L. Martin \ English 101 – 172, 193 \ Fall 2008 \ University of Arizona 1 | P a g e

Unit 1, Essay 1

Writing Our Environment An Interpretive Textual Analysis (4-5 pages)

“...[W]ho I am, who any of us are, and how we see the world cannot be separated from our

ideological positions within our culture and time. Much of our thinking still adheres to a

mechanistic worldview, which reduces the complexities of the world to isolated parts,

organisms, and mechanisms, rather than to an ecological one, which considers organisms in

relation to each other and their surroundings and which focuses on the interdependence of all

living and nonliving systems of the universe.”

Ute Haker and Sharon Wright-Harris

“Writing the Environment,” Writing as Revision, p. 412

Important Dates

9.15 – In class, sign up for Essay #1 text

9.19 – 1 page discovery draft due for Peer Response (Bring 1 paper copy to class.)

9.22 – 3 page rough draft due for Peer Response (Bring 1 paper copy to class.)

9.24 – Writing Workshop #1 (If you signed up for this workshop, bring 13 copies of your rough draft to class.)

9.26 – Final draft of Essay #1 is due in class

Selected Texts for Essay #1

For our first essay, I ask you to begin the writing process by familiarizing yourself with the texts we will

be exploring during Unit 1:

“sonora desert poem” by Lucille Clifton, pp. 427-428 in Writing as Revision (WAR)

“Escudilla” by Aldo Leopold, pp. 457-459 in WAR

“Knowing Our Place” by Barbara Kingsolver, PDF on D2L

“The Clan of One-Breasted Women” by Terry Tempest Williams, pp. 439-444 in WAR

“Landscape and Narrative” by Barry Lopez, pp. 415-419 in WAR

We will discuss each of these texts in class, but I encourage you to browse through all of them soon. In

class on September 15, I will invite you to select one text on which to focus your attention as you

compose Essay #1.

Purpose and Audience

The purpose of this assignment is to select one text, conduct several close readings of it, and compose an

engaging, academic essay that examines how the text works—how its words, structure, style, tone,

ideas, metaphors, or other textual strategies work together to elicit meaningful responses from readers.

It is important to remember, however, that there are multiple ways to respond to and interpret a text.

Your essay will describe the interpretation of one important reader—you. Thus, your job in this essay is

to describe your analysis of the text’s purpose and strategies by wisely selecting meaningful pieces of

evidence from the text to support your analysis.

One way to support your unique analysis of a text is to reflect on your own worldview. In other words,

how are personal experiences, values, and beliefs actively shaping the way you view and interpret the

possible meanings of a text? Each of us brings a unique life history to the texts that we read, and part of

your job in this essay is to help your readers thoughtfully consider the perspective through which you

L. Martin \ English 101 – 172, 193 \ Fall 2008 \ University of Arizona 2 | P a g e

are analyzing a specific text. One way to help readers understand your analysis is to include a brief but

meaningful personal anecdote or story that begins to shed some light on you—your personality and your

ways of seeing the world and the text.

As you compose your essay, please keep your readers in mind. For this assignment, your readers—your

audience—includes your classmates, yourself, and me (L. Martin).

Planning and Drafting

Composing is a creative endeavor, and the first step usually involves what rhetoricians refer to as

invention. In class we will discuss and experiment with several methods of invention that should help

you develop a mature and interesting analytical reading of the text, and I invite you to try all of them

(midrash, journaling, brainstorming, visual representations, close reading, and on). Regardless of how

you choose to participate in the invention process, you should begin composing your essay by:

1. Reading your chosen text closely, carefully, and on more than one occasion

2. Using journaling opportunities in class to compose rough, discovery drafts in which you explore

your response to the text and propose your own theories about the text’s possible meanings

Once you have gained some familiarity with your text, you can begin to formulate some ideas about

possible topics for your essay. The following questions (from pp. 155-156 in A Student’s Guide to First-Year

Writing) should help you develop a focus for your essay:

Which details are significant and which aren’t? Why?

What is the significance of a particular detail? What does it mean? What else might it mean?

How do the details fit together? What do they have in common?

What does this pattern of details mean?

What else might this same pattern of details mean? How else could it be explained?

What details don’t seem to fit? How might they be connected with other details to form a

pattern?

What does this new pattern mean? How might it cause me to read the meaning of individual

details differently?

As you draft (and draft, and draft!) your essay, please keep this in mind: Your essay should have an

analytical thesis statement. Your thesis is the central claim of your essay; it is the specific (and

interesting!) how or why question that your essay is attempting to answer. As you revise your essay, be

sure to revise your thesis. Does it still reflect the focus and purpose of your essay?

Evaluation Criteria

I will evaluate your essay based on the following criteria:

Thesis and Content: Is the thesis clear, analytical, and engaging? Does the essay incorporate

meaningful quotes responsibly?

Development: Is the essay organized? Do smooth transitions guide the reader through your

argument?

Expression: Is your diction, style, and tone appropriate for the subject and your audience?

Conventions: Did you carefully revise your essay to meet the demands of Standard Written

English?

Delivery: Is your final submission thoughtfully assembled and complete? It should include:

your final draft, all rough drafts, all relevant journal entries, and notes submitted in a flat folder.