Writing - the first task!

Academic Writing, first task – write a summary!

So, as I mentioned in my starting post, Academic Writing is one of the two support groups that I have joined. The reason why I joined it was to simply better my ability to write academic texts – while I feel like I'm at a good level when it comes to writing normally, it's a bit different when you must stay objective, factual, and clear, all the while using proper language and terms. It's also a chance to receive peer feedback and to attempt to give some back as well.

Well then, to get back on track. The first task was to pick an academic article to read and to write a summary of. Seems simple enough, right?

For me, however, picking the article might have been the hardest part of this task. I can't say that I'm very big on reading academic articles on my free time, especially outside of the usual news sources that I follow, so finding a reliable page for articles was quite difficult. All I knew was that I wanted to read an article about my own discipline, Geography, and that still left me with far too much to look through.

I went through many different pages and many different articles before ending up with David SG Thomas's article (2022) "Geography needs science, science needs Geography". For me, it wasn't impossibly long, and it had a good structure, which made it appealing to read. Also, of course, I was interested in the subject itself. I begun the process of writing the summary by reading through the article and taking notes of things I deemed important. This already took quite a lot of time but taking notes is the best way for me to personally make sure that I've read the text with thought. Besides, writing the summary itself didn't take that long with the notes, though I did keep the article open on another tab at the same time.

I didn't feel like the task was too difficult, but I must admit that my focus wasn't the best while doing it and it might show in my text. But I will be looking forward to the peer review session that we will be having this week. There's no getting better without feedback!

I've also added my summary here, so feel free to read it!

In this article, David SG Thomas looks back on Geography's evolution as a discipline, how it fits amongst other natural sciences and how geographers themselves view the science. The article is based on his experience and observations as a physical geographer over the past couple of decades and, as Thomas himself admits too, is biased towards the fields he is most familiar with.

Geography can be viewed as an ever-changing discipline that has had quite the difficult time establishing itself as a renowned science. In the past there were three major parts in Geography: physical, human and regional. The two first ones are still largely acknowledged as the main directions of the discipline, while regional geography has been on the decline since the 1950s.

Lately environmental geography has risen in popularity, as it combines both physical and human geography, and attempts to tackle the rising problem of keeping Earth healthy. At the same time, environmental geography has helped to make geography more understandable and accessible to a wider audience. According to Thomas, it might even help Geography acquire a better footing and a more demanding presence, much needed of a widely acknowledged academia.

Over the years, many departments and schools of Geography have become linked to other disciplines and lost the word 'geography' from the title, that space often being taken up by environment instead. This gives rise to the concern of diluting the discipline and losing the principles that make it. However, on the other hand, as Thomas says, it also speaks of Geography's flexibility and how well it can be practiced within other disciplines as well. By becoming an irreplaceable part of other sciences, Geography guarantees its continuation and growth.

Thomas uses his experience in the field of geomorphology as an example of how intertwined sciences are and how, at moments of crises, they often fall back to the basics. The term geomorphology is being used less and less over time, and it isn't a sub-discipline acknowledged by a large audience, and yet when it comes to dealing with places where problems strike, it is likely that geomorphologists are some of the first people present. Thomas argues that most of the data used by bigger parties is collected by sub-disciplines, making them the base that builds the discipline – and therefore, something that will always be needed. This applies to not only geomorphology, but all other sub-disciplines in science.

Although Thomas expresses concern over Geography's inability to become as established as other natural sciences, he concludes the article by saying that he believes in Geography's continuum. Through its history of changing and flexibility, Geography has all that it takes to become a major factor in solving the crises the world is now facing.

References:

Thomas, David SG. 2022. Geography needs science, science needs Geography. Environment and planning. Vol.1. Issue 1. Pp. 41-51.