geography@university geography@university making the most of your geography degree and courses Gordon Clark and Terry Wareham SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi © Gordon Clark and Terry Wareham 2003 First published 2003 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Inquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers SAGE Publications Ltd Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd 32, M-Block Market Greater Kailash – I New Delhi 110 048 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 7619 4025 ISBN 7619 4026 X (pbk) Library of Congress Number 2002 105444 Typeset by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton Printed in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press, Gateshead CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgements ix xi Introduction 1.1 What this Guide is trying to 1.2 The Guide’s limits 1.3 Making this your Guide 1.4 How to use the Guide 1.5 Further reading 1.6 Where next? 1 3 What Geography in Higher Education is About 2.1 Learning about yourself and others 2.2 Learning to learn 2.3 Seeing things differently: challenging orthodoxies 2.4 Applying knowledge, skills and the ability-to-learn to new topics 2.5 Becoming independent 2.6 Exploring geography 2.7 Geography at school and university 2.8 What sort of subject is geography? 2.9 Assessing your progress 2.10 How hard should you work at university? 2.11 Three big don’ts 2.12 How you learn and how can you improve this? 2.13 Coping with stress 10 11 13 20 20 21 22 24 29 30 32 33 39 vi C O N T E N T S Geography, Geographers and Your Future Career 3.1 Why study a subject? 3.2 Recent changes 3.3 Your role and what employers want 3.4 Geographers’ careers 3.5 A gap year? 41 41 42 43 45 51 Understanding the Learning and Teaching of Geography 4.1 Lectures 4.2 Tutorials 4.3 Seminars 4.4 Learning with the Internet 4.5 Fieldwork 4.6 Practical classes 4.7 Dissertations and projects 4.8 Other methods of teaching geography 4.9 Learning to use other resources 4.10 The library and ICT 4.11 Safety and assessing risks 4.12 Complaints 4.13 Responsibilities 53 54 64 70 74 79 86 88 96 97 99 103 105 106 Understanding How You Will Be Assessed in Geography 5.1 Academic progression and marking 5.2 What is being marked? 5.3 Examinations 5.4 Essays 5.5 Field and laboratory notebooks 5.6 Dissertations and projects 5.7 Oral presentations 5.8 Posters, web posters and press reports 5.9 Peer assessment and self-assessment 5.10 How to revise 5.11 How to survive an oral examination 5.12 Marks, credit and degree classification 108 109 110 111 115 122 123 124 127 129 129 132 134 C O N T E N T S VII Other Useful Activities for Getting a Job 6.1 Moulding your degree and choosing courses 6.2 Acquiring new skills 6.3 Jobs 6.4 Active citizenship 6.5 Networking and contacts 6.6 Leadership and teamwork 6.7 Using your careers service 6.8 A geographer’s curriculum vitae 6.9 Finding out about postgraduate courses and research opportunities 6.10 How to write a research proposal 137 138 140 140 141 142 143 144 145 Where Have We Got To? Learning geography Being examined in geography Extra-curricular activities Getting a job And finally 156 156 159 160 161 162 Appendix A Self-assessment of skills 163 Appendix B Your Personal Record 166 Appendix C Essays – the good and the bad 171 Appendix D Web resources for geographers 177 Appendix E Good examination answers 184 Appendix F Marking criteria for dissertations 188 151 153 Appendix G Giving a seminar presentation – some practical advice 192 Further reading References Index 196 199 201 PREFACE We think it will be worthwhile to read this Guide because it: • tells you how geography degrees work, so you will know what to expect; • gives you advice on making the most of your geography teaching and how to learn geography successfully; • will help you better in examinations, essays and the other ways in which your geography courses will be assessed; • focuses on how geography will give you new skills and help you develop as a person, colleague and citizen; • will prepare you for a career and learning long after university We hope you find this a useful Guide Gordon Clark and Terry Wareham .. .geography@ university geography@ university making the most of your geography degree and courses Gordon Clark and Terry Wareham SAGE... independent 2.6 Exploring geography 2.7 Geography at school and university 2.8 What sort of subject is geography? 2.9 Assessing your progress 2.10 How hard should you work at university? 2.11 Three... Becoming independent Exploring geography Geography at school and university What sort of subject is geography? Assessing your progress How hard should you work at university? Three big don’ts How