Final Writing Prompt (due next Thursday)

From "Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction":

"Sometimes when you're in a writing class or studying writing intensively, it's easy to lose, temporary, the passion for what brought you to writing in the first place. It's easy to feel as if you've taken all the magic out of it, and you sit at your desk, bored and resistant, unable to find a single thing worth writing about...it's easy to feel as if you've used up all your material, plumbed your memories, reflecting on everything there is to reflect about..."

You've been doing a lot of reading and writing this semester...

"You've perhaps learned new ways to approach your own memories, your research interests, and your ideas. Now, with all that knowledge settling inside your head, [I] want to tell you one last thing. Forget it. Don't forget it forever. But just forget it for now. Take a moment to be in a quiet space where you do your best work..."

Clear your head and try the following prompt:

"What are your 'last words?' What would you want to write if you knew that your time was up? What would you notice in the world around you? What's important for us to hear?"

April 19

“Millions Join Earth Day Observances Across the Nation,” by Josephy Lelyveld p. 484


PBS Earth days video
http://video.pbs.org/video/1463378089/


Journal
Respond to any or all of the following questions:
-What did you find most surprising about the Earth Day video?
-What about the video reflected the reading? What was different?
-How has our perspective on environmentalism and the environmental movement changed since 1970?

Presentations begin next class period!

Presentation Sign-Up

Please sign up for your presentation slot using the "comment" function:

Thursday 4/22:

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Tuesday 4/26:

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Final Assignment

Due: Wednesday May 4, at noon.

You have two options for your final project:

1-A chapbook

2-A resume/cover letter which highlights your work in this class your work in your other classes, your employment, and any other community service, awards, and academic information might be of interest to potential employers.

Option 1: Chapbook/Zine

Your chapbook/zine will be a collection of your favorite creative work in this class. Please be thoughtful and creative with the presentation of your work.

Contents:
-3 journal entries
-3 photos
-Imitation poem/essay (for either Blood Dazzler or your rhetorical analysis)
-3 in class writings

Revise the contents of one category and write a brief reflection discussing any changes you've made.

For reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapbook

Option 2: Resume/Cover Letter

You also have the option of creating a cover letter and resume which highlights your work in this class.

Before you start its important to choose an intended audience for your resume/cover letter. Be specific! Search postings for internships or scholarships in your area of study and cater both your resume and cover letter to that job/scholarship.

Steps:

1. Locate an appropriate job posting.

2. Analyze your experience and skills in light of the job posting, and decide on the most appropriate organizational scheme for your resume. (See sample resumes and information on resume layout at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/719/1/)

3. Write the text and design the layout of your resume (this typically will not exceed one page)--include at least one experience you've had in this class.

(See information about presenting your education: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/719/02/, experience: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/719/03/, and honors/activities: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/719/04/)

4. Compose a persuasive, thoughtful cover letter (about one page) that targets the job posting and that highlights both a few relevant elements from your resume, including at least one relevant experience you've had in this class. (For help with cover letters: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/549/01/)

5. Submit the resume and cover letter in final form to me, along with a copy of the job posting (or description) to which you are responding.

If you choose this assignment you may want to visit the writing center (http://wmhc.isucomm.iastate.edu/), the career center (http://www.hs.iastate.edu/career-services/), or both. Like any employer, I'm expecting your cover letter/resume to be well thought out, articulate, and grammatically flawless.

April 14

Hood in the Woods: Rap Music as Environmental Music

“Studying rap music ecocritically can offer a counterpoint to foundational views of environmental literature and raise important questions about cultivating a sense of place that both resonate with and challenge such canonical place-based figures as Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, who usually dominate environmental syllabi, literature conference panels, and scholarly publications..” –Debra J. Rosethal, “Hood in the Woods”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o8TeqKhgY

“With as keen an observer’s eye as that of Barry Lopez on the snowscape in Arctic Dreams, Edward Abbey on heat and sand in Desert Solitaire, Henry David Thoreau on Walden pond, Sarah Orne Jewett on the lush Maine landscape, or other great naturalist writers, Grandmaster Flash observes the indigenous species of his ecosystem: ‘‘Crazy lady, living in a bag/Eating outta garbage pails,’’ and he enumerates the ‘‘Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers/Pickpockets, peddlers, even panhandlers’’ and the ‘‘Thugs, pimps, and pushers and the big money makers.’’ –Debra J. Rosenthal, “Hood in the Woods”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeTnog5RRQo

“Black Star shows just as much artistry as Grandmaster Flash in its rootedness to a sense of place. ‘Respiration’ portrays New York City as alive…Rappers Mos Def and Talib Kweli feel dispossessed as real estate investors want to raze the ghetto to establish more lucrative condominiums: ‘‘Outta the city, they want us gone/Tearin down the ’jects creating plush homes.’’–Debra J. Rosenthal, “Hood in the Woods”

Journal:
Why did you choose the song you brought in? How could it be considered environmental?

