Based on Muir’s Mountains of California and Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, write a 1,250-
1,750 word essay in which you attempt to persuade your audience to adopt either writer’s
approach to the nonhuman world, as evidenced in their respective works that we have
discussed as a class. Which approach might be more conducive to safeguarding our natural
environments and the species that live therein? Which might be best suited to convincing a
skeptical or uninterested American populace to adopt a more ecologically-minded lifestyle? Be
sure to stay close to the texts by using brief quotes, with citation and explanation from the
primary text you choose to focus on. To succeed, you will need to explain either Muir or
Leopold’s way of thinking and being in the natural world, as well as showing how it provides the
best template for interacting with the nonhuman world even today.
While you may quote from anywhere within either work (Mountains of California or A Sand
County Almanac), you should be certain to avoid a simple “compare and contrast” approach to
your essay. Rather, you will need to stake out a strong claim for a particular approach, with
sufficient detail and reasoning from the text. You may include elements of both, if you feel that a
hybrid approach combining some aspects of each would be best, but you must make this clear
from the very beginning of your essay (i.e. starting with your thesis statement in the introduction
of your essay).
Goals
• To analyze Muir and Leopold’s differing ideas for living in and amongst nonhuman
nature in the context of a well-organized argumentative essay.
• To draw connections between Muir or Leopold’s respective approaches and our
contemporary twenty-first century context.
• To write with style, grammar & mechanics that is appropriate to a JR/SR college seminar
course and which engages your reader
Required Books:
“The Mountains Of California” 9780375758195
cix”A Sand County Almanac” 9780197500262
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