Environmental Studies - Winter 1999

Instructor: Sarah Rabkin
Time:Tu-Th, 4:00-5:45
Location: Oakes 222

"I write to oppose injustice, to defy power, and to speak for the voiceless. ...I write to give pleasure and promote aesthetic bliss. To honor life and to praise the divine beauty of the natural world. I write for the joy and exultation of writing itself. To tell my story." Edward Abbey, "A Writer's Credo"

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course focuses on some of the writing-related challenges that environmental studies majors are likely to encounter as students and in environmentally-related jobs. We will address several specific writing tasks and formats, such as meeting summaries, policy memos, persuasive letters, reports of empirical work, legal documents, and research-based essays. More generally, we will examine the qualities that characterize artful, persuasive writing in a variety of genres, and we will consider how such writing can effect positive change in the environmental arena.

Students should expect to complete in-class writing exercises and weekly revisions of written assignments, participate in several peer editing sessions, and attend at least one tutorial meeting. Deadlines are frequent and usually non-negotiable, so only take the class if you are willing to keep up with the papers. The quality&emdash;even the possibility&emdash;of discussions hinges on your preparedness, so you are expected to do the assigned reading faithfully on time. There will be no examination, but you will be required to hand in a detailed self-evaluation at quarter's end. Please keep all returned work until then.

There is usually a long waiting list for this class. If you miss or come late to the first or second meeting, you may lose your place.

Instructor's Office, Phone Numbers, Hours:

Sarah Rabkin, 204 Kresge. Office phone: 9-5195. Message: Kresge Faculty Services,

9-2781. E-mail: srabkin@cats.ucsc.edu Hours: Wednesdays 2:30-4:00 and by appointment.

Writing Tutor:

Kelly Fitzgerald, keba@cats.ucsc.edu. Watch for more information in class.

Required Texts (available at the Bay Tree Bookstore):

¥A Writer's Reference, 3rd Edition, by Donna Hacker, Bedford/St. Martin's

¥Writing and Thinking in the Social Sciences, by Friedman & Steinberg

¥A required course reader, on sale in class.

Overview of Major Written Assignments & Due Dates:

1. Note-taking and summary (one page): 1st draft due 1/20; final draft due 1/22

2. Rant-and-rave paper (two pages max): in-class assignment

3. Policy memo (three pages max): due 2/3 (a revision may be required)

4. Research essay proposal (two pages of text plus annotated bibliography): due 2/10

5. Research essay (8-10 pages): due 3/3

6. Letter to an editor (one page max): 1st draft due 3/10; final draft due 3/12

7. Research essay revision (8-10 pages): due 3/17

8. Self evaluation due 3/17

Additional writing assigments will be given in class.

COURSE CALENDAR

¥Please complete all readings by the beginning of the week for which they are assigned. All readings are either in the course reader or in the course texts. See reader table of contents for reader page numbers.

WEEK ONE (and a half): Taking Notes and Writing Summaries

¥Edward Abbey, "A Writer's Credo," from One Life at a Time, Please, pp. 161-178

¥Peter Elbow, "Feedback," from Writing With Power, pp. 237-263

¥Linda Flower, "Transform Writer-Based Prose into Reader-Based Prose," reprinted in Kevin J. Harty, Strategies for Business and Technical Writing, pp. 53-63

¥Anne Lamott, "Writing Groups," from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, pp. 151-171

¥Virago, Rabkin, & Draper, miscellaneous guidelines & notes for writing groups

Thursday, January 8 Course overview and introductory business; strategies for note-taking and summary

Tuesday, January 13 More on note-taking and summary, including a practice run.

Daniel Press, guest speaker.

Thursday, January 15 Writing groups: the art of giving and receiving useful editorial criticism.

WEEK TWO: Ranting and Raving

¥Friedman & Steinberg, Introduction & Chapter 2

¥Hacker, section on composing

¥Peter Elbow, "Freewriting Exercises," in Writing Without Teachers, pp. 3-11

¥Natalie Goldberg, "The Rules of Writing Practice," in Wild Mind, pp. 1-5

Tuesday, January 20 Draft of summary due; meet in writing groups. Freewriting and other tools to make drafting easier.

Thursday, January 22 Revised summary due. In-class rant-and-rave.

