Palamico Sound Apalachicola Bay Coasts of Chile Gulf of St. Lawrence Papau New Guinea

Austral Islands Coasts of China Hudson Bay Persian Gulf Australia’s East Coast Coasts of Denmark Indonesia Philippines Australia’s West Coast Coasts of Italy Japan Arc Polynesian Islands

Avalon Peninsula Azores Cocos Islands Laguna Madre Prince William Sound Baffin Bay Columbia River Estuary Leeward Islands Puget Sound Bahamas Cook Inlet, Alaska Lesser Antilles Seychelle Islands

Baja California Cook Islands Maldives Solomon Islands Bay of Bengal Easter Islands Mariana Islands South Island, New Zealand Bay of Biscay English Channel Marqueas Islands South Sandwich Islands Bay of Fundy Falkland Islands Marshal Islands Southern California Coast

British Columbian Coast, Canada Fiji Midway Atoll Sumatran Islands California Coast Florida Everglades Mississippi Delta US and British Virgin Islands Canary Islands Florida Keys Mobile Bay San Francisco Bay

Cape Verde Islands Florida Strait Monterey Bay Yellow River Delta Cayman Islands Georges Bank Netherlands Yucatan Peninsula

Chandeleur Sound and Islands Greater Antilles Nile River Delta

Guidelines You will be graded based on how fully you describe the place, how accurately you describe the place, and how well you communicate the information. Follow the tips and guidelines below when preparing a report on your chosen location:

• A minimum of 750 words and a maximum of 1000 words. This is 2-3 pages of double-spaced text. Use the word count tool in your word processor to be sure you have the correct amount of text.

• Your description must include a title, at least 2 subheadings, at least 3 images, and a section titled “Works Cited”. • Your description should be oceanographic and scientific in nature. Do not describe tourism or human history of

the area, unless it relates specifically to the oceanographic characteristics of the location. • Your description should include at least 3 graphics; one should be a map and all should be captioned and

referenced. • Resources must be cited in MLA or APA format, both in-text and in a Works Cited section. • Submitted to Canvas “Assignments” as a Word or PDF document attachment. You will not be able to post

your essay in any other form than an attachment. The essay must be a Word or PDF document. Late assignments will not be accepted; see our course calendar for the due date for this essay. If you don’t know how to upload documents to “Assignments”, see this link: How do I submit a Turnitin.com Assignment?.

Grading Criteria Your essay will be graded on how well you cover the oceanography of your chosen location in an organized, cohesive, grammatically correct, well-referenced essay. A rubric will be posted to Canvas Assignment with a breakdown of your grade calculation, but generally:

• 30 points will come from how well you demonstrate an understanding and application of the writing prompts and assignment goals. How you express your understanding through writing is critical to earning these points. Have a thesis and make sure that your discussion is clear and that any opinions you present are well-supported.

• 15 points will come from how well you choose your sources. You must use at least three (3) quality, primary sources. If you do not, you will not receive any points for your sources.

• 5 points for correctly posting your completed description per the guidelines above. If you plagiarize this assignment, you will receive zero (0) points with the possibility of failing the class and being reported to your Dean for academic misconduct. Your essay will be submitted to Canvas “Assignments” and will be checked against the Turntin.com database. If you are uncertain what plagiarism is, please see the IU website on plagiarism, visit the University Writing Center, speak to your composition instructor, and/or speak to your class instructor.

Resources for Writing To research and fully define and describe the place, I will expect you to locate and use at least three primary resources that describe the oceanographic characteristics of that place, cited in MLA format. You will use your resources to gather knowledge about your place. You will then synthesize and report this knowledge in your final definition document. You may consult these resources for help with this assignment:

• The Writing Process (UWC Resources) • How to Write a Thesis Statement (IU Resource) • Writing Introductions and Conclusions (UWC

Resources) • Sentence Structure and Style (UWC Resources)

• How to Recognize Plagiarism (IU School of Education Resource)

• Evaluating Electronic Information Sources (UWC Resource)

• MLA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue OWL)

Your module content and textbook content are not primary sources; they are background knowledge upon which you build a more detailed discussion. The “Library Resources” link of Oncourse provides information to help you locate primary sources. You should also not use any quoted material – put your entire description into your own words and thoughts to fully demonstrate your understanding and application of your research.