Writing About Nature
Cindy A. Cochran
Assistant Professor, English
Illinois College
Jacksonville, IL 62650
Writers of all
kinds write about nature. Do you? This page is under development to provide you with links
to resources on the internet that can help you write about nature.
Some people, such
as Henry David Thoreau or contemporary essayist Annie Dillard, write about
nature as a way of celebrating and exploring life and spirituality, striving to
articulate a philosophy about humanity and its relationships with nature.
Ecological writers also concern themselves with these relationships, although
many write to inform readers about ecological dangers and persuade people to
take action. Some ecofeminists, such as poet
Lori Anderson, write as a way to explore and express the complexities of being
a human, being a women, and living in the natural and
artificial world. Biologists and other scientists write to describe and
explore nature's many dimensions. Some, such as Loren Eiseley,
write about nature in a way that teaches science to non-scientists.
Nature Writing at Illinois
College
Students at Illinois College write about nature as part of
many courses. Of course, anyone taking a biology course writes a few lab
reports. Students in the environmental studies courses also do a lot of
writing. Additionally, students in some sections of EN 205, the
intermediate expository writing class, focus entirely on writing about humanity
and nature. You could even find yourself writing about the natural world
in a philosophy, ethics, or economics course.
Here are links to animal webpages composed by Illinois College
students and intended for students in grades 4 through 12.
Animal Pages
by English 205A
Animal Pages
by English 205B
The Campus Writing
Center at Illinois College
can help you as you write about nature. Besides being a place to for you
to get help from our consultants, the Center also contains a resource shelf
with all kinds of materials to help you write about nature, including
periodicals, books, and writing refernces quides. Some of the resources are listed on the
following website:
Illinois College Campus
Writing Center
Links to helpful pages
Association for the Study of Literature and the
Environment Online
Encarta Encyclopedia Weblinks
Illinois Department
of Natural Resources
Links to Environmental
Writing Websites
The Wilderness Net. Provides links to information about America's
wilderness and wilderness areas, wildernesses legislation (including the full
text of the Wilderness Act of 1964), a wilderness research database of articles
(some dated), and the Intl. Journal of Wilderness.
United States Fish and Wildlife Services.
Ecology Hall of Fame
Links to Native
American Websites
Links to Nature Organizations & Journals
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Ecology and
Biodiversity
Sierra Club
Envirolink
The Conservation Ecology Journal link
has many articles with information about conserving our natural
resources. Check out the June 2001 isue, which
has an article on the Carlinville, Illinois
environment as it concerns the local bee population!
Environmental
News Network
The Nature
Conservancy
Remember, this page is under
development. Visit again in the future.
author's
webpage
copyright 2000 Cynthia A. Cochran, Campus Writing Center, Illinois
College, Jacksonville, IL 62650.
Last Modified August 23, 2000.