Mosser ENGL 1106

Essay 2

Choose one of these three options:

  1. David Gelernter's essay appears in two forms: one, which we discussed in class, appeared in the Washington Post. The other, longer version, appeared earlier in City Journal. For this option, compare the two versions: how has Gelernter reshaped the piece for different audiences? different purposes? How does he tailor the rhetorical appeals to fit these different audiences? Be specific and use textual quotation to illustrate your observations/arguments.

  2. The LATE anthology includes an extract from Gary Snyder's "The Etiquette of Freedom." Compare the full-text version with that extract. Do the arguments in the two versions appear to be the same? Are they made more or less effectively in the full text? Do different kinds of rhetorical appeals appear in the full text than in the extract. Are the arguments more fully developed in the full text version? Would you, if you were required to extract a portion of the Snyder essay for an anthology make the same decision as the editors of LATE?

  3.  
    And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26)

    We have begun to see how the writers whose works we have been reading and talking about are, even if they are not conscious of doing so, carrying on a conversation. David Gelernter, Gary Snyder, Martin W. Lewis, and Jerry Mander all address the issue of the relationship of human beings to nature and, to some extent, all consider the moral and ethical nature of that relationship. Yet they all do not agree. The epigram from Genesis might be one of the bases in the "Judeo-Christian" tradition that Gelernter is thinking of when he states his position, though since he does not specifically cite scripture or any other authority to support his assertion, that is only my inference.

    For this essay, your job is to enter into that conversation with at least three these writers. Your essay should include the following elements:

    • A brief summary statement of each writer's position on the question, with parenthetical page references for representative statements by those writers of their viewpoints. (The aim here is paraphrase, not quotation.)

    • An evaluation of those points of view: evaluate the quality of the supporting argument, not your own opinion of the view expressed. As part of this, you will want to consider the nature of the persuasive appeals being made.

For your essay: 

Construct a thesis statement that allows you/obligates you to address these points and shape your essay accordingly.

As before, your essay needs to express a clear sense of its own thesis: "what am I talking about?" (subject), "what am I trying to do in this essay?" (purpose), and "how am I going to do it?" (method). All of these options ask you employ the method of comparison and contrast, so at least part of the third constituent is a given. The subjects are also provided in the descriptions of the three options. The conclusions you come to in the process of considering the various questions will help you to establish your purpose.

The paper should be 4-5 pages (1000-1250 words) in length.

Please turn your final drafts in to me (at: dmosser@vt.edu) via an e-mail attachment. Please be sure to title the file with your last name and "essay2": e.g., "smith.essay2." [NB: note that this is the title of the essay computer file.]