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EXAMPLES OF ANSWERS
Test on American nature writing
English/Environmental Studies 243: Introduction to Nature Writing
Fall 2007
Example of a short-answer definition (3 points)
Short answers should be extremely efficient, saying a lot in 2 or 3 sentences. They should stick with the core ideas, with no explanations, assessments, or secondary points. In this case, the reader wants just the core or kernel of the idea.
Nature as chaotic “wilderness”
Associated particularly with Puritanism, the Nature-as-chaotic wilderness view holds that nature is inherently disorderly, physically and spirituality dangerous, and a wasteland devoid of value. The ideal is for humans to tame and control it, turning it into a humanly-organized garden.
Example of a long paragraph explanation (10 points)
An explanation should be a long and efficient paragraph. It should first introduce the reader to the general nature of the term, then detail all the major ideas associated with it. Usually, each sentence should be a new aspect of the term. Here, the reader wants not just the core of the idea, but a fuller explanation.
Nature as chaotic “wilderness”
This is one of the most negative Western views of the natural world, associated particularly with the early period of Puritanism. It combines the transcendental dualism of Platonism with a biblical sense of the Fall from Garden of Eden. The expulsion of Adam and Eve was not simply their individual fall from grace; all of Creation fell with them. In this view, nature is a dangerous and even demonic wasteland, antithetical to what is properly human and spiritual. The American Pilgrim William Bradford saw nothing “but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men” and the Puritan John Cotton spoke of nature as “a wild field where all manner of unclean and wild beasts live and feed.” This wilderness is wild, in the sense of lacking order, stability, or control. It is also unintelligible because we cannot understand any structure or pattern or design. Given this view of nature as wilderness, the ideal became a garden. Wilderness needed to be conquered and transformed into a human constructed and ordered realm of nature, a new Eden. Such a garden would have both rational and spiritual order, and thus is understandable, controllable, and has religious value.
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