Suggested Writing Assignments
to accompany participation in Earth Day Conference
Note to instructors: On the following pages you will find a few assignment sequences that we
encourage you take, tweak, or borrow from in your English courses. Although these sequences
have been written with English 101 and English 102 in mind, they could easily be adjusted for
use in upper-level English courses, or in courses outside the discipline of English. All assignment
sequences in some way relate to the themes that will be covered at the Second Annual Earth Day
Conference, which brings scholars from a variety of disciplines together to discuss themes
relating to Environmentalism, Sustainability, and our relationships to places and the planet.
Some of the assignments are more fleshed out than others. Nevertheless, the framework for five
potential sequences is outlined below. Even if you can’t incorporate a whole sequence, we
encourage you to take some time out in each of your classes to discuss these important themes
with your students, maybe using these prompts for in-class writing, discussion, or extra credit.
The first sequence is Brian Hendrickson’s; the second two were contributed by Paul Formisano,
and the last two (much less fleshed out) are by Erin Penner Gallegos.
Some other ideas you might consider, not included below:
- Rhetorical analysis of a product ad or label for a product that’s considered “green”
- Group or individual assignment investigating, “where do our resources come from?” on
either water, electricity, or natural gas
- “A day in the life” narrative assignment of an animal, plant, or product
- Group or individual assignment investigating, “where does our solid waste go?” that
focuses on recycling and landfills in and around Albuquerque
- Profile of a local environmental activist, city worker, or employee at the University
whose job deals with waste management, sustainability, or resource conservation (could
be for the Daily Lobo or another local paper)
Additional Web Resources:
http://www.cabq.gov/solidwaste/recycling
http://www.cabq.gov/water/
http://www.benefits-of-recycling.com/whatmaterialscanberecycled.html
http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm
http://recyclenewmexico.com/
http://nm.water.usgs.gov/
http://wrri.nmsu.edu/
http://www.ose.state.nm.us/
http://www.nmwwa.org/
http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/
SEQUENCE: PROPOSAL FOR CONSTRUCTED SPACE (102)
This assignment is inspired by the 2011 Writing Across Communities Earth Day Conference on
Friday, April 22, “Constructing Space(s): Making Our Home(s) in the 21st Century.” The
conference “focuses on ‘constructing space’ as both a theoretical and practical concern, inviting
discussion about how physical, rhetorical, and spiritual constructions of space can best be
undertaken sustainably, ethically, and in concert with one another.”1
Sequence Rhetorical Situation
You and your team are a student organization here at UNM. Your organization has its own
unique ideas about how best to promote the health and wellbeing of students, the community and
the environment. You would like to propose that UNM create a physical space on or near the
UNM campus that would promote student, community and environmental health and wellbeing,
as they relate to your student organization’s mission.
Low Stakes Writing Assignment One: Mission Statement Pitch Memo
Rhetorical Situation
You and your student organization will need to compose a mission statement that reflects your
organization’s core values regarding student, community and environmental health and
wellbeing. You will also need to compose a memo pitching your mission statement to your
faculty advisor.
Guidelines
 State the Purpose of Your Memo
 Present Your Mission Statement: Your mission statement will serve as a framework for how
and why your organization operates, and should include the following elements:
o Exigence: Why your student organization is necessary.
o Angle: Your organization’s unique approach to promoting student, community and
environmental health and wellbeing.
o Purpose: What your organization hopes to achieve.
o You may write your mission statement in paragraph form, or you may use bulleted lists
where appropriate. Regardless, the object here is concision.
 Justify Your Mission Statement:
o Why did you choose the specific language you did?
o How do your choices best reflect the values of the individual members of your student
organization?
o How does your mission statement as you wrote it promote the continued solidarity,
sustainability, and productivity of your organization?
 Conclude Your Pitch:
o Summarize your most essential points.
o Request feedback in the form of questions, concerns or advice.
o Thank your faculty advisor for his/her time and assistance.
1
Excerpted from the 2011 Writing Across Communites Earth Day Conference Call for Papers.
Low Stakes Writing Assignment Two: Brief on Need for Constructed Space
Rhetorical Situation
At your last meeting, your organization discussed the need at UNM for a physical space that
promotes student, community and environmental health and wellbeing, as they relate to your
mission. You submit the meeting minutes to your faculty advisor, who asks you to compose and
present a brief analyzing the need at UNM for such a space.
