U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

Volume VIII, Number 3.

Real-world applications drive writing for environmental studies students

Photo by Joe Kapelewski, CIDDE

Mark Collins

My goal is to make sure that students are doing meaningful writing—writing that’s tied directly to the course goals— and that they are getting the right feedback,” comments Mark Collins regarding his Communication for Environmental Professionals course. Collins’ main goal is to have students question assumptions. He believes that “They are not in a world where they can accept things on blind faith. If college is supposed to do anything, it is to enable students to question assumptions.”

Since Collins’ students are junior and senior environmental studies majors within geology, they have accumulated extensive content area knowledge, which is obviously a necessity for the course assignments. But Collins is quick to point out the value of the writing skills they have acquired through general writing (GW) courses: “Before you can engage in a discipline, you must have a basis for formulating intelligent, cogent arguments. In GW courses students must consider specific topics in depth, and in doing so they develop skills that they continue to use. Across the curriculum there are traditional writing considerations: a logical plan, audience awareness, adequate preparation, substantial validation and careful revision. Most important, for students to appreciate these processes, a writing course must be based upon regular revision and feedback.”

Practical Applications
Collins is acutely aware of his students’ major course of study: “The Environmental Studies program is many things, but it’s not a spectator sport. These students really believe they can make a difference. Therefore, they appreciate assignments that have practical applications. Furthermore, since they will end up in a variety of professions—everything from environmental firms to government agencies to advocacy groups to professional fields such as law—they will be communicating information that ranges from highly technical to policy driven.

“Generally speaking, the issues in environmental studies often relate to solving national or global problems. For example, how can government regulation be made less onerous or how can global warming be retarded and ultimately stopped? For these students, the shift is from ‘they’ to ‘us’ as they realize that they can’t trust other people to do it.”

Writers’ “Agendas”
“I teach this class as if the students were working at their first jobs, which makes the course not only theory driven, but also practical. We work on memos, business letters, proposals, analyses, press releases—things they’re going to encounter no matter what their job happens to be. Since it’s possible to teach and learn about writing using a variety of vehicles, we cover situations that might not be expected in a writing course, but that I sure wish someone had taught me. For instance, I use joke-telling as one model of writing. Telling a joke well means that you tell it in a certain order, that you keep it short and relevant, and that it’s appropriate to the audience. If you can tell a joke, you can write a memo.

“It’s one thing to address an anonymous, abstract audience; it’s something else when all writing projects address current news issues such as the efficacy of dredging toxic chemical deposits from the Hudson River.”
Collins illustrates his approach by sharing assignments that he has given. In an initial class he wanted students to ascertain the degrees to which writers can reveal themselves and their “agendas” in memos and emails. By contrasting lyrics from songs by Bruce Springsteen and Barry Manilow, Collins demonstrates how writers can implicitly, and perhaps inadvertently, reveal a great deal of information about their persona (Springsteen) or nothing (Manilow). Collins explains that his aim is to emphasize that “our writing has unforeseeable destinations and consequences. We send it, and then it is out of our control; it may go anywhere, but we’re not there to defend it. With that act of sending comes accountability.”

In a subsequent class, Collins’ students analyze a memo from an insurance company. “The memo is awful—it’s confusing. Even if we were familiar with the situation, we wouldn’t know what the memo means. By using ambiguous language, the writer, for whatever reason, is keeping the reader at a distance. This hidden agenda is contrary to the purpose of written communication — to be understood. Students revise the memo, then go on to write memos of their own, highly aware of the purpose. They must demonstrate that they are aware of their audience’s needs and have the ability to help their readers prioritize. The worst thing is to send a written document that people don’t care about or understand.”

Real-world Scenarios
For a midterm assignment, Collins creates fictitious case studies presenting problems based on real-world scenarios, calling upon students to collaborate as they work in small groups. For example, one scenario was based on New York State’s Neighborhood Notification Act and how it affects “green-based” lawn services. Students used critical thinking skills as they wrote memos to diverse “audiences,” such as supervisors and customers. They then did a 15-minute presentation as members of one of these “green-based” services.
These projects require students to predict complex problems that might arise in the real world and to confront them using the knowledge and communication skills they have acquired. This was demonstrated in a student project that involved using an enormous derrick system to dredge the San Francisco Bay. As the group was making its presentation, Collins was contemplating the astronomical real-world costs for such a project. As the presentation ended, one quick-thinking student, obviously reading his instructor’s mind, added, “One final note—it will all be on time and under budget!”

“That guy got extra credit for shameless guile,” Collins says.

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