You now possess a basic understanding of higher order and critical thinking skills, as well as some knowledge about the nature of geography, and the definitions of geospatial intelligence. This lesson capitalizes on that base of knowledge, and gives you the opportunity to demonstrate and improve your professional and academic writing skills.
To exercise our recently acquired critical thinking skills and geographic knowledge, we are going to carefully read the works of several eminent scholars: Samuel Huntington, Stephen Walt, and Edward Said. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations?" was a provocative article that articulated a new geopolitical discourse for the post-Cold War era. Published in Foreign Affairs in 1993, it created an immediate stir and resulted in a book length treatment of the idea by the same name. Steven Walt is a professor of international relations at Harvard. He challenged Huntington’s clash theory in his article “Building up New Bogymen” published in Foreign Policy in 1997. Edward Said was a Palestinian-American scholar of the Middle East famous for his writings on orientalism. Said countered Huntington's discourse in his article "The Clash of Ignorance" published in The Nation in 2001. Works of both Huntington and Said are still frequently referenced and cited. For example, see recent articles on Huntington [1] and Said [2].
You will have the pleasure of writing your first critical analysis paper as your deliverable for this lesson. For many of you, this will be a challenge as you have not written a graduate level paper employing critical thinking skills. However, the ability to clearly and concisely articulate your critically derived thoughts is another essential skill for the geospatial intelligence professional in any agency or organization.
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
analyze multiple sources challenging and supporting a particular thesis (Huntingdon's Clash of Civilizations thesis);
defend your own analysis using your higher order and critical thinking skills;
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the GEOG 882 - General Discussion Forum in Canvas.
Lesson 3 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.
Research two academic journal articles that support Huntington’s thesis.
Write your paper in accordance with the assignment and technical instructions and save using the correct file name convention.
Write an academic paper comparing and contrasting the required readings; Huntington, Said, Walt, and at least two supporters of Huntington's idea, and then articulate and defend your own evaluation and judgement of the Huntington discourse (do you agree or disagree with him and why?) Your judgement is not your personal opinion. Your judgement must logically derive from your analysis and evaluation of your source material.
Your paper should utilize all of the content included in this lesson and be:
Please submit your reflection paper in Microsoft Word Format using the following file naming convention: Lastname_Firstname_Paper_1.doc
Please see Canvas for the Lesson 3 - GRADED Paper (#1) Rubric that will be used to assess your work.
You might find doing research somewhat daunting, but you probably do research all the time. Consider planning a vacation. You most probably don’t just jump in the car and drive off with no destination in mind (OK maybe some of you do—to each their own). You go through a process to plan out your vacation and this includes research.
Brigham Young University Library lays out six steps to doing research.
Say your daughter lives in China and you would like to take a vacation to China. You have narrowed the topic of your vacation to China.
For your first paper, you have a very specific topic and your instructor has done step one for you.
Now that we want to go to China, we can start our research going from the general to the specific. You can use the internet to look up articles on China in general and then zoom in on travel articles specifically.
In academic writing, articles come in many different flavors. You could use a general internet search, a more specialized search such as Google Scholar, or a library (you have access to the Penn State Library online) that has subscriptions to specialized databases with academic articles.
You may find some articles in trade journals such as NGA’s Pathfinder magazine (NGA Pathfinder Archive | National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency [3]). These are good sources but such articles are usually not “peer reviewed”. Articles in academic journals have been vetted through a process of blind peer review and thus have the stamp of approval of a particular academic discipline. Let us say you write a research article based on data you collected. You submit your article to an academic journal. The editor of the journal removes anything identifying you as the author and sends it out to two or three reviewers who have expertise with your topic. The reviewers look at your data sources, collection methods, analytical methods, literature review, etc., as well as your organization and writing style. They then recommend to the editor that they accept, accept with revision, or reject your article. This peer review process ensures the quality of the work and is a key institutional stamp of approval. University professors must often have a sustained record of peer-reviewed research publications to get tenured and promoted.
One other thought on journal articles: don’t just pick the first two you find. You should read the abstract of a few that sound interesting before selecting them and diving into the analysis.
Books can be an excellent source for in-depth information. In our China trip example, you might find a book on the history and geography of China to give you deep background on the country and ideas for places to visit.
Books can be expensive so using the Penn State Library is a good idea. The library has access to many e-books. If you find a book that is not available as an e-book, you can request that the book be mailed to you, free of charge.