Guidelines
 Introduce Your Topic and State Your Purpose: A brief is a short report that informs a
relevant audience about an important issue, in your case on whether or not there is a need for
a physical space on or near the UNM campus that promotes student, community and
environmental health and wellbeing, as they relate to your organization’s mission.
 Present the Data: Before presenting the data as objectively as possible, you’ll first need to
collect it. Your research should examine factors that indicate, contribute to and perpetuate a
potential need. Valid research methods include the following:
o Field Research:
 Observations: Scout out the campus and describe what you see as evidence a potential
need.
 Surveys: Compose and conduct a survey of students and community members
concerning their observations of a potential need.
 Interviews: Interview relevant experts; local and state government officials; faculty,
staff and administrators; and members of student organizations and student
government.
o Scholarly Research: Articles examining factors that indicate, contribute to and perpetuate
a potential need.
 Include Graphics: Present the data you collect through field and scholarly research as a
graph, chart, or table. Include a photograph of a space on or around campus that might
benefit from transformation.
 Interpret Data: What does the data you’ve collected suggest about a potential need and
correlations between the health and wellbeing of students, the community and the
environment?
 Forecast the Impacts: If there is a need and correlation, and the need remains unaddressed,
what are the potential future impacts on students, the community and the environment?
 Present the Brief:
o Submit the brief in memo format to your faculty advisor.
o Organize the content with headings.
o Prepare and deliver a corresponding five-minute presentation.
Major Writing Assignment: Proposal for Constructed Space
Rhetorical Situation
Your faculty advisor was impressed by your brief and recommends that you submit a proposal to
UNM’s Board of Regents for constructing a physical space on or near the UNM campus that
promotes student, community and environmental health and wellbeing, as they relate to your
organization’s mission.
Guidelines
 Introduce Your Topic and State Your Purpose: Your proposal should explain the need for
your proposed space and persuade the Board of Regents to construct it.
 Analyze the Need: Present the research and analysis you conducted in composing your brief
as evidence of a need for your proposed space—the major factors that indicate, contribute to
and perpetuate that need. Include as well any graphics you used in your brief.
 Propose a Plan:
o Funding: Research potential sources of funding (local, state, national) in terms of
partnerships, grants, cost savings and the profitability of the space.
o Construction: Include a description and basic schematic for the proposed space.
o Administration: Detail the operational requirements of the proposed space.
 Analyze Costs and Benefits:
o Support as much as possible your predictions of costs and benefits of the proposed
constructed space with field and scholarly research.
o Present the research and analysis you conducted in composing your brief as evidence of
the potential costs of failing to proceed with the proposed construction.
o Research similar projects and draw comparisons for evidence.
 Conclude Your Proposal:
o Summarize your most essential points.
o Request feedback in the form of questions, concerns or advice.
o Thank the Board of Regents for their time and assistance.
Present Your Proposal: Your proposal should include the following formal features:
o Cover Page
 Include a catchy title and explanatory subtitle.
 List the author as your student organization.
 State who you are presenting the proposal to.
 Include a date.
o Headings & Subheadings
o Graphics: Include all relevant graphics and photographs from your brief, and add more as
needed.
o Pagination
o References: Footnotes or endnotes.
Major Writing Assignment: Report on Local Environmental Perceptions
This assignment can easily be adapted for 101 or 102 by changing the research expectations. Its
purpose is to help students recognize that environmental issues are rarely black and white and
that solving such issues has very much to do with the way that people perceive the problem.
Likewise, it asks students to consider their own perceptions and biases in light of those from
their community.
Rhetorical Situation
You have been hired by a local/state agency to write a report about how New Mexicans perceive
a local environmental issue over which the agency has jurisdiction. To accomplish this task you
will need to consider a variety of methods to gather this information including conducting
interviews and surveys and consulting online and other secondary source material. You will need
to choose a topic of interest like increased wilderness conservation and then identify the
appropriate agency which would be able to put your report to use. In the case of wilderness
conservation you would perhaps target the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service.
Remember that this report is question-driven: rather than going into the report already knowing
the answer to your question, you should explore something about which you’re curious but don’t
yet have all the facts. That is, you should have a hypothesis that you will pursue and then discuss
the validity of that hypothesis based on the research you’ve gathered.
