Original Prompt, Week One

Source Essay: “Getting Along With Nature” by Wendell Berry

Strategy Notes:

Although Berry's writing is heavy on the exposition and relatively lean on imagery, he uses enough rich instances of the latter to balance the essay and avoid an overly sermonistic presentation. The essay makes a case for communion with nature without painting a nasty picture of culture, although it includes pros and cons of both in specific contexts.

One strategy I see using for myself is that of investing ample research time before attempting to narrate something I care deeply about. It's not enough to want to advocate something, to write about something important. Berry's essay highlights the necessity of intimately knowing multiple angles of an issue if you want to a) take a reasonable position, and b) potentially convince your audience that some change is desirable.

Berry writes, “I knew a barber once who refused to give a discount to a bald client, explaining that his artistry consisted not in the cutting off, but in the knowing when to stop” (24). He seems to be speaking here to the art of writing, as well as to the advantages of restraint in general. Along these lines, Berry uses his prose in this essay to contradict the idea that arguing for change from an absolutist position is effective or advantageous. In fact, he posits that for the arguments posed by the staunch defenders of nature and of culture, “It is a dangerous mistake . . . for either side to pursue [the] quarrel on the assumption that victory would be a desirable result” (20). (For example, saving all the sheep by eradicating all the coyotes vs. protecting sheep predators to the degree that farmers lose their rights to protect their livestock.)

Prompt:

Your first visit to a zoo or to a campus habitat for a live college mascot (eg Baylor's bears or UNA's lions).