reminder! film screening in the library

This is just to remind everyone that on Monday, 11/30 we will be meeting in the Library, room 242, for a screening of Al Gore's documentary film An Inconvenient Truth.

Be sure to bring your Coursepack, as we will be discussing the Moser and Thompson articles, as well as the Kallman and Gore articles posted on this blog in preparation for your last major writing assignment, Essay #5, due 12/2.

library requirement

Okay folks, so as the semester draws to a close I must inform you that I have only received one student's certificate of completion regarding the Library Orientation Program. I handed out flyers concerning this requirement many weeks ago, and I recently announced the following information to the class this previous Monday (11/23). Taken directly from the English Department's statement,

All English I students at Brooklyn College are required to take an Introduction to the Library English I Library Orientation Program.

Therefore, given that virtually the entire class has been negligent in fulfilling this necessary task, I feel compelled to reward you if participate and to penalize you if you fail to do so. I am instituting the following conditions regarding this required formality:

The Library Orientation Program will count as one Article Paper grade, bringing the total of Article Papers to five. Recall that Article Papers count as 25% of your final grade. Thus, this one, final paper counts as 5% (or one-twentieth) of your overall English I course grade.

If you attend the Library Orientation Program and hand in your certificate of completion no later than 12/18 to my mailbox in the English Department (2308 Boylan), then you will receive an A on the fifth Article Paper.

If you fail to attend the Library Orientation Program and you do not hand in the certificate, then you will receive an F on the fifth and final Article Paper.

Of course, should you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, please feel free to email me. Note: you need to sign up for an orientation session before attending; you may do so by speaking with a clerk at the Library Reference/Circulation Desk located on the first floor. You are encouraged to visit the website prior to attending: http://dewey.brooklyn.cuny.edu/library/help/loop

essay #5: the penultimate frontier

Essay #5
• Due Date: Wednesday, 12/2/09
• Length: three to six typed and stapled pages
• Formatting: one-inch margins; 12pt. font, Times New Roman; MLA citation
• Grade: a standard letter grade will be given


I am giving you two options for this assignment:

I. Moser presents the eight-stage Movement Action Plan on page 128 of the Coursepack. How can you utilize this MAP as a lens through which Thompson’s article, “Responsibility…” can be analyzed? In other words, how do some of the philosophies, theories, notions, and ideas—e.g., those concerning nature and man’s relationship to nature, wilderness v. wildness, excessive civilization and the post-natural world, etc.—presented in Thompson’s text connect to the current debate on global warming and environmental repair? How have these ideas influenced our current beliefs about climate change? Where might the dynamic of social movement lead these ecological debates in the future? Lastly, to draw from Moser’s text, how might “ignoring [these] internal dynamics […] possibly lead to failure” (129)?

II. Compare and/or contrast at least two of the following five article choices: (i) Moser and (ii) Thompson, from the Coursepack; (iii) Kallman and (iv) Gore, which were posted on the blog; and (v) the essay you researched and chose for Article Paper #4.