To complete this assignment you will need to follow these steps:
1. Think about topics with which you’re already familiar. Some options include:
 Renewable Resources
 Albuquerque’s recycling program
 Agricultural water use
 Uranium, oil, gas mining
 Mexican Grey Wolf management/protection
2. Develop Hypothesis
Example: The greatest obstacle to protecting more wilderness in New Mexico is the offroad vehicle users who want to keep public lands open for their particular recreational
use.
3. Identify audience
 Research which agency/organization deals with your topic.
 Find out what the needs are of this organization.
4. Begin Research
 Select people to interview and survey.
 Identify sources that provide helpful background information.
5. Begin Drafting Report
Your report should incorporate the following:
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Title Page: include an interesting title, your name, the recipient of your report (e.g. NM
Bureau of Land Management), and the date
Abstract: this is a brief summary (one paragraph) of the key points of your summary;
write this after the report is completed
Introduction: This should introduce your subject (you should include some background
information about the topic) and your purpose for writing i.e. what is the question you are
trying to answer? Your purpose should lead into your thesis, which would be your initial
hypothesis about what you expect to find.
Methods/Research Plan: This section should summarize how you gathered data—what
research techniques did you carry out and how did you execute them?
Results/Findings: Here you provide a summary of what your research revealed.
Discussion of Results: What has your research revealed about your initial question? Was
your initial hypothesis correct? What does this suggest about your topic?
Conclusion/Recommendations: This should be a brief summary of your research project
underscoring your initial claims and the results of your findings.
References: Here you will list your research in APA format
This assignment draws on chapter 13 (Reports) of Writing Today. Other useful chapters could
include those in Part 5, especially chapters 24-26, 28 which address beginning research, finding
and integrating sources, and using APA style.
Possible Small Writing Assignments
 Annotated Bibliography: have students compile primary and secondary sources with
appropriate citations and brief summaries of findings (for 102 minimum of 8 sources; 5
scholarly).
 Audience Analysis: students will consider the needs of their chosen audience and what
information that group needs in terms of background information (500 words).
 Research Proposal: students will propose their topic, hypothesis, possible research
methods/sources, and audience. They can write about their current knowledge of the
subject and consider what information they will need to gather (500 words).
Major Writing Assignment: Profile on Place
This assignment provides students with a more hands on approach to understanding our local
environment as it asks students to research and write about local natural places. Students will be
expected to visit these places in person to do observations, take pictures, and get a better sense
of their surroundings. This assignment is best geared to 102 students as they will be expected to
research their location beyond the observations that they will do onsite. You can easily turn this
assignment into a group project where students have to each choose a separate location that
they combine with others under a unified theme e.g. family fun, recreation, etc. To adapt this to
101you may consider changing the format to a brochure where students would rely more heavily
on their own observations to profile the place in question.
Rhetorical Situation
As an employee of X publication (New Mexico Magazine is a good option) your editor has asked
you to work on a special issue about outdoor getaways in the Albuquerque area to be published
next fall. Your profile should be between 1000-1500 words and have a unifying theme/angle that
all of the profiles emphasize (recreation, wildlife watching, etc). To successfully complete this
task you should:
 Choose a site. Examples include the Bosque Trail, Petroglyph National Monument,
Sandia Crest, Foothill hiking trails, Urban parks/gardens (Rio Grande Nature Center;
Botanical Gardens).
 Include information regarding plants, animals, geology, and human activities appropriate
to your overall theme/angle.
o Personal observations, and online and library research (looking at field guides,
geology books, etc) will be essential.
 Incorporate appropriate images that enhance the dominant angle that you’re trying to
convey (remember to cite these even if they’re personal photos!).
 Include consistent design, formatting, and tone appropriate to the publication.
 Properly cite all outside material, photos (personal or otherwise) included, at the end of
the document.
Chapters 5 (Profile) and 17 (Designing) of Writing Today address genre and composing and
presenting documents. Supplemental readings/examples from publications like Backpacker,
National Geographic, New Mexico Magazine, Outside, and Sunset provide useful examples of
place profiles. If you plan on having students work in groups for this assignment consult chapter
23 (Working Collaboratively with Other Writers) for ideas on how students can divide up the
work load and find success in producing a group project.
Small Writing Assignment
 Visual analysis: have students consider the visual rhetoric of the publication in which
they plan to “submit” their profile. Students will want to pay special attention to design
elements as they consider how to design their own document (500 words). Chapter 9
(Rhetorical analysis) is useful here.
