FYS – 2003 Writing Assignment #1

Sense of Place Essay

Due 11 September

I would like you to think of a natural place that has had a strong influence on you and your way of thinking. It may be a vacation spot, a park or the Himalayan Mountains. Clearly, the sand farm of Aldo Leopold had such an influence on his thinking and identity. Describe your place and outline why it’s special and what inspirations and insights you draw from this natural place.

Do you think that such places are being lost to society and that we are losing our connection to the land? Also comment on this statement in your essay.

In class today you will write a few sentences about your place and then share those sentences with one of your colleagues. I then want you to take a look at the sentences and pages 7-16 in Powerful Writing Skills and discuss a way that this writing could be improved.

This exercise will serve as a start to your first paper. The paper will be your Sense of Place essay and should be a 3-5 page word-processed document. The paper is due 11 September and in the classes that follow we will attempt to improve on your essay before you submit it. Keep in mind that the grade of each of these four short papers is the average of the grade of your original submission (due 11 September) and your rewrite of the same paper (due 18 September).

(Note that our course web page can be reached at http://www.wooster.edu/geology/FYSWiles/FYS_2003.html and through clicking through the Wooster web pages to Geology and Geology courses on the web http://www.wooster.edu/geology/geocourses.html.). Your preparation questions for next week (Tuesday) will consist of a compilation of your prep. questions that we will compile and post on the web this afternoon (Thursday) and a few others that pertain to Part III or SCA. Prep. questions can be reached through the course page (http://www.wooster.edu/geology/FYSWiles/prep.html).

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