Essay
In 500–700 words, write your personal statement as to what you believe regarding your moral responsibility to the natural environment. You may address the question in any way you choose. One way would be to answer the following three questions:
- What is the world?
- What is of value in the world?
- How should we treat the world?
but please feel free to address the question in another way. Another schema could be:
- How do we know what is the state of nature?
- What is that state?
- What should be that state?
- How do we achieve that state?
Style requirements: Although we are asking for your personal statement, your essay should still be written in a style appropriate for a research, business, or policy analysis paper. That is to say, your paper should be a coherent and organized presentation of your claims, organized according to paragraphs guided by distinct topic sentences. As much as it is wonderful to read lyrical and poetic narrative essays, we are not looking for that type of essay here.
Evaluation: The essay will be evaluated according to standards of clarity of thesis and argument, grammar, organization, and creativity. The paper should be typed, double spaced, in 12 point Times New Roman, with 1 inch margins all around.
Meeting
During this first week, you will meet with Prof. Clifton-Soderstrom about your essay and to talk to him about anything you'd like to. This meeting will count for part of your grade for this assignment.