WEEK THREE: Doing Research and Writing Policy Memos

¥Friedman & Steinberg, Chapters 1 and 3

¥Hacker, chapter on documentation (esp. APA style)

¥Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, "Guidelines for

Writing a Memo in Government"

¥David Rothernberg, "How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students' Research Papers," Chronicle of Higher Education, August 1997

¥Rabkin, "Doing Interviews for Class Papers"; "Doing Internal Research"

Tuesday, January 27 Policy memo introduced. The research-and-writing process.

Thursday, January 29 More on policy memos.

WEEK FOUR: Writing Persuasively

¥Friedman & Steinberg, Chapter 4

¥Sylvan Barnet & Hugo Bedau, "Critical Reading: Getting Deeper Into Arguments," from Current Issues and Enduring Questions, pp. 28-49

¥Irene Lurkis Clark, "Developing an Argument for a Researched Paper," from

Taking a Stand: A Guide to the Researched Paper

Tuesday, February 3 Policy memo due; meet in groups. Research essay proposal introduced.

Thursday, February 5 Argument, persuasion, and the research-based essay.

WEEK FIVE: Research-Based Essays

¥Friedman & Steinberg, Chapters 5 and 12

¥John Trimble, "Middles," from Writing With Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing, pp. 37-54

¥Feiock & West, "Testing Competing Explanations for Policy Adoption: Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Programs,"Political Research Quarterly, June 1993, v. 46 no. 1

¥Sample student research papers for ENVS 156, in the reader

Tuesday, February 10 Research essay proposal due; meet in groups. Research essay draft introduced.

Thursday, February 12 Successful research articles and essays.

WEEK SIX: Watching Your Language

¥Mono Lake: National Audubon Society v. Superior Court, pp. 381-390

¥Kevin J. Harty, 1992. Strategies for Business and Technical Writing, Selections from Chapter 2, "Problems With Language."

¥"Plain Words: The War on Jargon and Clichés," in Barzun & Graff, The Modern Researcher, pp. 293-313

¥Patricia Nelson Limerick, "Dancing With Professors: The Trouble With Academic Prose," New York Review of Books

¥Virginia L. Warren, "Guidelines for Non-Sexist Use of Language," APA Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession

¥William C. Paxson, "Nondiscriminatory Writing," from The Business Writing Handbook

¥(optional) Alan Siegel, "The Plain English Revolution," from Across the Board

Tuesday, February 17 Exchange Day: No class. Monday classes meet.

Thursday, February 19 Language; jargon. Letter introduced; successful and not-so-successful letters.

WEEK SEVEN: Recording and Reporting Observations and Results

¥Friedman & Steinberg, Chapters 6 and 7

¥Gary Paul Nabhan & Ann Zwinger, "Field Notes and the Literary Process," in Writing Natural History: Dialogues With Authors, pp. 67-90

¥J. V. Ramsen, Jr., "On Taking Field Notes," American Birds, September 1977, Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 946-953

¥John A. Murray, "Journals," in The Sierra Club Nature Writing Handbook

¥John Muir, "A Wind-Storm in the Forests"

¥Deborah Rabinowitz, "Seven Forms of Rarity," in The Biological Aspects of Rare Plant Conservation

Tuesday, February 24 Tips on writing up a scentific study. (Possible guest speaker: Dan Doak)

Thursday, February 26 Writing up natural-history field observation notes. (Possible guest speaker: Maggie Fusari)

WEEK EIGHT: Activism Through Writing: Effective Letters to the Editor

¥Sarah Lubman article & Daniel Press response, SJ Mercury News

¥Possible further reading TBA

Tuesday, March 3 Research essay due; exchange for at-home commentary in writing. Letter assignment introduced.

Thursday, March 5 More on letters.

WEEK NINE: The Uses of Rhetoric

¥Wallace Stegner, Wilderness Letter

¥Patricia Nelson Limerick, "Precedents to Wisdom," in The Geography of Hope:

A Tribute to Wallace Stegner

Tuesday, March 10 Letter draft due; meet in groups.

Thursday, March 12 Letter revision due. A video case-study in the uses of rhetoric.

Class evaluations.

WEEK TEN: Parting Thoughts

¥Harry F. Recher, "Simple Journalists or Simple Scientists?: Are Environmental Issues Too Complex for the Media?", Australian Zoologist, December 1992, pp. 19-23

Tuesday, March 17 Last day of class. Research essay revision and self evaluation due. Video portrait of a scientist-activist-author who wrote the book (so to speak) on Environmental Action Through Writing. End-of-quarter business and final farewells.

Revised 7/26/04.