For an enormous collection of sample essays you can use as a reference point for the This I Believe assignment, you can check out the NPR web site, which contains audio and text essays from the show in the 1950s and the past decade.
A few interesting ones include:
Instructions: Answer the questions below, each in a fully developed paragraph with specific examples that demonstrate knowledge of the text, notes, and discussion. You may use your wilderness packet, but not any notes. You must use at least 6 different readings in your responses.
1. How does John Muir’s view of the environment differ from that of Aldo Leopold?
2. Is the piece by William Cronon a critique of environmentalism or a call to improve it? Defend your answer.
3. Using at least three sources, make an argument for what should be done to the national parks.
4. Either defend or critique Rachel Carson’s call for the elimination of DDT.
5. Is bioregionalism a legitimate answer to the environmental problems the world is facing? Use at least two sources.
6. Does environmentalism rely too much of fear to change people’s attitudes. Reference Robert Bidinotto and at least one other source in your answer.
7. What, according to William Cronon, has created the current American belief system about the environment?
8. Explain Aldo Leopold’s idea of the Land Ethic.
9. How does Henry David Thoreau use his examination of nature to explain human behavior?
Back to elections. Elections in Iraq cannot be held to international standards. There typically are no big public rallies, for fear that they would be blown up by Sunni Arab guerrillas. Candidates can seldom campaign publicly for fear of assassination. For the election itself, the US military declares a curfew and prohibits vehicular traffic for three days. Everyone is reduced to walking to the store to buy bread and other necessities. You can’t drive. This measure prevents car bombings of the polling stations.
