Course Description

Writing as a Naturalist involves writing based on natural observation to develop skills in reading, observation, and writing. Though the course is designed to meet the needs of students in the natural sciences (including those majoring in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Science), it should be a very good class for anyone interested in the environment and the world around them.

Besides reading the works of major naturalists, both classic and contemporary (which may include William Bartram, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Darwin, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Mary Austin, Loren Eiseley, Rachel Carson, Archie Carr, Wendell Barry, Barry Lopez, Scott Russell Sanders, Annie Dillard, Leslie Silko, Gary Nabhan, Terry Tempest Williams, and E. O. Wilson), students will also engage in journal writing and observation projects to help them refine their skills in writing and natural observation.

The course begins with attention to the readings, about which students should produce a short essay. During this time, students will also begin keeping a nature journal to record general observations, observations in response to specific assignments, observations made on a class excursion, and the observations they make as part of their projects. Before midterm, each student will begin to develop a focused, independent project involving observation of an animal, place, or other specific part of the natural world. There will then be a short midterm paper about the project in response to the writings of a specific naturalist (or naturalists) who has already written on the subject. In the last third of the class, each student will develop and write the independent project where focused natural observation is combined with a response to independently researched reading to produce an original work of natural history.

The grade for the course will be based on the three essays (20 or more pages of finished work) and your nature journal.