writing and research
engl 298 section 3 ericsson
spring 2007Project 1 What do I value?
Before we can make decisions on what we value, we have to think about the places we move through and live in. Self and place influence each other in profound ways--ways we rarely consider. According to Gregory Bateson, mind and environment are not separate phenomena, but shared, coexistent processes.
According to Jack D. Forbes,
I can lose my hands and still live. I can lose my legs and still live. I can lose my eyes and still live. I can lose my hair, eyebrows, nose, arms, and many other things and still live. But if I lose the air I die. If I lose the sun I die. If I lose the earth I die. If I lose the water I die. If I lose the plants and animals I die. All of these things are more a part of me, more essential to my every breath than is my so-called body. What is my real body?
We are not autonomous, self-sufficient beings as European mythology teaches. Such ideas are based on deductive logic and false assumptions. We are rooted, just like trees, But our roots come out of our nose and mouth, like an unbilical cord, forever connected with the rest of the world. Our roots also extend out from our skin and from our other body cavities.Nothing that we do, do we do by ourselves. We do not see by ourselves We do not hear by ourselves. We do not breathe, eat, drink, defecate, piss, or fart by ourselves. We do not think, dream, invent or procreate by ourselves. We do not die by ourselves. (1992, Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism and Terrorism, 1992145-146).
One way to understand "mind/environment" and what is of value to use is to study places that matter to us.
Project 1 - Part A Place
Write a detailed description of where you are living now or a place you have lived in the past. The place you choose should be important to you in some way--a place that matters somehow. Your goal is to get readers to "see" this place in their heads. You should include detailed and lively language to bring this place to life for your readers. The place you write about doesn't have to be a place you've liked--even a little. It can be a place that you disliked. But it has to be a place that matters enough that you are willing to write about it.In your description, spend time describing the house or apartment itself, but don't stop there. What are the streets like outside your door? What about the buildings around the area? Are there more houses, stores, open spaces, lots of people, people your age? Do the people in your neighborhood have jobs, go to school, or are they retired? Is your neighborhood similar to others nearby? What are the street names, the kinds of plants around you, the smells, tastes, and touches of your place? In general, you are trying to write a description that lets your readers know how you feel and why: something that will get your readers into that place through your description and let them feel what it's like to be there.
If the place you're writing about is unfamiliar to those who will be reading your project (your classmates and teacher), then a map might be included in your project. If you have a digital camera (or access to one) and are close to the place you're writing about, you can include pictures with this project. In fact, you can include pretty much any kind of media you'd like to get your readers to experience your place. For this project, something you can hand in on paper is required. Later you might want to create web-based or multimedia word-processed projects, but we'll stay with paper for this assignment. If you include maps or pictures, make sure you can print them out. Extra non-word media doesn't count in the page length below.
This part of the project should be about 3-4 pages in length (typed, double-spaced, 12 point font--12 point Times New Roman is the benchmark, but you may use other readable fonts). The average per page word count is typically 250, so this is a 750-1000 word project (but I'm not going to count words!!). BTW, creating a fictional place wouldn't be a good idea because we're going to add some real-life research on to this project. So keep the place you're describing "real."
Due dates: Part 1.A of Project 1 Jan. 16 at the beginning of class. Bring in digital form so that we can look at drafts online. You can email the draft to yourself and access it in the AML or put it on a memory stick. Those are the best ways to get it to a different location.
Project 1- Part B
The second half of this project involves weaving into your personal description an identification of values and how you might make decisions about those values. Ask yourself what part of the environment you have described are of value (valuable) to you. At this point, value can be defined as any part of that environment that you care about and would like to preserve so that you can continue to enjoy it and others can experience it too (if you have chosen a negative place, you will reverse the process--identify what you don't care for and would like to change). As you are choosing the parts of the environment that you value, consider the following from Rene Dubos:
The characteristics of the environment in which we develop condition our biological and mental being and the quality of our life" (129).
When you have identified at least three (but probably not more than five) valuable elements of the environment you've described, you can explain why these elements are of value to you. In that explanation, please include ideas from the "Environmental Values: An Introduction" chapter that we read for last week. Consider how you might measure the elements that are valuable to you (or are inclined not to measure them). Are you using axiomatic traditions to consider value or relativistic traditions like WTP or WTA? It may also help you to consider Chapter 9 in the ESR which classifies the human valuation of nature. Each of the nine categories in this chapter is explained and there is a table-based overview on p. 143. Are any of the elements you value in jeopardy or threatened? Can the elements you value be sustained (kept at the current or similar level) for a several generations? What outside systems are the elements you value dependent on?
This is more a project of exploration than an argument, but you do need to present your readers reasons they can grasp. For example, someone might write that they value their large backyard fruit orchard. Why? Because of the fresh fruit? Because of the smells of the blooms in spring? Because of the birds and bees that live in the orchard? Because it the orchard brings back happy memories of childhood? The reasons for something being important are your persuasive tools. When you get into the analysis of what you value, you can turn to more academic considerations and include what we have read so far in your consideration.
When this project is completed, it should be presented as a unified whole. Parts A and B should be blended into a coherent essay about a place you value, why you value it, and how those values can be analyzed. This piece should have a conclusion, but it's hard to tell you how that conclusion should be composed. It will be different depending on how you have structured your essay and the kinds of value you have analyzed. But no matter how you compose the whole project, it needs a conclusion. And don't forget, a essay needs a title!
Although the essay attached here is quite a bit different from what you are writing, it is generally about what the author values and how those values can conflict. It isn't necessary for you to read it, but if you're needing something to get you jump-started on the second half of this assignment, it might help
The completed project is due on Jan 23.