Mountains Letter Assignment 2024b

[a] Text and illustration RF

Mountains

History 150

Spring 2024

Writing Assignment 

Theory: The Letter

By choosing the letter format for your first full writing assignment, I am asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in analyzing (and providing examples for) the mountains in our midst. You have already reached a point where you have some experience with thinking about these uphill rises (literally and figuratively), and you already know more than most people in your understanding. Now, you need to articulate that knowledge.

[b] Reaching, teaching RF

Teach it, really.

Letters from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of mountain materials are a good way to refine your thoughts about the wide-ranging and interdisciplinary study of mountains, and they are a useful medium for beginning the intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through the next two-thirds of the course. The letter writing exercise is especially useful while beginning to integrate these multiple disciplines. 

The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but rather a reworking, rethinking, and re-contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about “doing theory”).  

It needs to be a real person, and the letter will really be sent (arranged and paid for by the Beloit College history department). Let me repeat: it is a real letter to a real person. Do not treat this as an "exercise." In fact, the one way to "blow it" is to write a fake letter. One excellent student who did not believe me, actually wrote a "To whom it may concern" letter.

Don't. Do. That. I mean it.

Now that you are going to write a real letter, you owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with JohnMcPhee (you might have heard of him). Take the time to do it. You'll learn a great deal about writing (and remember, this is a writing course, with "W" credit on your transcript). At the very least, though, listen to the first few minutes. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.

John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)

Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.

1. The letter should be and absolute minimum of 2,000 words (about six pages). That might get you a B (maybe). You really will need between 2,000 and 3,000 words (six-to-ten pages) to do it justice. I am looking for high-quality writing, and simply dashing off a few pages will likely result in a C (or worse). A good job will require a good deal of careful work. 

[c] I said, "start writing" RF

2. Just in case you are used to writing three or four pages—spilling words onto the page and turning it in—pay very close attention to my writing guide and our class discussions about writing. I expect this to be a well-written essay in letter form (we'll discuss the letter genre in class). Again, follow my writing guide. It will give you the tools to write drafts and to do this write (er, right).

3. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain "mountains" in a level of detail that s/he/they will find satisfying. Even now, you are the expert, and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my role as reading over your reader's shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they are writing about.

Your reader probably doesn't, and I want you to explain it.

Make it make sense to your reader.

4. You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order you choose.

          a. You must discuss ways that people, historically, have thought about mountains

               (this. is a course in "historical thinking" and ethnography, after all. Provide your

               reader with at least a few ways of thinking about it. Discuss human dimensions

              of mountains

          b. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about 

              how to think about geological and environmental dimensions of mountains. 

              We will dive even more deeply into these matters in the latter parts of the 

              course, but you already have good material.

          c. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to learn about mountains

              through the lenses of history, ethnography, geology, environmental studies,

              and more.

          d. You must have at least one illustration. Trust me. I know what I'm doing. It can be anything (and you won't be publishing this, so permissions won't be required, although you should cite anything that is not your own drawing with a footnote or endnote).

[d] Evocation RF

5. The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is a friendly suggestion). First, create a structure (we'll discuss this in class), and jot down some notes for each of the “sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a rough draft of the whole letter. Third, redraft, ,revise, polish, and refine (read my writing guide)

Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him almost 190 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Tocqueville's Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States. 

You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.

***  ***

Letters are Due (.pdf file to lafleur@beloit.edu)

by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 29

Add the word count to all papers!

[e] And then you may rest RF