Mosser ENGL 1106
Essay 3: Due Tuesday,
November 9, Midnight
For Essay 3, choose one of the following
options:
- Return to the place in nature you wrote about for Essay
1 and compare the place now to your memory of it as
articulated in that essay. What has changed (about it? you?)? Why?
How would you evaluate the change that has occurred?
- Choose a place in your local environment that you would like
to see changed or preserved in a particular way. In this essay,
you function as the advocate for this place. What are the
arguments for effecting the change(s)? What tools can you think of
to bring this about? Why should this place be deserving of
"special" treatment? What tools would you like to see made
available that are not? An example I am thinking of is the
development at Rte. 114 and 460 (NRV Mall, WallMart, Market Place,
etc.), that once upon a time was the Virginia Tech Horticultural
Farm and provided a very pastoral gateway into Blacksburg. One
result of this development is the need for new roads with
interchanges of Los Angelean magnitude (view
a PDF file of this coming attraction). Had certain landuse
tools, zoning regulations, and public will been available and
brought to bear, perhaps the landscape hereabouts would look
markedly different. Make use of the Persuasive
Appeals most appropriate and effective for your task.
- It is Autumn. If you planned to compare contrast the place you
wrote about in Essay 1 based on seasonal change, this is your
opportunity. As an alternative, spend some time observing the
advent of the season by observing very closely what happens in a
particular place. What migratory birds arrive or pass through (it
may be a bit early for many of these)? What flowers, shrubs, trees
bloom and leaf? Butterflies? Other insects? What else changes,
over what period of time, and how do you notice the change? You
may want to use Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as
one model for how to go about "seeing" these changes.
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 Eudora.
Please be sure to title the file with your last name and "essay3":
e.g., "smith.essay3."
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