In Groups:
-Share songs, keep a list of everyone’s songs, noting under each what could be considered “environmental” about that song.
-Have at least one song/environmental explanation prepared to share with the entire class.

Homework:

-“Millions Join Earth Day Observances Across the Nation,” by Josephy
Lelyveld p. 484

April 12

Consider the Lobster and other essays by David Foster Wallace

“To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience. It is to impose yourself on places that in all noneconomic ways would be better, realer, without you. It is, in lines and gridlock and transaction after transaction, to confront a dimension of yourself that is as inescapable as it is painful: As a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead thing.”-David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster"

"Given this article’s venue and my own lack of culinary sophistication, I’m curious about whether the reader can identify with any of these reactions and acknowledgments and discomforts. I am also concerned not to come off as shrill or preachy when what I really am is confused. Given the (possible) moral status and (very possible) physical suffering of the animals involved, what ethical convictions do gourmets evolve that allow them not just to eat but to savor and enjoy flesh-based viands (since of course refined enjoyment, rather than just ingestion, is the whole point of gastronomy)? And for those gourmets who’ll have no truck with convictions or rationales and who regard stuff like the previous paragraph as just so much pointless navel-gazing, what makes it feel okay, inside, to dismiss the whole issue out of hand? That is, is their refusal to think about any of this the product of actual thought, or is it just that they don’t want to think about it? Do they ever think about their reluctance to think about it? After all, isn’t being extra aware and attentive and thoughtful about one’s food and its overall context part of what distinguishes a real gourmet? Or is all the gourmet’s extra attention and sensibility just supposed to be aesthetic, gustatory?"-David Foster Wallace, "Consider the Lobster"

Opening Journal:

1-Do you eat lobster? If not, would you? If you would, how would you respond to DFW’s final set of questions? (Given the (possible) moral status and (very possible) physical suffering of the animals involved, what ethical convictions do gourmets evolve that allow them…to savor and enjoy flesh-based viands..?....Is [the] refusal to think about any of this the product of actual thought, or is it just that [you] don’t want to think about it? Do [you] ever think about [your] reluctance to think about it?”)

2-How would you respond to DFW’s claim about tourism? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Have you ever felt “economically significant but existentially loathsome” while traveling? Why or why not?

"The View from Mrs. Thompson's House" by David Foster Wallace: http://people.virginia.edu/~jrw3k/mediamatters/readings/cult_crit/Wallace_The.View.From.Mrs.Thompsons.House.pdf

In groups:

-How are both pieces environmental?
-How is Maine characterized? How is Indiana depicted? What details about both places stand out to you most?

-Which piece resonated with you the most? Why?

-If you were to design an environmental literature course which would you assign? "Consider the Lobster," "The View from Mrs. Thompson's House," or both? Why?

Homework:

"Hoods and the Woods: Rap Music as Environmental Literature" by Debra J. Rosenthal
(Please bring a favorite environmental/local/place-based song to play for the class)

April 7

Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass and The Gulf Between Us by Terry Tempest Williams

“I can say what I want to say. I gave up my science badge a long time ago. I’ve interviewed maybe a hundred people…The story is rich. I can begin anywhere” –Rick Bass

“The oil is not gone. This story is not over. We smelled it in the air. We felt it in the water. People along the Gulf Coast are getting sick and sicker. Marshes are burned. Oysters are scarce and shrimp are tainted. Jobs are gone and stress is high. What is now hidden will surface over time. ”
–Terry Tempest Williams


Opening Journal:
Respond to one of the following questions-
1-Aldo Leopold said, “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land”—How has that harmony been violated in the incidents that incite both the writing of both Williams and Bass? How would you suggest re-establishing that harmony?
2-In Wendell Berry’s essay we read about “marginalization”—how have both the gulf and the wolves been marginalized? How do both writer’s reclaim a marginalized environment?

TED lecture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZhL7P7w3as


In Groups:
1-Do you see Bass, Williams, and Klein as related? Why or why not?
2-How do all three pieces address the idea of ecology? (the interrelationship between any system and its environment)
3-Pick a favorite passage from one of the essays or a favorite quote from the speech
4-Compose a discussion question to share with the class

Homework:
-"Consider the Lobster" by David Foster Wallace
(http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster?printable=true) (please print off and bring to class)
(Journal)