This step is key. As you look at sources, you want to understand if they are commercial, government, academic, news, or opinion-making oriented. In our China example, is our source an advertisement from a tour company, a travel advisory from the US Department of State, an individual review based on a personal experience, or a peer-reviewed academic journal article?
Take for example a student paper on the pros and cons of gun control in America. How credible would you consider an opinion piece (with no citations) in the magazine American Rifleman (which is the official journal of the National Rifle Association)?
For this week’s assignment, you would do well to use reputable academic journal articles.
For big research projects like a major research paper, master's thesis, or PhD dissertation which might have tens or hundreds of sources you should consider using a source management and archive tool. Ask your research librarian for help.
YOU MUST CITE YOUR SOURCES! (I hate it when people scream at me in all caps.) Most students understand that you must cite your sources. If you do not, then you are indicating that the ideas are your original work—and that is plagiarism and academic dishonesty.
But there is another key reason we cite our sources in academic work, and that is to help other scholars conduct their research. Readers must be able to understand where your ideas came from, and must be able to easily access the original source you used. This helps them verify your use of the source, and more importantly, allows them to go to that source and look at your source’s sources. In this way, a scholar can follow links in a chain to help with their own research. Many sources are now found online. Ensure you provide the full universal resource locator (URL or web address) preferably as a clickable link in your citation.
This week’s lesson has detailed technical instructions on how to cite your sources in text and how to provide a full bibliographic reference in the “Works Cited” section at the end of the paper. Every citation must have a bibliographic reference in Works Cited.
Students who do not cite their sources get an automatic “REDO” on the paper and a very cross look from the instructor.
Penn State has a great library with many resources for online students. Here are some key links:
Online Students Use of the Library [4]
The intelligence writing style may be different than what most of you are familiar with. Because intelligence analysis requires clarity and precision, the written text explaining your analysis must also be clear and precise. For these reasons, please review the Writing Guidelines adopted from the text, "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing" by David Cariens.
David Cariens spent over 30 years as an analyst with the CIA and wrote for all levels of the U.S. government. He headed the CIA University to teach new analysts writing and briefing skills. Since retirement from the CIA, he teaches intelligence analysis and writing for the intelligence community. Additional information about Cariens can be found at his website [7].
The following text is from “Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing” (2012) by David Cariens.
From "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing," (2012) p. 18.
Writing is thinking on paper. When you write you give the reader a glimpse of your thinking abilities-you are saying something about yourself. Like it or not, people form images about you based on how you write. If there are a number of spelling or grammar mistakes, what are you saying about yourself - that you are careless, not well educated, lack pride? Writing can be easy if you will remember a few simple rules:
Rule One: Think before you write. Know what you want to say before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Rule Two: Organize your thoughts. If you are writing a longer paper or memorandum, take time to organize your thought so you can present a logical argument.
Rule Three: Use simple sentences wherever possible-in the active voice.
Rule Four: Pick your words carefully. Use shorter English words based on the Anglo-Saxon roots of the language. Usually these words are clear and void of nuance and innuendo.
Rule Five: Pursue the economy of language. Make each word count and use familiar terms.
Rule Six: Make the majority of your sentences short and to the point.
Rule Seven: Self-edit and proofread.
The Intelligence Style is expository writing. It is plain talk, straightforward and matter-of-fact communication. Expository writing efficiently conveys ideas, requires precision, and stresses clarity. A major goal of expository writing is to never make the reader wonder what the main point is in the paper or paragraph. Expository writing emphasizes the use of the active voice.
From "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing," (2012) pp. 87-88.
From "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing," (2012) p. 41.
Six mistakes are common to all new intelligence analysts, mistakes that must be corrected to have a career in intelligence analysis:
Cariens, D. J. (2012). Intelligence and crime analysis. Lulu.com.
Your assignment is to write a critical analysis paper of 1000 words (plus or minus 10%), which is about four double-spaced pages in a 12-point font. Ensure you have a title and your name on the paper. Use one-inch margins all around and please use either Times Roman or Arial as your font.
Your paper must be well organized with an introductory paragraph that clearly states your thesis/purpose and outlines the supporting points you will be addressing for your audience. You may want to begin your paper with, "The purpose of this paper is to …" The body of the paper follows with paragraphs in logical succession that allows you to make your point. Finish with a conclusion that very briefly summarizes the paper and powerfully ends with your concluding statement.
Cite your sources in text using the format of (author date), e.g. (Corson 2000). Include a “Works Cited” section at the end of your paper using the bibliographical reference format below.
