ENG 235: American Narrative Nonfiction Fall 2013

For your second essay, you have two options: 1) If you chose to write a New New Journalism-style essay for Essay #1, you can write a personal essay. Your personal essay will explore an experience you have had, with nature as a central character. In addition to an emphasis on rich sensory descriptions of the natural world, in this essay, you will select and research a natural entity (flora, fauna, geology, or topography) native to that area, which you will incorporate into your essay in a figurative manner (ala Rebecca Solnits use of gardens in Revolutionary Plots). You will also be expected to perform basic research about the location in which the story takes place. 1a) If you chose to write a personal essay for Essay #1, you can write a New New Journalism-style essay. A New New Journalism-style essay will be one in which you research and write about a nature-based topic while remaining visible in the story, either by describing your interactions with your research subjects (again, think of Solnits essay), by describing a relevant experience you have had, by voicing your thoughts and opinions about the subject, or by a mix of all three. If possible, your research will include collecting primary information through interviews with relevant participants. As with the option above, this essay should include a natural entity incorporated in a figurative manner. 2) A formal, thesis-driven research paper responding to one of the texts we have read thus far in the semester. As this is a thesis paper you will need a debatable topic of your choice, which explores the answers to questions that have arisen for you during class readings and discussions. The best papers begin with questions you have of author(s), followed by a close mining of their work for answers. While your first essay drew on your personal experiences, your research paper should be objective, approaching the chosen topic from a place of reason and research. That said, the same attention paid to language and creativity in your first essay should be applied to this paper. Your essay should adhere to the MLA style, as detailed in the syllabus, and must include a Works Cited section. Assignment Due Dates: Proposala brief outline of your essay/topic, along with any questions you may have. (Please note: the more detailed your proposal, the more specific and, therefore, helpful my response in guiding you.)due emailed to my Hendrix address by Monday, October 14 Peer Review Drafta printed version is due emailed to your peer review group at an agreed-upon time on Monday, November 4 Final Essaydue emailed to my Dropbox account by midnight, Monday, November 11