WEEK NINE ASSIGNMENT: EVERYTHING CHANGES

Your last assignment will be to re-inventory the place which you began visiting at the beginning of the quarter, and describe the differences you notice between the two points in time.

Once again, you will be observing yourself as well as your setting. Who were you when you began this class? How have you changed?

Look carefully at the setting around you. How has it changed? What was there that you didn't even notice at the beginning, but now seems obvious? Has anything died, and how do you feel about it? What has grown, and how do you feel about that?

Using the same organizing principle as you used in your very first essay, describe the setting you see now. Leave yourself out; don't mention how much you have learned and change. Rather, let that knowledge display itself in the greater awareness you show about the setting and the greater fluency of your writing. Use all the techniques you have learned in this class. Use vivid and colorful language, employ many senses in your description, zoom in and pan around, look backwards and forwards in time.

If you find that your earlier organizing principle was ineffective, select a variant of it. You may feel yourself wanting to express emotions about the place you have come to know; you will have an occasion to do that next week. For now, let the emotions appear in the language you use. Great nature writing is always about the self as well as the setting, although it often does not put the human being at center stage. Focus on the setting, and let your emotions express themselves indirectly, in your language and the visions you chose to present to the reader.