Multi-authored journal article:
Single authored journal article:
Book Chapter:
Book:
I am not overly worried about the exact format as long as I can look at the author and date and easily reference it to the full citation in the works cited section. Citations do not count against your 1000 words.
Please insert page numbers at the bottom of the pages. You may also include images, maps, charts, etc. Please ensure you include captions and reference any graphics in the text. Captions do not count against your 1000 words. Cite the source of the graphic in the caption, e.g. "author's photo."
Write your paper in active voice and avoid passive voice. Passive voice begs the question of who or what is the subject. For example, “You have been ordered to attack the hill” is passive voice. It begs the question who ordered me to attack that dangerous hill? Active voice puts the subject at the front of the sentence. “General Corson orders you to attack the hill” is active voice. Active voice also makes you take responsibility for your writing and helps you avoid imprecise language.
Writing in the third person (thus avoiding I, we, us, and our) helps writers maintain their objectivity and avoid personalizing the work. Your analysis and judgment must stand on its own. Do not assume the reader knows the assignment or has read the lesson or readings.
As indicated above, we write in third person in academic and professional writing. First person is “I, we, us, our”. Second person is “you, your”. Third person is “the author, this paper, Corson”. For example, “I want you to write in third person” is first person. “You must write in third person” is second person. “Corson contends that academic writing is done in third person” is third person.
Note the difference between a comma, semi-colon, and colon.
A comma indicates a pause between parts of a sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list and to mark the place of thousands in a large numeral. (Dictionary.com)
The most common semicolon use is joining two independent clauses [8] without using a coordinating conjunction [9] like and. Semicolons can also replace commas when listing items that already use commas, such as listing cities and states. (Grammerly.com)
The colon (:) is a punctuation [10] mark consisting of two equally sized dots aligned vertically. A colon often precedes an explanation, a list, or a quoted sentence. [11]It is also used between hours and minutes in time, [12]between certain elements in medical journal [13]citations, between chapter and verse [14] in Bible citations [15], and, in the US, for salutations [16] in business letters [16] and other formal letter writing [17]. (Wikipedia.com)
Please review Bloom's taxonomy and note what I mean when I say demonstrate higher order thinking skills.
While you will have to demonstrate some knowledge and comprehension, you must demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate complex ideas to produce a satisfactory reflection paper. Now review the cognitive skills of the critical thinker:
You must demonstrate the appropriate critical thinking skills based on the approach you take. On this first paper, you may want to explicitly articulate the higher order thinking skills and type of critical thinking that you are applying. Please do not ruin the flow of your paper by overdoing this explicit articulation (be subtle).
This may seem daunting and cause some of you to worry. Remember that I am on your side and I want to help you develop these skills. As you get into this very intellectually stimulating exercise, I hope that you will actually find that critical thinking and concise written reflection are enjoyable.
In this lesson, we:
The most important thing to get out of Lesson 3 is the ability to write a clear and concise academic/professional paper to explain your analysis and evaluation to others.
Deliverable: Lesson 3 - GRADED Paper (#1) - Critical Analysis
When you have completed your paper, return to Lesson 3 in Canvas. Look for the Lesson 3 - GRADED Paper (#1) assignment link where you will submit your paper. You will find directions for submitting your papers when you enter the assignment.
Before you move on to Lesson 4, double-check the Lesson 3 Checklist [18] to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.
Next week, we begin part two of the course, addressing national security applications of geospatial intelligence. Lesson Four: Intelligence Organizations and Functions introduces you to a broad overview of intelligence, including definitions of intelligence, purposes of intelligence, and US intelligence community organization and functions. There will be a lot of reading once again, and the quiz experience. The next lesson will cover:
I am looking forward to reading your papers.
Links
[1] https://theworld.org/stories/2020-05-12/it-s-time-us-rethink-huntington-s-philosophy-part-i
[2] https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/edward-said-selected-works-book-review/
[3] https://www.nga.mil/history/NGA_Pathfinder_Archive.html
[4] https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/onlinestudentlibraryguide
[5] https://libraries.psu.edu/research
[6] https://libraries.psu.edu/directory/ems
[7] http://www.davecariens.com/
[8] https://www.grammarly.com/blog/independent-and-dependent-clauses/
[9] https://www.grammarly.com/blog/coordinating-conjunctions/
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_(punctuation)#cite_note-2
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_(punctuation)#cite_note-PunctuationGuide-1
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_journal
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapters_and_verses_of_the_Bible
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_citation
[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salutation
[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_letter
[18] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog882/node/2168