Into the Urban Wild: Nature Writing and the City
Freshman Honors Seminar
Spring 2015
Professor Tara K. Parmiter, Ph.D.
Expository Writing Program
411 Lafayette Street, Rm. 433
e-mail: tkp201@nyu.edu
Office Hours: TBA
Course Description: Essayist Loren Eiseley asserts that “even in New York City there
are patches of wilderness,” encouraging his readers to rethink the way they define and
limit their use of this loaded word. In this course we will examine both the idea and the
manifestation of these wildernesses, questioning the assumptions and the rhetoric we use
when talking about the existence, construction, representation, or manipulation of nature
in our urban environment. Immersing ourselves in classic and modern examples of
American nature writing, we will then venture into the city, using our texts as a lens for
reading such spaces as Central Park, the High Line, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, or the
American Natural History Museum. Students will compose both critical analyses of the
written texts and their own nature writing based on their experience of and research into
their own “patches” of New York wilderness.
Required texts:
 Robert Finch & John Elder, eds., The Norton Book of Nature Writing, College Ed.
(2002)
 Marie Winn, Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park
 Robin Shulman, Eat the City
Requirements for the course:
 Hand in 3 final essays: an analysis of one of our naturalist writers (3-4 pages); a
nature writing essay (5-6 pages); and a final paper that combines your personal
exploration of and your scholarly research into some element of the urban “wild” (1012 pages). Due dates appear on the syllabus below. Essays must be typed in 12 point,
Times New Roman font and double-spaced, with appropriate MLA documentation.
Late essays will receive a lowered grade for each day late—I consider arriving half
way through class on due dates as “late.”
 Present your research in our end of semester symposium
 Complete all assigned readings and respond in a typed weekly journal entry.
 Maintain a free-writing notebook, which will include in-class reflections, notes and
responses to homework reading, responses to your observations in the field, and
miscellaneous writing exercises. Please bring your notebook to every class.
 Study the weekly field guide checklists to hone your ability to see and name the flora
and fauna of NYC.
 Attend one conference with me to discuss your writing.
 Participate in the class discussion, sharing your words and your thoughts with the
rest of your writing community.
Urban Wild Syllabus 1
Calendar
Week One: Of Birds and Bobst
Reading: Jonathan Rosen, “Lemon Zest”; Loren Eiseley, “The Judgment of the Birds”
Week Two: On Seeing
Reading: Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature (141-144); Henry David Thoreau, Journal
Nov. 4, 1858, “Seeing” (214-216); Walt Whitman, “Birds—and a Caution: May 14,
1888” (229); Samuel Clemens, from Life on the Mississippi (237-238); John Burroughs,
“The Art of Seeing Things” (NYU Classes); Rachel Carson, “Help Your Child to
Wonder” (NYU Classes); Annie Dillard, “Living Like Weasels” (876-879)
Field Guide Checklist: Urban Birds
Week Three: Being Here
Reading: Thoreau, “Walking” (180-205), from The Maine Woods (205-211), and
“Journal Nov. 1, 1858: Here” (212-214); John Muir, “A Wind-Storm in the Forests”
(251-258); Aldo Leopold, “Thinking Like a Mountain” (381-382) and “The Land Ethic”
(382-397); Edwin Way Teale, “The Lost Woods” (436-439); Barry Lopez, “Story at
Anaktuvak Pass” (NYU Classes)
Field Guide Checklist: Winter Trees
Week Four: The Literary Wild
Reading: Literary scenes of nature in New York, available on NYU Classes: Herman
Melville, Walt Whitman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, Betty Smith, and more.
ID Challenge 1
** First short essay due Sunday 8:00pm: textual analysis 3-4 pages **
Week Five: The (Re-)Imagined Wild
Reading: Mabel Osgood Wright, “The Story of a Garden” (300-304); Jamaica Kincaid,
“Alien Soil” (1015-1022); Michael Pollan, “Weeds Are Us” (1079-1090); Robin
Shulman, “Vegetables” from Eat the City
Field Guide Checklist: Weeds
Week Six: The Urban Wild
Urban Wild Syllabus 2
Reading: Loren Eiseley “The Judgment of the Birds” (486-493); Edward Hoagland,
“Thoughts on Returning to the City…” (704-706); Maxine Hong Kingston, “A City
Person Encountering Nature” (787-790); Emily Hiestand, “Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah” (960966); Barbara Kingsolver, “High Tide in Tucson” (1068-1078); Robert Sullivan, “I Sing
the Meadowlands!” (NYU Classes); Stephanie Farquar, “Memoirs of the City’s
Infamous” (NYU Classes)
Field Guide Checklist: Winter and Early Spring Birds
Week Seven: Living as Deliberately as Nature
Reading: Thoreau, from Walden (NYU Classes); Wendell Berry, “An Entrance to the
Woods” (718-728); Joseph Bruchac, “The Circle Is the Way to See” (811-818); Bill
McKibben, “The End of Nature” (1120-1130); David Owen, “Green Manhattan” (NYU
Classes); Richard Louv, from The Nature Principle (NYU Classes)
ID Challenge 2
SPRING BREAK—Go enjoy the changing season!
