Comments on Cronon’s “The Trouble With Wilderness” Assignment

 

Stylistic issues:

·      In accordance with the format of a précis, you should not refer to the author by name. No one was held accountable for this, but it should be noted for future endeavors if you are required to write another précis.

• It is equally important to preserve the flow, order, and logic of the author’s essay. Some individuals began their précis with talk of the sublime or “frontier primitivism” when Cronon begins with a page or two about why wilderness is in need of critical reexamination. Preserving the flow of the original will assist the flow of your own essay: by stating Cronon’s intent right off the bat, the reader has a better understanding for why you are taking the time to characterize all the different images that wilderness has accumulated over the ages.

 

Mechanical: Punctuation, Spelling, and Extraneous

·      If you are going to refer to the author by name, make sure you spell the name correctly. In this case, the author’s name is Cronon, not Cronin, Cronen, Cronan, or Cornan.

·      If you are going to quote someone, make sure that you are quoting the right person for the quote: i.e. Thoreau said, “In wildness is the preservation of the world,” not Emerson or Rousseau. Alone the same lines, make sure the quote is accurate: i.e. Thoreau used the word “wildness”, not “wilderness”

·      There has been some confusion between “its and it’s”, “their and there”, and “effect and affect”. The first two cases are likely due to carelessness. To avoid using the wrong one, take a moment to reread your sentence to determine which is needed. However, we should review the use of “effect” as opposed to “affect”. Effect means a result or consequence, i.e. the effect of the famine was worldwide starvation. Affect means to produce a change in, i.e. Snow affected cars’ ability to maneuver on the slippery roads.

 

Plagiarism and Documentation: MAJOR problems:

·      Plagiarism (i.e. copying one or more phrases/sentences from the text) was widespread in this assignment. At this point, we would like to remind you that this course, like all others, falls under the jurisdiction of the Cornell Code of Academic Integrity. That means that any plagiarism, regardless of intent, will take on severe penalties. For this assignment, we assumed it was unintentional and flagged the offending passages. However, you need take note and keep alert so that you do not resort to plagiarizing in the future. You don’t want to face the consequences of failure in this course or in any other.

·      Many of those who did put quote marks around a copied phrase did not put the page number. Always, always, always include the page number so that a reader can find the excerpt in the original text.

 

Overall, good first attempt. Next you will have to master the art of critical analysis. That entails a) summarizing the author’s point and then b) critically interpreting it.