ENG 351SEM—Writing About the Environment

This course will explore kinds of writing related to environmentalist expression and action, both activist and professional. Students will develop a rhetorical understanding of what makes various forms of communication effective, to be able to produce their own environmentalist communication and respond to that of others. We will consider film representations of responses to climate change, and analyze visual culture’s capacity to induce social change. Finally, students will produce a paper in a genre and on a topic of their own choosing, and write a reflective essay about what they hope to accomplish with their paper, who it is for, how it is related to their professional or activist plans, and how it addresses concerns raised throughout the semester related to writing about the environment. Engaging, informative and relevant writing is possible for anyone willing and able to devote work and attention to it; it is collaborative; and it is the result of multiple drafts. Good writing about the environment is the result of curiosity, research, passion, and logical, critical thinking based on trustworthy evidence and expertise. These are the principles on which the class is based.