REFLECTION ESSAY

You will complete three subsequent drafts of a reflection essay on a topic of your choice. Each draft of your reflection essay should be submitted by the assigned due date and time (see schedule). For the first draft of your reflection essay, you are required to include one social-theoretical perspective to examine/analyze your chosen environmental issue/topic. The second draft for your reflection essay will require you to integrate two more social-theoretical perspectives to examine/analyze your chosen environmental topic/issue. While the number of social theories you use for each subsequent draft of your essay will increase, your topic will remain the same throughout each draft so pick one you are very interested in! You must include at least five additional peer reviewed sources in addition to the assigned readings you can draw upon for your essay. Each draft should be no longer than five single-spaced pages. You will receive additional instructions regarding our expectations for your reflection essay as well as our grading guidelines for the reflection essay drafts and final reflection essay.

Reflection essay: The reflection essay is divided into three drafts.

FIRST DRAFT:

The first draft, ans noted above, should be based on ONE of the social-theoretical perspectives presented in class. Your essay should first present your 'object of concern'. This should be something simple enough to say something specific about. The book uses examples of, for instance, tuna, trees, wolves, etc... If you object is too complex -- for instance 'urban sprawl' or 'alternative energy' or 'fossil fuels' then it will not make a good focus. The first part of the essay should state what the object is, why you have chosen it, and present some basic facts about the object such as how much/many, where it comes from, and why it is an 'environmental' concern. If you have doubts about how to do this, consult the chapters of the book that treat different objects of concern, choose an object that is similar in character or type to your own object and examine how they have introduced the object. This first part, introducing the object, should take 1 to 1.5 pages and should have at least three citations.

The second part should state what social theory (of those presented in the book) that you are applying to your 'object'. This second, 'application of theory' part should take an additional 1 to 1.5 pages. You should look through the sections of the chapter covering the theory that you want to use and apply at least two of the concepts in that chapter to your object of concern. You will need to say which concepts you are applying and cite the Environment and Society textbook so that we know which concepts you have applied in your particular analysis. These citations should use page numbers that correspond to the 2nd edition of the text: if you are using the 1st edition please consult with someone who has the 2nd edition to find the correct page numbers. You should explain the concept and show how it applies to your object of concern.

Finally, you should have a concluding paragraph that reflects on the experience of writing the essay and tells the reader something that you have learned from this analytical process.