Week Eight: Troubles with Wilderness
Reading: William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness” (NYU Classes); Evelyn
White, “Black Women and the Wilderness”; Terry Tempest Williams, “Clan of the OneBreasted Women”
View: The City Dark
Field Guide Checklist: Moon Phases
** Second short essay due Sunday 8:00pm: 5-6 pages **
Week Nine: Researching the City
Reading: Colin Fisher, “Nature in the City: Urban Environmental History and Central
Park” (NYU Classes); Robin Shulman, “Honey” from Eat the City
Field Guide Checklist: Garden Flowers of the Spring
Week Ten: Migrations
Reading: Marie Winn, Red-Tails in Love: “Prologue: Falling in Love” and “Act I: The
Odd Couple” (5-68)
Urban Wild Syllabus 3
View: Birders: The Central Park Experience
ID Challenge 3
Week Eleven: Migrations
Reading: Marie Winn, Red-Tails in Love: “Act II: Moving to Fifth” and “Intermission”
(69-161)
Field Guide Checklist: Migrating Spring Birds 1
Week Twelve: Migrations
Reading: Marie Winn, Red-Tails in Love: “Act III: Hawk Mania,” “Act IV: The Queen is
Dead,” “Curtain Call,” and “Afterword” (163-272)
Field Guide Checklist: Migrating Spring Birds 2
Week Thirteen: Presentations
Reading: presentation abstracts, posted on NYU Classes
Week Fourteen: Presentations: Last Day!
Reading: presentation abstracts, posted on NYU Classes
ID Challenge 4
** Research essay (10-12 pages) and portfolio due on Wednesday, May XX**
Administrative Notes
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. This class is highly collaborative and depends
upon your in-class participation. Excused absences (religious observances or a medical or
family emergency) are of course permitted if the need arises. Please notify me by e-mail
if you will be unable to attend class for any reason; if absent for sickness, please provide
me with the appropriate documentation from the University Health Center. I will contact
your advisor if you have two unexcused absences or excessive tardiness; further
unexcused absences will negatively affect your course grade.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offence that may lead to failure of the course. We will
take time in class to discuss what constitutes plagiarism and how you can avoid it in your
essays; I’ve also posted NYU’s Statement of Academic Integrity on our Classes site for
your reference.
Urban Wild Syllabus 4
Readings: The syllabus lists the readings I expect you to complete for each class
meeting: these readings will help us both focus our discussions in class and provide
inspiration and models for your own nature writing. Be active readers, always with a pen
or pencil in your hand, marking passages that strike you as significant, exciting, or
troubling, and responding with your own observations and questions in the margins.
Please always bring hard copies of the week’s readings to class: if I ask you to read
something on NYU Classes, print it out to have with you for our class discussion.
A note on the readings: Many of our readings pay close attention to the details of the
natural world, and as a result, the writers regularly name plants, animals, birds, and
insects that they observe in their wanderings. Part of our goal in this class is to familiarize
ourselves with what we can expect to see in New York’s urban wild, so as you read,
please do not jump over these references: have your computer open and search for
definitions, images, and sounds to help you see more clearly what your writers are
describing.
Field Trips: We will often wander outside the classroom to seek the urban wild in our
NYU neighborhood, and many of your homework assignments will ask you to go out
exploring. When you venture outside, please follow some basic rules to protect
yourselves and these spaces: 1) For your safety and my peace of mind, please travel with
a companion—I find it telling how many stories of peril in the wilderness begin with the
line “I was hiking alone…” 2) While I encourage you to wander, please be aware of your
surroundings. For example, if you’re entering one of the larger parks, bring a map to
orient yourself—it’s surprisingly easy to lose your way in Central Park’s Ramble! And
let common sense be your guide—if it’s getting dark and you’re uneasy about being
somewhere, go home. 3) In the wilderness, hikers are encouraged to follow the “Leave
No Trace” principles, which ask us to “take only photographs, leave only footprints.”
Let’s follow this ethic in our urban wildernesses as well: I’ve posted a link about these
guidelines on our NYU Classes page.
We will also have weekend field trips across the semester to the American Natural
History Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Central Park. I ask that you all
attend at least one of these group outings. Details about these field trips will follow.
The Writing Center: Any students who wish to discuss their writing outside of class are
encouraged to visit the Writing Center at 411 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor. Whether you’re
excited about writing and want to talk with someone equally enthusiastic or are frustrated
and seeking additional support, the Writing Center provides a space for you to talk freely
about your work. Writing Center consultants do not proofread or “correct,” however;
instead, they aim to help you help yourself become more aware of your writing. For
appointments, log on to the web site at https://nyu.mywconline.com/, read the Writing
Center pledge, and claim an available opening; note that as the semester progresses, it
will become harder and harder to book a Writing Center appointment, so try to plan two
weeks in advance.
Grading
Urban Wild Syllabus 5
Journal entries: The journals should be places for you to explore, experiment, and try
out new thoughts and writing styles. I will not give your journal entries letter grades,
therefore, but will mark them with a check-minus, check, or check-plus depending on
how thoroughly and thoughtfully you engage with the prompt.
Identification challenges: We will have 4 quizzes to see how well you can identify the
plants and animals we study in our field guide checklists: dates are marked on the
syllabus. Quizzes will be scored on a scale of 1-10.
Essays: For each essay you write, I will be looking to see whether you have satisfied the
specific requirements for that assignment; developed an idea in an interesting way;
written in a tone appropriate for the essay’s intended audience; experimented with vivid
language and varied sentence structures; proofread to avoid grammatical errors and
typos; and included properly formatted MLA-style citations.
 A papers give the reader a positive impression of excellence in all listed
standards.
 B papers give the reader a positive impression of general superiority in all listed
standards.
 C papers are average in each standard.
 D and F papers are seriously deficient in one or more of the listed standards.
Final Grade Breakdown
Essay 1
Essay 2
Research Essay
Presentation:
Homework
Identification challenges:
Participation:
10%
15%
25%
10%
20%
10%
10%
There is no final exam.
Urban Wild Syllabus 6