Wrong Word Earth Writing Analysis 01
- Jensen, Derek. “Age of the Sociopath.” Earth Island Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2013, pp. 41.
- Moore, Kathleen Dean. “Anthropocene is the Wrong Word.” Earth Island Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2013, pp. 19.
- Speth, Gus. “Will Branding Help.” Earth Island Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2013, pp 40.
Purpose:
To gain knowledge about debates within the discourse of the Anthrocpocene.
To practice the skills of critically and charitably reading
To practice recognizing the features of a discourse community
Task:
After reading today’s three short Anthropocene articles, choose ONE!!!!!! to analyze in depth, perhaps the one that most challenged or appealed to you. Answer the 10 critical reading questions (attached in file), The first one of which is “What is the writer’s purpose?”.
Number your responses. Notice that Question 4 asks how persuadable you are as a person approaching this topic, NOT whether or not you were persuaded once you read it. For Question 7, give a reason for why you answered how you did. Your answers may vary from one sentence to a few sentences per question (no long paragraphs necessary!). Write the number of each question in the margins of the text where your answers refer to. So, for instance, write #1 next where the author reveals his or her purpose, #6 next to a place where the author’s reasoning stops (usually with an assumption that you will simply agree), and so on.
Look back at the chapter “Reading for the Conversation” in TSIS. How would you characterize the conversation that today’s three short Anthropocene readings (Speth, Jensen, Moore) are all participating in? What kinds of prior questions, claims, and assumptions do they all seem to be responding to? What similarities are there between all these texts? How does the text you chose answer the questions that all these readings are trying to answer? Why is this answer helpful or important?