WRITING NATURE: 
DISCOURSES OF ECOLOGY

Follow the links to examples of past students' writing in "Writing Nature."

Walking Meditations: Rhetorical Practive/Rhetorical Analysis

In writing their "walking meditations," students take their readers on journeys -- as minute as crossing a room, or as vast as crossing an ocean -- from Point A to Point B, using these journeys as opportunities to remember and/or to reflect. Although students did not have to model the structure, style, subject, or theme of their essays after hers, Annie Dillard's essay "Heaven and Earth in Jest" served as a rhetorical model of a "walking meditation."  

Eugene Lin	draft	A Sudden Rain (revised essay)
Mark Hammer		Landscaping (revised essay)	Rhetorical Analysis of "Landscaping"
Sam Yam	draft	revised essay
David Gross		Sunrise Jog (revised essay)	Rhetorical Analysis of "Sunrise Jog"
Bristin Jones		Atrás (revised essay)	Rhetorical Analysis of "Atrás"
Albert Lin		What Do I Really Need? (revised essay)	Rhetorical Analysis of "What Do I Really Need?"	What Do I Really Need? (further revised essay)

 "Leap of Faith" Essays: Contextual Analysis

The "leap of faith" consists of distinct parts -- a writing progression -- leading students toward conception and authorship of sophisticated and meaningful analytical essays that, while they draw upon ideas and texts related to our course, depend most crucially upon students' original thoughts and their own experience for direction.

David Gross	Guzzler
Mark Hammer	Science and Nature
Albert Lin	Life Requires the Elimination of Our Species?
Bristin Jones	Frozen Ethics

Community Writing Projects

(Learn more about the Community Writing Program)

Agency: Stanford Medical Center/American Parkinson Disease Association Information and Referral Center Project (first issue of agency's newsletter): Parkinson's News Network (Volume 1, Issue 1, December 2002) (PDF file) Student Writers: Yuryi Teslyar and Matt Truong

Agency: Baylands Nature Interpretive Center Project (fact sheets): "Nature Notes" on the Web Student Writers: Sara Auld, Shelli Carol, and Martha Hagemeister (Spring Quarter 1998) and Ted LeVan, Julia Tzu, and Grant Yang (Winter Quarter 1998) Web Design: Shelli Carol

Agency: Palo Alto Fire Department - Environmental Protection Division Project (web page): "Asbestos in the Home" Student Writer: Anna Bruno Project (web page): "Christmas Tree Safety" Student Writer: Shannah Metz Project (web page): "Green Buildings" (Powerpoint) Student Writer: Darice Chang Project (web page): "Home Safety" Student Writer: Jordi Feliu Project (web page): "Portable Heater Safety" Student Writer: Brad Metzler Project (web page): "So You Want to Be a Firefighter..." Student Writer: Libby Blossom

Agency: Friends of Huddart and Wunderlich Parks Projects (newsletter articles): "Looking Down from Above" (Part 1 of a 5 Part Series on The Plants of Huddart and Wunderlich Parks), fom Wild Times (Fall/Winter 2001) (PDF file) "Douglas and His Iris" (Part 2 of a 5 Part Series on the Plants of Huddart & Wunderlich Parks), fom Wild Times (Spring 2002) (PDF file) "There is Nothing Wrong With This Tree" (Part 3 of a 5 Part Series on the Plants of Huddart and Wunderlich Parks), fom Wild Times (Summer 2002) (PDF file) "The Fern: Not Just in the Tropics" (Part 4 of a 5 Part Series on the Plants of Huddart & Wunderlich Parks), fom Wild Times (Fall 2002) (PDF file) Student Writer: Stella Cousins Projects (newsletter articles): "Steelhead Trout," fom Wild Times (Fall/Winter 2001) (PDF file) "Snakes: Getting Along with the Locals," fom Wild Times (Summer 2002) (PDF file) Student Writer: John Smithson Project (newsletter article): "Getting to Know Our Park Rangers: Emily Jetke," fom Wild Times (Fall 2002) (PDF file) Student Writer: Erica Maland Project (newsletter article): "Getting to Know Our Park Rangers: John Trewin," fom Wild Times (Summer 2002) (PDF file) Student Writer: Jonathan Huang

Agency: The Trail Center Project (newsletter article): "Logging, Population Growth and Biodiversity in the Santa Cruz Mountains Santa Cruz Mountains," from The Trail Companion (Spring/Summer 2002) (PDF file) Student Writer: Scott Ransenberg Project (newsletter article): "Trail Conquistador: Volunteering at Arastradero Preserve" from The Trail Companion (Spring/Summer 2002) (PDF file) Student Writer: Markus Rogan

Research Papers

Students' multiple-source research essays address many aspects of the broadest questions of "Writing Nature": what is human identity, and what role do human beings serve in nature? Try following the links from bibliographies to students' online research.

Maggie Smith		Olympic Wolves?
Albert Lin	Human Cloning: What Will We Become? (draft)	Human Cloning: What Will We Become? (revised essay)
Mark Hammer		The Economics of Genetically Modified Foods (revised essay)

Multimedia Oral Presentations

Students' multimedia oral presentations at quarter's end address specific aspects of their research papers or their Community Writing Projects.

Andrew Buck	2001-02	Conservation VS Restoration
Dave Borrelli	2001-02	Jaws
Tiffany Early	2001-02	Navajo Creation Mythology
Albert Lin	2002-03	Human Cloning
Mark Hammer	2002-03	Genetically Modified Foods
PriyaJayachandran	2002-03	Pretty Woman: The Cross-Cultural Standard of Female Facial Attractiveness and Its Biological Basis

Reading Presentations

Some students use PowerPoint to help them make their their presentations of readins during the course of the quarter.

Mark Hammer	David Quammen's "The Face of a Spider"
Albert Lin	Stephen Jay Gould, "On the Origin of Specious Critics"

In-Class Electronic Discussions

These are transcripts of various in-class electronic discussions of reading-related questions and ideas....

About Henry David Thoreau and Gustav Eckstein: "...you must tell what it is to man"? Conversation #1 ~ Conversation #2 ~ Conversation #3 ~ Conversation #4

About Lewis Thomas' "Making Science Work": what's the difference between science and technology? Conversation #1 ~ Conversation #2 ~ Conversation #3 ~ Conversation #4

About Peter Singer and David Quammen: the question of speciesism Conversation #1 ~ Conversation #2