Essay #1
American Nature Writing: Environment, Culture and Values
Essay #1
Choose one (1) of the following chapters from Walden:
“Economy”
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”
“Reading”
“Higher Laws”
“Brute Neighbors”
“Conclusion”
Reread your chapter carefully, and then write an essay that explains how your chapter helps you to understand the entire book from which it is taken. What is it about this chapter that connects to Thoreau’s wider points, and how could a reader use your chapter to help to make sense of the whole work. Your essay should have a thesis (a central controlling idea) that suggests clearly how your chapter helps a reader to understand the entire book.
Write with care and attention to the details of the chapter you have chosen and to the entire text. Use concrete specific details from the chapter and the book to support your claims. You may refer to other chapters besides the one you are analyzing to help with your analysis. Organize your essay in a way that presents your ideas clearly and coherently. Proofread your work carefully.
Your essay should be four to five pages double-spaced pages of Times New Roman 12-point type, prepared in accordance with the English Department website on “English Writing Guidelines”: http://www.dickinson.edu/info/20111/english/748/writing_guidelines
Your essay should have a title page that includes a title, your name, the class, and the date. The essay will be due at the start of class on Tuesday, February 25. You must have your completed essay with you when you arrive on time in class at 9:00 a.m. that day.
NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED