Homework answers / question archive / assignment for this week is the following: Crafting the Personal Essay, Chapter 16, "Write What You Wish You Knew," and Chapter 17, "Writing the Nature Essay" William Bryant Logan, "The Lessons of a Hideous Forest" (Links to an external site

assignment for this week is the following: Crafting the Personal Essay, Chapter 16, "Write What You Wish You Knew," and Chapter 17, "Writing the Nature Essay" William Bryant Logan, "The Lessons of a Hideous Forest" (Links to an external site

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assignment for this week is the following:

• Crafting the Personal Essay, Chapter 16, "Write What You Wish You Knew," and Chapter 17, "Writing the Nature Essay"
• William Bryant Logan, "The Lessons of a Hideous Forest" (Links to an external site.) (The New York Times)

General posting guidelines this week: Please post a Primary Post in response to the discussion topic(s) below; as well as a thoughtful Reply to another person's post. You may write your primary post and reply in either order. One post is due by Thursday, and one is due by Sunday. Each post is worth 10 points, for a total of 20 points. 

To ensure a cordial style, please remember to greet your classmates and sign your name in your posts.

Specific Guidelines for this Discussion

In Chapter 16, "Write What You Wish You Knew," Dinty Moore adjusts the common dictum to "write what you know" to something more exploratory: "Write what you wish you knew" (my emphasis). He advocates visiting new places as a stimulus for our writing--even it's simply investigating a nearby alley or the local library: following our curiosity in order to learn new things about our surroundings (176).

Similarly, in Chapter 17, "Writing the Nature Essay," Moore recommends showing the reader "something new or fairly common but in a new way" (187, my emphasis). He explains that this "new way of seeing" in a nature essay comes about through patient, informed observation. Moore also talks about the importance of the nature writer relating what s/he/they see to their own lives (189).

After reading Chapters 16 and 17, and reading William Bryant Logan's "The Lessons of a Hideous Forest," (Links to an external site.)first, please write about an interesting connection that struck you between Chapter 16 and/or 17 and Logan's essay about his tramp through Fresh Kills Landfill in New York City.

Then, please choose one of the prompts in "Writing Exercise: Getting Out of Your Chair" on pp. 173-174. Complete the statement, place that in your post, and develop the statement into a paragraph or so, following the train of thought begun by the prompt.

Citing your source(s): Please include in your post at least one specific reference to Chapter 16 or Chapter 17. Please refer to the guidelines in Format for Citing Sources in Your Writings.