Topic: How Money and Sustainability are Interrelated
Mode: Expository: Explanation, Persuasion, or Argumentative
Writing Elements to consider or include:
Have a title
Use action verbs instead of forms of the verb to be (limit the use of was and is)
Have paragraphs approx. 5 sentences long, about 4 paragraphs per page
Use examples from 4 essays to make your points
Use 4 Essays: Chose two essays from ?Money Changes Everything? and two essays from ?Sustainability? to use in crafting your paper. These essays should relate to each other in some way that you can explain.
Selecting Points to Compare and Contrast: Please read the following quotes. They may give you a suggestion as to what your own view of about sustainability and money would be.
To reverse the effects of civilization would destroy the dreams of a lot of people. There’s no way around it. We can talk all we want about sustainability, but there’s a sense in which it doesn’t matter that these people’s dreams are based on, embedded in, intertwined with, and formed by an inherently destructive economic and social system. Their dreams are still their dreams. What right do I — or does anyone else — have to destroy them.
At the same time, what right do they have to destroy the world??
? Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization
We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I?m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.?
? Paul Newman
?People ‘over-produce’ pollution because they are not paying for the costs of dealing with it.?
? Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism
?Consume less; share better.?
? Herv? Kempf
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
– Aldo Leopold
When we realize we can make a buck cleaning up the environment, it will be done!
– Dennis Weaver
Using real life examples: In addition to comparing and contrasting the 4 essays that you selected, you may wish to include observations that you have made yourself. These real life examples can add to the depth of your paper and your understanding of the comparisons and contrasts between money and sustainability.
Starting the Paper: In the first paragraph, explain what you think is the relationship between money and sustainability. Do you think they are mutually exclusive (you can?t have both)? Do you think people with money are more likely to have time to care about sustainability? Do you agree or disagree with one of the quotes I presented in the assignment? Do you align your thinking with one or more of the essay you read in the texts? Make some sort of statement that compares and contrasts money and sustainability.
In subsequent paragraphs: Select an example from one of the stories and explain to your reader how it defines an aspect of money or sustainability, or even better, explains something about both topics. Continue to provide examples and use them to develop your analysis of the relationship between money and sustainability. Try to be original, but do not go beyond what is in the essays or your personal observations. Remember that you are analyzing and comparing and contrasting. You are not only describing what is written in the text about your assertion but also demonstrating how the text supports your assertions.
