Writing about Nature and Environmental Issues

Workshop

(You may find electronic comments useful in responding to some questions.)

1. Does the writer establish a clear direction for the essay within the first few paragraphs?
   1. Underline the clearest statement of the essay’s focus or central issue.
   2. Note any problems.
2. Can you see the relationship between this initial direction and the subsequent points within the essay?
   1. If not, where does the writer seem to shift focus?
   2. Can you help the writer articulate a more coherent thesis/central question for the essay? Offer some suggestions.
3. Does the conclusion (if it has been written) make clear what the reader has gained by following the writer’s path through multiple sources?
   1. Can you discern the link between the introduction and the conclusion?
   2. How might the writer strengthen that connection?
4. Does each text mentioned in this essay play an active role in the critical essay?
   1. In other words, do you learn something new each time the writer examines a specific text? Identify and explain any exceptions.
   2. Do you know what the writer thinks about each text? Does he/she spell out this thinking?
5. Identify each major quoted passage with a Q in the margin of the essay. Consider the role it plays in the paragraph within which it appears.
   1. Can you understand all of the references within the quoted passage?
   2. Can you see why the writer chose this passage?
   3. Does the writer spell out the significance/implications of this passage?
   4. Identify any problems below or in the margins.
6. Are you confused by some aspect of the current essay?
   1. If so, try to identify the point at which you lose track of the writer’s reasoning. (Place an asterisk * at the point that you have identified.)
   2. Write out a question that might elicit a clarifying answer. In other words, what do you need to know?
7. Is there another question or a new perspective that the writer might consider as he or she revises the third essay?
   1. Ideally, the question or new perspective that you propose should help the writer view his or her material from a slightly different angle.
8. Choose three sentences that would benefit from extensive revision.
   1. Underline the phrases that seem problematic.
   2. Identify the problem and, where possible, suggest alternatives.
   3. Explain more complicated problems in a marginal note.