WRITING NATURE: 
DISCOURSES OF ECOLOGY

ASSIGNMENT:

This essay consists of two parts.

Part 1:

In writing your "walking meditation," take your reader on a journey from Point A to Point B, using your journey as an opportunity to remember and/or to reflect.

Your journey may be as minute as crossing a room, or as vast as crossing an ocean. Whatever the scope of your particular journey, choose one that is charged &endash; that is rich and meaningful to you. As you move from Point A to Point B, let the details of your surroundings or the action as it unfolds provide occasions for thought, reflection, memory, or speculation. Because you are moving in time and space, this essay will be largely narrative; because you will want to recreate your experience vividly for your reader, it will also be descriptive. The concreteness of the narration and description should "ground" the thoughtfulness of the piece, and the reflections should reinforce the meaning or significance that is implicit in the narration and description.

Although you certainly do not have to model the structure, style, subject, or theme of your essay after hers, do refer to Annie Dillard's essay "Heaven and Earth in Jest" (handout) as one example of a "walking meditation."

Your essay should run between 4 and 5 pages.

 

Part 2:

In a separate brief essay write a rhetorical analysis of your own "walking meditation." Beyond satisfying a course requirement, what did your purpose in writing become? What effect would you like your essay to have on your reader? How did you structure and style your essay to achieve this effect?

Specifically, what is the mood and voice of the piece, and how does the writing convey it? How do the structure and organization of the essay promote your rhetorical purpose? How would you characterize the style of the piece? How do the specific elements of style further your rhetorical purpose in the essay?

This part of the assignment should run about 2 pages.

DUE:

The draft of this writing, including parts 1 and 2, is due at conferences on Monday, October 7, or on Tuesday, October 8. Revision after conferences with me are due Tuesday, October 15. Please see "Presentation of Written Work" in the course syllabus for specifications on formatting written work for this class.

THE GENERAL IDEA... AND THE SPECIFIC POINT:

Point 1: What Is Rhetoric?

Point 2: Why "Walking"??

Point 3: Choice of Subject

Point 4: Detail and Specificity

Point 5: Some Further Notes on Time and Space

Point 6: Reflection and "Free" Associations

Point 7: Thesis, Structure, and Style

Point 8: Freedom: A "Happy" Problem