 Informal Journaling/Field Notes: students will write up their observation notes and
include a reflection on why this place is significant to the local community (500 words).
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Pages 412-415 from chapter 21 (Using Basic Rhetorical Patterns) can help students
consider elements of narrative and description.
Progress Summary: this is especially useful if you have students working in a group
setting. Each group member will report on the progress they’ve made, what still needs to
be done, and what challenges they’re facing. Have the group compose one document
together (250-500 words).
Sequence: Life Cycles (102)
Rhetorical Situation: You’ve been hired by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
create educational materials for middle and high school students. The goal is to vividly illustrate
for these students what happens to common consumer products if they go into a landfill versus
being recycled. You will need to conduct research to determine how a product is made, whether
it is recyclable or compostable, or how to properly dispose of it. Finally, you’ll need to present
your findings in an engaging way for a young audience. Your project will be included in a
collection called “Life Cycles” that the EPA intends to provide as part of its educational
resources.
Short Writing Assignment 1 – Choose and describe your product
Before you can begin the life cycle project, you’ll have to choose a common consumer product
on which to write.
In a short (350-500 word) proposal memo to the EPA “Life Cycles” Project Manager, propose
your product. Describe the product, what it’s used for, who it’s made by, what it’s made of, etc.
Explain why you think this product would be interesting to the EPA’s intended audience of
middle and high school students, and why you think it would make a good addition to the “Life
Cycles” Project. Before you write your memo, you should take a look at the “Educational
Resources” page of the EPA website to get an idea of how they present themselves to their
multiple audiences: students, teachers, and parents (http://www.epa.gov/epahome/students.htm).
Your memo heading should emulate the following:
MEMORANDUM
To: EPA “Life Cycles” Project Manager
From: Your Name, Intern
Date:
Subject: Life Cycle Subject Proposal
In your memo, you should tell the EPA Project Manager why you are writing, and then address
the questions in the prompt above.
Your memo will be graded for the content, tone, and style in which it is written. Remember that
you are trying to convince a professional (your boss) not only to use your idea, but also of your
own ethos and capability as an author, professional, and employee. Your memo should reflect
these goals.
Short Writing Assignment 2 – Progress Report Memo and Annotated Bibliography
Now that you have been researching your product, you need to send the EPA “Life Cycles”
Project Manager a progress report detailing your research. You should put this progress report
into the form of a memo (as in the first short writing assignment).
In the progress memo, you should do the following things:
1. State the purpose of your memo. Briefly summarize the information that you have gathered to
date:
 What material(s) is the product made of?
 Where is the product produced?
 Where is the product sold?
 Which of the material(s) in the product are recyclable?
 What other materials could this product be turned into after it is recycled?
 If the product can’t be recycled, can it be reused?
In closing you should thank your reader, alert her to the attached list of sources, invite her to
contact you with further questions, and provide your contact information.
2. In addition to your brief overview of the research, attach to your memo an annotated list of at
least seven sources from which you’ve derived your information. These sources should each be
cited in MLA format, and should reflect a range of scholarly, government, and media sources.
Short Writing Assignment 3: outline of the narrative
Now that you have gathered sufficient information about the “life stages” of your product, your
job is to write a narrative about the life of that product for the EPA “Life Cycles” project.
For this assignment, create a bulleted outline of the following stages of your product’s life:
 the birth (how and where it’s made),
 life (where it’s shipped, purchased, and used),
 death (when it’s tossed away), and
 rebirth (recycling process)
For each stage, indicate which source you will use to support your narrative.
Major Writing Assignment – Life Cycle Project
Now, for the EPA “Life Cycles” Project, you should put it all together into an engaging, but
informative, read for your student audience.
Your final product should be a story of 1000-1500 words that dramatizes the existence of your
product. You should follow a single instance of the product as it is created, comes off the
assembly line, is shipped to a store, is purchased, used, and then discarded and recycled.
You should incorporate at least one source per life cycle stage into your narrative and provide a
works cited list in MLA format.
Formatting guidelines:
 1000-1500 words
 Single spaced, 12 point font
 Enticing title
 Includes at least one graphic representation of the product
 MLA works cited list with at least five sources
Your “Life Cycle” will be graded on the following elements:
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Does it dramatize the life of an individual product, narrating as though this is a life story?
