Comparison Of Geography And The American Association Of Geographers

Many people think that geography solely deals with societal boundaries and human interactions. Some of these people might denounce geography to a social science, separating this field from the hard sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology. To fully understand the scientific credibility of geographers, it is important to note that while some geographical studies focus on human elements, many other geographical studies explore the natural world through the use of questions, observations, and experiments; otherwise known as the scientific method. In the 1930s Alexander McAide wrote, “Our school geographies fifty years ago began to describe customs and manners… and so brought in the human factor. We may define geography today as ‘all that pertains to human environment.’” (McAide 91). McAide suggests that geography initially was an objective survey of land in which the humanities found a place to harbor cultural studies. The geography journal, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, covers topics of natural science under the areas Geographic Information Science, Physical Geography, and Environmental Sciences. This scholarly journal has been published since 1911, and has evolved greatly since its primitive stage. As one of the most well-known and cited geography journals in the world, Annals of the American Association of Geographers proves itself to be a credible source for historical and modern scientific information alike.

In order to organize the differences between these articles, it is helpful to refer to the five aspects of scientific articles that have changed according to Gross, Harmon, and Reidy in Communicating Science: The Scientific Article from the 17th Century to the Present: Explaining the Development of the Scientific Article. These include an increase in objectivity, plain style, and hedges, as well as a change in syntax and