47 Additional Activities: The Quest for a Sustainable World
47 Additional Activities: The Quest for a Sustainable World
Learning Outcomes
- Connect ideas from different texts with each other.
- Compare and contrast different methods of presenting information, such as narration, infographics, and comics.
- Analyze the use of cause and effect in an academic article.
- Analyze the use of anecdotes (brief stories) in an academic article.
- Evaluate the sources used in an academic article.
This chapter contains additional reading and writing activities related to the articles in Themed Readings: The Quest for a Sustainable World.
Making Connections
Both Amber Martin-Woodhead (I Spoke to ‘Minimalists’ to Find out Why They Are Giving up Their Personal Possessions) and Simon Okelo (Growing Up in a Kenyan Slum Taught Me the Real Value of Stuff) address concerns with consumer culture. Martin-Woodhead describes minimalism, the choice to limit one’s possessions to the bare necessities, whereas Okelo describes how he is cautious about not purchasing more than he needs.
Reread the two articles. Respond to the following questions.
- Imagine a conversation between these two writers. What do you think they would say to each other? Explain your thinking.
- What are the reasons the minimalists give for their choices, as reported by Amber-Woodhead? Why has Okelo changed his habits as a consumer? How are their reasons for their choices similar and different?
- Do you think self-proclaimed minimalists would label Okelo as a minimalist? Why or why not?
Rhetorical Analysis
Comparing and Contrasting Methods
Comparison/contrast is a common method of thinking, organizing, and writing across the curriculum. In a math course, for example, you may be asked to compare and contrast two approaches to solving a math problem. In a history course, you may be asked to compare and contrast two historical events or two leaders. In English courses, it is common to compare and contrast ideas, writers, and texts.
The following three texts communicate a similar message about what it means to “have enough,” yet they use different methods:
- In Growing Up in a Kenyan Slum Taught Me the Real Value of Stuff, Simon Okelo uses a narrative essay.
- In Energy, Housing, Food, Water: What’s a Fair Share?, Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz presents data using an infographic.
- In Enough Is Enough, Sarah Lazarovic uses a comic.
Which text and method do you think is most effective? Why?
Analyzing Cause and Effect
When writers want to analyze why something happened or the outcome of some occurrence, they are using cause and effect. When examining causes, they focus on the reasons behind some outcome or result, answering the question, “Why did this happen?” When writers address the effects, they present the consequences or results of some cause. A writer may choose to examine only causes, only effects, or both causes and effects in a text.
In the article Cohousing Is Empowering People to Fight Back against a Global Housing Crisis, Johannes Novy examines the reasons peopl