Showing posts with label maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maps. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Landmarks and signposts: a good essay is like a map


When my first semester as an MA student came to an end, I realised I had been a survivor. I had survived studying and working as a freelance translator at the same time. To tell you the truth, I had no idea that a person could be THAT BUSY as I was at that time.

So now I would like to share some tips with you on how to survive writing essays, when there's so little time. Hope they help you as they helped me. Ready?

First of all, make sure you write everything as if it were fair copy. Don't tempt yourself to write haphazardly, in many colours and fonts, ignoring the style guide you should be using. It's better to look at what you write and think that it's almost ready. As the hours flow by, it will become more difficult to focus on such changes; that's why it's better to write correctly from square one.

Second, I say, when you use a certain source, you should always put the reference book or article into the works cited list as soon as you use it. And make sure the reference is formed according to the style guide you should be using. This is going to save you much time later, when you will be too tired to take care of such details.

Third, it helps if you imagine that you are not working on a text, but on a map. Maybe it's because my first degree is in surveying engineering, and I enjoy working on maps, but I always tend to visualise my essay as something physical, something which exists in space.

Besides, a very good essay has landmarks and signposts. Landmarks are key issues that we need to write towards them and explain them carefully while signposts are the key words that move us, both writer and reader, from one issue to another. It is important that we use landmarks and signposts in our essays, as if our essays were maps which present ideas in space.

It's so difficult to combine working and studying, especially in the case when you have to write as many essays as I had to write. Writing essays is one of the most creative things ever: first your mind absorbs the information and then it generates new ideas. That's why any tips that are going to make this process easier are always welcome. Do you have any?

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Even maps tell lies


Nothing is certain in this life.

For example, we go to school and learn geography, without realising that what we see in world maps may not be always the truth.

And how could it be true, since it is not possible to represent the earth, which is roughly a sphere, onto a flat piece of paper without error.

Okay, we certainly expect some error, but what kind of error?

Is it possible that school world maps could represent the earth so inaccurately, showing country A as bigger than country B, when in fact country B is actually bigger than country A?

But that’s precisely what happens!

One of the most common map projections, the Mercator projection, distorts the countries’ surfaces according to their distance from the equator. This leads to Greenland being shown as bigger than Africa, when in fact Africa is much much bigger. 

These problems can be solved by using a different kind of map projection, which is called the equal-area projection. The Gall-Peters projection is a good example of this.

Nevertheless, if you come across a map made like this, you will find it both awkward and disorientating.

Maybe it is better sometimes to look at the numbers, which never lie – almost:
Greenland: Total Area: 2,166,086 km2
Africa: Total Area: 30,221,532 km2

References
Wikipedia contributors. "Gall–Peters projection." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Sep. 2012. Web. 3 Oct. 2012.