SUGGESTIONS AND WEBSITES TO USE TO FIND ARTICLES FOR THE PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT
You are required to find FIVE ARTICLES, on FIVE DIFFERENT SUBJECTS that relate to the country you have chosen
to write about. The articles must be of sufficient length to allow you to write a summary, which must comprise at least
900 words — do not choose “articles” that are actually summaries themselves. Do not include information from
encyclopedias, the CIA Fact Sheet, travel journals, weather bureau statistics, or any publication that simply lists facts and
figures. Your articles should be reporting current NEWS and give a picture of what’s happening in your chosen nation.
They are not for the purpose of telling me about your nation’s history, constitutional makeup, demographic data, or other
such information.
To make your portfolio interesting and well-rounded, look for articles about many different subjects, including (but not
limited to)
political developments;
governing style (are elections democratic, corrupt, or merely puppet governments with a military group actually in
control); recent elections;
environmental hazards (quakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, etc.);
environmental degradation (cutting the rainforest, polluting the water and air, inducing illnesses, mutations,
defects, etc. in the population);
population issues — is the country overpopulated or underpopulated? is the government trying to do something
about it;
health care reports (has the government instituted medical programs for the citizens — or taken some away, are
epidemics sweeping the country, etc.);
human rights issues (ethnic cleansing, bias, prejudice, disruption of rights, etc.);
educational stories (are more citizens getting an education — or fewer, is education free, or not available, what is
the literacy rate — by male and female percentages, how many go on to college, etc.);
financial articles (is the country well organized for industry, banking, service industry? what is the unemployment
rate? what is the average annual salary? what does this country export/import? is the government in control of business;
climate issues — is it getting warmer or colder? are agricultural systems failing/thriving due to this;
agriculture practices — does the country produce enough food for itself plus some for export? is the government
in control of agriculture practices? do citizens get assistance with farming;
war and uprising — is the country in a war with internal groups (civil war), or with outside groups;
unique characteristics — does your country have unusual attributes that are written about?
In most cases, you can find dozens of articles by simply typing in the name of your country and clicking “search”. This
will usually produce thousands of potential websites for you to scan through. ABC news, Time and U.S.News & World
Report magazines, The Economist magazine, NBC news — these news agencies, among dozens of others, carry good
stories.
If you’re looking for environmental articles, you can type in the name of your country AND environmental.
If you’re looking for news in general, type in international newspapers, and thousands of websites will come up.
Specific websites of use are: (type country name in search box; search archives for stories)
