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Coursework Assignment #1: Physical Geography Essay

The WORD LIMIT is 1500 words.
This assignment will be marked by the physical geography academic tutor.
This assignment will be marked using the Essay marking criteria detailed in the Geography Student Handbook.

Please note: to help students understand the purpose of feedback and how to effectively use feedback to improve their work, only written feedback on Coursework Assignment 1 (the physical geography essay) will be returned within two weeks. Marks will not be returned until after the ‘what is feedback’ tutorial.

Write an essay on ONE of the following natural environment (physical geography) essay questions:

1. ‘Plastic pollution is the greatest threat to marine ecosystem health’. Discuss.

2. Critically assess the contention that the planet is currently experiencing its sixth mass extinction.

Some content may have been covered in your modules, but even if they have not, you will be able to research your chosen topic from basic to advanced levels using library and online resources, especially online peer-reviewed journal articles. There are no fixed ‘rules’, although physical geography writing tends to be a bit less discursive than writings in human/development geography. Keep this in mind when organizing your facts and information into a final essay.

Your essay should contain a title, introduction, an evaluation of the question, conclusion and reference list. Make good use of headings and subheadings to structure and organize your ideas. The essay should make proper use of Harvard Referencing, citing all ideas that are not your own and any facts that are not general knowledge; all figures and tables should include their source. Make sure you define any key-terms used, and clearly let the reader know where you are headed at all times.

You may wish to use some secondary data from an online database and graph it in Excel, and present this in your essay as a figure. Alternatively, you can re-use visuals from the literature but they must be cited correctly.

The following specific requirements apply (over and above the official Coursework Submission Requirements):

Your essay MUST include at least THREE figures or tables. In addition, your reference list MUST have AT LEAST FIVE REFERENCES FROM PEER-REVIEWED journal articles. Failure to comply with this MINIMUM requirement will result in a maximum mark of 40%. Every reference in your reference list should be cited at least once in the main text.

 Some suggested reading:

Andrady, A. (2011) Microplastics in the marine environment. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 62, 8, 1596-1605

Barnosky, A.D., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G.O.U., Swartz, B., Quental, T.B., Marshall, C., McGuire, J., Lindsey, E.L., Maguire, K.C., Mersey, B. and Ferrer, E.A. (2011) Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature, 471, 51-57.

Derraik, J. (2002) The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 44, 9, 842-852.

Wilcox, C., Van Sebille, E. and Hardest, B.D. (2015) Threat of plastic pollution to seabirds is global, pervasive, and increasing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112, 38, 11899-11904