Animals and Arguments
In 1903, American naturalist John Burroughs triggered a fierce public debate when he accused some of his peers of writing “sham natural history.” These other naturalists, Burroughs claimed, had given in to the major temptation lying in wait for all nature writers: “the danger of making too much of what we see and describe—of putting in too much sentiment, too much literature—in short, of valuing these things more for the literary effects we can get out of them than for themselves.” The ensuing debate over the responsible depiction of nonhuman nature went on for five years in the pages of popular magazines, drawing in dozens of writers and one U.S. president. More than a century later, we remember it as the “nature faker” controversy. But though this episode has taken its place in the history books, its unresolved tensions and questions live on, occupying nature writers and filmmakers to this day: How can writers tell stories that spark human interest in the natural world while doing justice to that world’s alterity? What does it mean to value nonhuman animals “for themselves” and not for the reasons we might project onto them? Are emotion and imagination incompatible with good nature writing?
In this writing class, students will not only get to know this longstanding conversation; they will also be asked to weigh in. Students will study the strategies that help experienced writers make their own marks on existing debates: strategies for posing rich problems, analyzing texts, representing and responding to other voices, giving and using feedback, and otherwise developing a sustainable writing practice. Students will become better navigators of writing for various contexts and audiences by studying and practicing the ways in which public and scholarly writers convey their ideas to readers. Students will be evaluated on a rhetorical analysis of a single text; an analytical essay that incorporates multiple sources and makes an original argument; a reflection that analyzes their own approach to writing; participation in in-class work; and the completion of short, low-stakes assignments preparing them for class. This course will be helpful for new college students looking to establish a base of knowledge about analytical writing, as well as for students at any point in their college careers who want to dedicate some time to working on their writing.