Extra Credit Opportunity:  Bonus Essay #3
Fall 2005
GEOG 4823, Urban & Regional Planning
Chuck Ziehr, Northeastern State University

Due by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 7, 2005.

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS OF A RECENT PLANNING-RELATED ISSUE OR CURRENT EVENT

Analyze one (your choice) of any recent planning-related issue or current event ("recent" is hereby defined to be within the last two years).    The issue/current event must be different from the one used for Extra Credit Opportunity #2.  An issue might be something like a new strategy for urban growth management or a Supreme Court case that impacts planning practices, or the application of a novel "exaction" strategy for providing public infrastructure.  An example of a current event might be a local controversy regarding a re-zoning request or an effort to promote economic development.    The main idea is to think about the issue/event like a planner.  Your analysis should include some of the major concepts of the urban and regional plannning course.   Basic information about your selected issue or current event can be obtained from the Worldwide Web (WWW), and/or magazines or journals (such as Time, Newsweek, and Journal of the American Planning Association) and newspapers (such as Tulsa World and The Christian Science Monitor).

Below are a few good starting places for current event news on the WWW  (all those listed are in English):
BBC News at   http://news.bbc.co.uk/  -- good international coverage
Christian Science Monitor at http://www.csmonitor.com/ -- national and international newspaper
CNN Interactive at http://cnn.com/
NSU Virtual Reference Desk at http://library.nsuok.edu/Refdesk/index.html
Maps in the News at http://www-map.lib.umn.edu/news.html
MSNBC at http://www.msnbc.com/news/
Population Reference Bureau at http://www.prb.org/  -- "timely and objective population information"
UN Wire at http://www.unwire.org/ -- an independent news briefing about the U.N. and world events
Washington Post newspaper (online) at http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Chinadaily.com -- English language online news from China at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/home/index.html  
The Hindu -- online edition of India's National Newspaper at http://www.thehindu.com/  
The Japan Times Online at http://www.japantimes.co.jp  
Islamic Voice -- English language monthy news source from India at http://www.islamicvoice.com/
Nigeriaworld at http://www.nigeriaworld.com/
The Moscow News at http://english.mn.ru/english/
Iraq Today at http://www.iraq-today.com/
The Jerusalem Post at http://www.jpost.com  
People's Daily Online (from People's Republic of China) at http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/
You also might refer to some of the websites that you used in the WWW homework exercise for GEOG 4823

You must comply with the following instructions in order to receive any extra credit points:
  • Your analysis must be at least four paragraphs in length and no more than three, double-spaced pages.  Remember that a paragraph has a topic sentence and is composed of multiple sentences!
  • Organize your thoughts carefully.  Write in complete sentences.
  • The analysis will be graded based on urban & regional planning concepts, grammar, spelling, and writing style.
  • You must give the full citation (check this American Psychological Association website for WWW citation information http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html) of at least two sources of information that you used in learning about the current event (for example: a WWW page and a magazine article, a newspaper story and a magazine article, two WWW sources, or two magazine articles, etc.).  The purpose of a source citation is to give an author credit for her/his work and to allow the reader to find exactly the same source material that you used.  No credit will be given without source citations.
  • Be sure not to plagarize; check this webpage http://ollie.dcccd.edu/library/Module4/M4-VII/plagar.htm for some reminders about how to avoid plagarism.
  • Send your bonus essay via e-mail to ziehr@nsuok.edu
  • It must be received by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 7, 2005. 
  • Include your name and class time & days at the top of your essay.
  • You may write your essay in the body of an e-mail or attach it as a file (written with a wordprocessor).  However, if you attach a file, it MUST be in either WordPerfect, Word, or Rich Text format.  Essays in any other file format will NOT be graded.
  • The essay and the citations for sources MUST be included in the same e-mail (and the same file, if attached as a file (not sent separately).  I will grade only the first essay that you submit.
    • Last revised August 21, 2005.