Readings

[AE] = Buy at Amazon McKibben, Bill, ed. American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. Library of America, 2008. ISBN: 9781598530209.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1

Introduction: Symbolic Encounters

In class: Writing exercise

Buy at Amazon Leopold, Aldo. "Axe-in-Hand." In A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Illustrated by Charles W. Schwartz. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, 1968. ISBN: 9780195007770. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Abbey, Edward. "Solitaire." In Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. Ballantine Books, 1971. ISBN: 9780345326492. [Preview with Google Books]

2

At Odds with Nature

Writing: Introductory exercise

In class: Questioning your sources; finding a motive

[AE] Berry, Wendell. "Preserving Wildness."

Buy at Amazon Thoreau, Henry David. Walking. Cricket House Books, 2010. ISBN: 9781451529791.

3 Birds: Nature's Emissaries

Buy at Amazon Beston, Henry. The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Code. Reprint edition. Holt Paperbacks, 2003, pp. 19–25. ISBN: 9780805073683. [Preview with Google Books]

[AE] Leopold, Aldo. "Marshland Elegy."

Buy at Amazon ———. "On a Monument to the Pigeon." In A Sand County Almanac. Reprint edition. Ballantine Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780345345059. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Eiseley, Loren. "The Judgment of the Birds." In The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature. Vintage, 1959. ISBN: 9780394701578. [Preview with Google Books]

4

Birds (cont.)

Writing: Warm-up exercise 1.1

In class: Developing a thesis. Using MLA in-text citations

[AE] Carson, Rachel. "The Obligation to Endure" and "And No Birds Sing (Section 1)."

[AE] Turner, Jack. "The Song of the White Pelican."

5 In class: Workshop on introductions No assigned readings
6

Farms, Lawns, and Gardens: Cultivating Nature

In-class: Workshop on Drafts

Organizing your thoughts; structuring your essay

[AE] Cronon, William. "Seasons of Want and Plenty."
7 Farms (cont.) No assigned readings
8 In class: Framing an argument

Pollan, Michael. "Gardening Means War." The New York Times Magazine. June 19, 1988.

———. "Sustaining Vision." Gourmet Magazine. August 31, 2002.

Kingsolver, Barbara. "Stalking the Vegetannual." Orion Magazine.

Watch:

Finley, Roy. "A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA." TED Talk. February 2013.

9 In class: The rhetoric of argument

Pollan, Michael. "Why Mow? The Case Against Lawns." The New York Times Magazine. May 28, 1989.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Turf War." The New Yorker. July 21, 2008.

10

In class: Paragraphs and transitions

Exercise: Re-assembling an essay

Buy at Amazon Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. ISBN: 9780393315110. [Preview with Google Books]
11 In class: The Rules of Engagement: Using sources & developing evidence

[AE] Pinchot, Gifford. "Propserity."

Tucker, William. "Is Nature Too Good for Us?" Harper's Magazine. March 1982.

12

Dams: Reconstructing Nature

Water for a Dry Land

Writing: Warm-up exercise 2.1

"Giving a Dam: Congress Debates Hetch Hetchy." History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course.

Buy at Amazon McPhee, John. Encounters with the Archdruid. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980, pp. 153–167. ISBN: 9780374514310.

[AE] pp. 493–499.

[AE] Porter, Eliot. "The Living Canyon."

13

The Romance of the River

Writing: Warm-up exercise 2.2

In class: Exploring two texts. Creating a conceptual framework

Buy at Amazon Lopez, Barry. "Gone Back into the Earth." In Crossing Open Ground. Vintage, 1989. ISBN: 9780679721833. [Preview with Google Books]

[AE] Meloy, Ellen. "The Flora and Fauna of Las Vegas."

14

Landscapes lost and found

Writing: Draft Essay 2 due

In class: Exploring the past in a narrative essay

[AE] Sanders, Scott Russell. "After the Flood."

McPhee, John. "Farewell to the Nineteenth Century." The New Yorker. September 27, 1999.

15

Writing: Comments on partners' essays

In class: Workshop Essay 2

Creating coherent essays: Introductions and conclusions

No assigned readings
16 Wolves: Confronting wildness

[AE] Leopold, Aldo. "Thinking Like a Mountain."

Bass, Rick. "Wolf Palette." Orion Magazine.

17 In class: Asking good questions and finding good sources

Middleton, Arthur. "Is the Wolf a Real American Hero?" The New York Times. March 9, 2014.

McNamee, Thomas. "Tinkering with Nature." High Country News. March 31, 2003.

18 In class: Exploring a new perspective and preserving your own No assigned readings
19

Writing: Warm-up exercise 3.1

In class: Oral presentations of individual readings

Evaluating and citing secondary sources

Reading: Continue reading major outside source.
20

Writing: Identify critical source(s) that you plan to read

In class: Additional oral presentations of individual readings

Reading: Finish reading major outside source.
21

Writing: Warm-up exercise 3.2

In class: Additional oral presentations of individual readings

Using and misusing sources

Avoiding plagiarism; preserving your voice

Reading: Secondary sources for Essay 3.
22 Writing: Prospectus Wilson, Edward O. "A Biologist's Manifesto for Preserving Life on Earth." Sierra. December 12, 2016.
23

Discuss final revision process

Compare draft & published versions of two poems (one by Robert Frost and one by Walt Whitman)

No assigned readings
24

In class: Workshop Essay 3

Managing complexity; achieving coherence

No assigned readings
25

Writing: Ongoing revision of Essay 3

In class: Workshop on revised introductions

Buy at Amazon Williams, Terry Tempest. "Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming." In The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks. Reprint edition. Picador, 2017. ISBN: 9781250132147. [Preview with Google Books]
26 In class: Favorite passages from required or supplementary readings No assigned readings