The Anthropocene Reviewed (Updated)

After reading through and listening to several examples of John Green's essays from his book/podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed, your job is to write an essay that mimics the style and theme of The Anthropocene Reviewed. In essence, you will be creating an essay-length metaphor that takes something concrete that exists in our current society and uses it as a tool to make clear for your readers how humanity impacts the world we live in. Both John Green's book and podcast highlight that the essays/reviews are based on a "human-centered planet," so though your essay will center on something non-human, it should come back around to an idea about humanity and overall speak to a greater truth about humanity. As you embark upon this adventure, remember that we will be reading examples in class, and spending time listening to the podcast. Please take inspiration from Green's work and even have one of his essays by your side as you write. Use him as your guide.  You may choose anything that you have knowledge about or are interested in as the focus of your metaphor, but you may not choose an item that Green has already touched on in his own essays.

Class Companion is being used as a tool to craft your draft. It will give you feedback along the way based on the rubric that has been embedded within the assignment. The score that it pumps out for you should guide your revisions. You can submit your draft up to 8 times for revision assistance and your goal should be to get a perfect rubric score. Do not stop revising until that happens. Though Class Companion will be scoring you along the way, Class Companion is not perfect, and it is often far too forgiving. It does not always pick up bigger themes in a work or understand the finer points of writing. I will be the one who ultimately grades this assignment which will be published in your portfolio as your final for this class. In other words, even if Class Companion says your work is perfect, an actual, real-life human (me) may disagree. In order for your ideas to be fully developed, and in order for me to assign a final grade for this assignment, the essay must get up above 700 words minimum. Longer may be better here. Develop those ideas until they are complete and clear!

If it is found that you are using A.I. to craft your response (and not just receive feedback), then you will receive a 0 on the assignment (which cannot be made-up). Even having a tool rephrase your ideas is not allowed here. This needs to represent ideas that you crafted using your own careful thoughts.

In class, we will be going over several "Anthropocene Reviewed" style essays by both John Green and other students, so attendance matters. This is an assignment that we will work on over time, so be open to revision as we deepen our knowledge in the coming days. Craft something poignant and informative here! I can't wait to read the wonderful insights you'll be bringing us about our human-centered planet.