Writing about Nature and Environmental Issues

Your third essay, like the second essay, should explore a question or problem that has emerged from your reading. You may not be able to arrive at an answer or a solution, but over the course of your essay, you should at least be able to refine the central question or identify a range of solutions for your problem. By the end of your third essay, your readers should be able to see what they have gained by exploring this question or problem with you. Stay close to the texts as you explore your chosen issue. Do not wander through the theoretical stratosphere.

You will need to choose two texts to consider in this paper (see below guidelines for a list of works that you may select from), but you should not write an open-ended comparison of the two texts; instead, you should choose an issue or theme that emerges in both of them. Most of you will end up working with writers who share many basic values; you will need to read and think carefully to uncover meaningful distinctions between them.

Purpose of assignment:

• To focus your attention as you read and think about a particular work.
• To help you distinguish between observed details and the ideas that emerge from those details.
• To ensure that your own ideas are rooted in specific textual evidence.

Select one or two paragraphs from Cronon’s essay and examine the full range of connections to one other reading from our syllabus. Your own commentary should be 200-300 words long. Be sure to include textual evidence from “The Trouble with Wilderness” and the other work that you consider in your commentary

Imagine that Berry was asked to explain his reservations about Thoreau’s essay. What differences in perspective would he emphasize in his remarks?

Search your memory for an encounter with a particular bird (it does not need to be a close encounter). Devote one page of your exercise to your description of the bird and its action. Do not include your thoughts or your feelings about the encounter on this page, but do try to evoke the entire sensory experience.