Elp.s.09.reading Response 1

Reading Response 1 Ecology of Language and Place

Chamberlain & McKinnon

Overview: -Review: Reading Response Guidelines before writing your reading response. It will give you an overview of how to structure your reading responses each week. Bring your texts to class each night for seminar discussions and workshops. Please make sure that you post your reading response to our class drupal site before you come to class. This is your ticket into seminar! All class resources are on our website at: . You will also want to print out a “hard-copy” of your response to put into your portfolio. Reading Assignment: Due: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 1) Ross, Carolyn, Writing Nature: An Ecological Reader For Writers. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. Chapter 4: Personal Narratives John Muir, A Windstorm in the Forest Loren Eiseley, The Dance of Frogs

p. p. p.

191-207 217 287

2) Zinsser, William. On Writing Well. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Part III Forms: Nonfiction, People, Places, and Memoir p. 95-147 3) Fill, Alwin, and Peter Muehlhaeusler. The Ecolinguistics Reader: Language, Ecology, and Environment. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001. -Environmental Matters and Communication Challenges p. 143 4) Snyder, Gary. “The Politics of Ethnopoetics.” A Place In Space. Washington D. C.: Counterpoint, 1995. p. 126-147. On our class druple site and at: Reading Questions:

What do the various authors (or works such as film) have to say about ecology, language, place, writing or story? What are some of the patterns of good writing and storytelling? What does it mean to write from a sense of place? What are some of the methods for writing about powerful people and places in our lives? Give examples from the readings. How do these authors (or works) explore how different cultural perspectives effect how we think about ecology, language, and place? What are some of the common themes or differences between these different work? How do they characterize humans’ relationship to the knowledge that is contained in our environment and other animal species? How does this knowledge affect the language, myths, and stories that we share? How do you think our exploration of ecology, language, place, and story connect us to issues of sustainability locally and globally?