AssignmentWrite an essay for a wide audience that describes, creates the essence of, and interprets the meaning of a place. The place may be as small as a room, the size of a campus building, or as large as a town. Choose a place that you can observe as you write this essay or that you know so well you need not observe it anew. Incorporate not only observations from the present or memories from the past, but information about the place that will help you convey its “meaning” to your readers (possibilities: its history; its inhabitants; responses of people who see the place for the first time or who live or work there; information about its founding, its changing fortune, or its demise.
Handouts
|
Readings
Additional ReadingsRead samples of nature writers in the Norton Reader, such as Edward Abbey (p.496), Brian Doyle (p. 502), Rachel Carson (p.519), John Muir (p.525) or Terry Tempest Williams (p. 543), that show the writers trying to make sense out of what sort of a world we live in. Notice how there use of description aims for meaning.
Student Samples"Top Priority" by Devin Smith
|