Does it appropriately and effectively incorporate at least five sources to support the
stages of the product’s life?
Are the language and information audience appropriate for middle and high school aged
students?
Does it have an interesting title?
Does it follow all formatting guidelines listed above?
Is the document “publication ready” with no spelling, grammar or other surface errors?
Sequence: Public Service Announcement (101)
Note: I have not fleshed out the parameters for the major writing assignment (the actual PSA),
because I imagine that the students will create their own parameters based on their Genre
Analysis of the PSA (the first Short Writing Assignment). Creating the rubric and assignment
guidelines for the PSA could be done in-class, or as another short writing assignment.
Rhetorical Situation: The City of Albuquerque, which has been running its “Toss No Mas”
commercials for several years, is interested in starting a new public service campaign that
encourages citizens to live more responsibly and sustainably. The Mayor has approached UNM
and is asking students to propose and create Public Service Announcements that will be aired
around the city and posted on the cabq.gov website, encouraging people to be more
conscientious in the following areas:
 Water Conservation
 Recycling
 Re-use
 Electricity Reduction
 Natural Gas Use Reduction
 Public Transportation
Short Writing Assignment 1: Genre Analysis
(could also be done as a homework assignment, not in the memo genre)
Before you can start writing your public service announcement, you have to determine what the
features of a good PSA are. Start by finding public service announcements on the web (you can
use YouTube or other video services to find them). Find at least three public service
announcements on different issues.
Conduct your genre analysis of PSAs as a memo to the Sustainability PSA Project manager at
the City of Albuquerque Mayor’s office. Write a brief summary of each public service
announcement. Then, in two to three paragraphs, analyze what the three PSAs have in
common—what are the features that make them a part of the PSA genre? Explain which of these
features you think are most effective, and which are ineffective at capturing an audience’s
attention. Describe the features—in terms of length, tone, information included, etc.— that you
believe your PSA must have in order to be effective for an audience of Albuquerque viewers.
Your memo heading should emulate the following:
MEMORANDUM
To: Sustainability PSA Project Manager
From: Your Name, Intern
Date:
Subject: PSA Genre Analysis
In your memo, you should tell the Sustainability PSA Project Manager why you are writing, and
then address the questions in the prompt above. In closing you should thank your reader, invite
her to contact you with further questions, and then provide your contact information.
Short Writing Assignment 2: Choosing a topic and gathering information
(if SWA 1 is done as a homework assignment, SWA 2 could be split into two SWAs: Choosing a
Topic and Progress Report with info gathered)
Now that you know what you’ll be writing about, you should propose a topic to the
Sustainability PSA Project Manager. Choose from one of the broad categories listed below:
 Water Conservation
 Recycling
 Re-use
 Electricity Reduction
 Natural Gas Use Reduction
 Public Transportation
Each of these categories is very broad, and you could approach them from many angles. For
example, if you chose water conservation, you might want to create a PSA that encourages
people to spend less time in the shower, turn off the water while brushing their teeth, etc. Or, you
could draw on Albuquerque’s existing “Water by the Numbers” campaign, and create a PSA that
encourages people to water their yards less often or in less wasteful ways.
In a memo to the Sustainability PSA Project Manager, choose one of the broad categories, and
then describe the angle from which you will approach the category. Remember, you aren’t just
telling her what you want to do, you’re trying to sell her on the need for this particular PSA as
well as for the concept that you’ve created.
In order to build your own credibility, you should do some preliminary research on your topic.
 What services does Albuquerque offer to assist citizens in acting more sustainably in
your area of interest?
 What are the major reasons for citizens to change their behavior in this area?
You can list your answers to these questions in bulleted form, with an MLA citation for the
resource from which you gathered each point.
Outline the rhetorical situation as you understand it for the Sustainability PSA Project Manager:
 Who is your audience?
 What is your message?
 What action do you want your audience to take?
 Why will the public care about the issue?
Finally, explain how you plan to use the information you’ve gathered to convince citizens to
make changes in their behavior, and which information you think should be included in the PSA
in order to make it easier for citizens to make these changes.
Major Writing Assignment: Public Service Announcement Script:
The Sustainability PSA Project Manager loves your idea, and thinks you’re on the right track.
Now, you just have to develop the idea into a script for the commercial that will air on local TV
stations. …