Your team task is to write a paragraph of around 200-300 words for a blog on nature conservation being put together by students. Your paragraph should be either narrative, descriptive or argumentative in nature – follow the instructions below for each type. Follow this procedure:
a. Look through the ideas and proposals submitted by your teammates in Task 1, Part B.
b. Choose one idea or topic sentence to develop. You should also decide what role each member of the team should play in creating the paragraph. Team members who are not involved in the initial writing can help with research or revise the rough draft.
Note that it is probably a good idea to do some online research to find supporting facts, especially if you choose to write an argumentative or descriptive paragraph. The Nature Blog Network can be useful for this.
Your paragraph should conform to one of the following, depending on the type you have chosen.
1. Narrative paragraph: Tell a story about some aspect of nature or the environment. The story should be based on the personal experience of one or more team members. If you can, include a conclusion or lesson as well as the narrative itself.
2. Descriptive paragraph: Describe in detail a wild animal that is endangered. Check the Bibliography of Module 11 for sources, but remember to paraphrase the information you find instead of copying word-for-word. Also, do not choose an animal which has already been described in Module 11.
3. Argumentative paragraph: Give your opinion about some issue connected with wildlife and/or the environment. The issue can deal with endangered animals, or address topics such as pollution, conservation of natural resources, etc. Be sure to support your argument with facts. If you can, recommend a course of action to improve the situation.
Note: Even when you are writing one type of paragraph, you may want to add some supporting details that conform to another type. For example, you may want to add some description to a narrative paragraph to set the stage or add detail, or add cause-and-effect sentences to support your position in an argumentative paragraph. In any case, the topic sentence should make clear what type you have chosen.
Additional restrictions:
Please avoid writing about the following topics.
Descriptive paragraph: Do not write a description of elephants or tigers. However, if you are writing a narrative about an experience in nature, it is fine if you mention these animals, as long as it’s in the context of personal experience.
Argumentative paragraph: Do not write about shark fins or about global warming/climate change. Also, do not simply list ways to protect wildlife or save the environment, because this is too general.
We are making these topics off-limits for two reasons. For some, many groups in past years have chosen them. For others, there have been cases of plagiarism from online sources. Please choose an alternative topic from the ones proposed by group members on the Task 1 worksheets.
Paragraphs on these topics will not be graded, and you will receive 0 points!