An Few Steps for Reading and Writing about Resource Tensions and Wars

There's something different about this assignment: it's dense and not many know much about domestic tensions or international wars. That is, in comparison to the last one, most could talk about the media and the idea of lifestyle pretty well because it was already a part of their vocabulary. But little in this assignment is part of a person's everyday vocabulary, which begs the question, how does one write about something he or she knows little about?

The answer to this gets at a couple fundamental skills of reading and writing, and may seem boring at first, but these are the skills that allow you to quickly assess a person's stance and get a feel for his/her position—something you'll find useful as a writer/thinker when you hit your junior year and have an average of 500-600 pages of material a week to get through.

The first is, which vocabulary words do you need to understand? Given that you have two sources: the topic prompt and the assigned readings, and one of the films, it would be best to define terms as you read. With reading, I like to use preview and predict strategies with the readings by annotating the texts with questions and observations:

Previewing and Predicting with Course Readings

• Preview: read the title, the first, and last paragraph of each article
• Predict: annotate the text with questions and observations that come from reading and pre-reading the text
• Predict: continue with the above steps, but consider that the texts were chosen and grouped together....what sort of connections can you come up with?

Reading the Topic Prompt

To start, what do the following words mean from the topic prompt in the first and second question below:

Considering the following two questions, focus on one or a combination of both as you write your 3-4 page, single-spaced response: 1.) What role if any does an individual in the United States play in the resource tensions and wars that occur both domestically and internationally? 2.) Discussing key issues from the assigned texts/films, generate some recommendations for ways in which to reduce tension in the domestically or internationally.

As you are reading/watching a writer's/director's ideas, you should also collect information specifically about the assignment topic question(s). This is key. To do this, though, you must understand what is being asked of you and to identify which resources are available to answer that question. Probably 70% of college is directions and once you understand them, you can usually follow them

The second question to ask is, how can the writers help? Obviously, they have content that you can use; and most of you will quote or summarize to get at the information, which is a good approach and necessary first step. But few will do this: have the writer answer the question.

That is, few will replace personal voice and opinions with the writers. Consider the following example. If I were to ask the first question of Juliet Schor, the author of "Work and Spend," she would respond from a position that talks about the way that we, as consumers, contribute to resource consumption. That is, instead of using the word "individual," as I asked in question 1, she would replace that word with the word "consumer" because of her perspective on our social condition. In this way she would talk about the role of the consumer in these domestic/international wars for resources. In fact, her common theme through her response to the topic prompt would be wrapped in the connection to the consumer. In this way the writers can be useful.

As a strategy for this course and others, I would suggest that you read like this: read the title of the essay, the first 2 paragraphs of the introduction, and the last 2-3 paragraphs of the conclusion and then read the essay all the way through. Then, return to read the essay all the way through, annotating the text with questions and observations as you read.

If you can read and annotate your course materials like this, you'll be using good reading/thinking strategies and have useful notes to return to. Right there, that is a huge step toward preparing for a good essay.

Still want more reading and writing strategies? Please see the reading resources section of the website.