Today in class Shruthi and I first reviewed over her Essay 1 draft. It’s almost done, we just talked about polishing up some diction and syntax, and putting together a satisfying conclusion paragraph.
Second, we went over the outline she had prepared for Essay 2, her research paper. Her original idea was to argue that the British empire’s environmental exploitation led to its downfall, and compare it to modern day US environmental exploitation. She was overwhelmed with this broad topic and had found sources about various places and aspects: the Caribbean sugar trade and plantation system, deforestation in India and Egypt, etc. She had consulted with a research librarian and found it helpful, but was still struggling to put a coherent argument together. So I suggested that she narrow her topic to focus on India exclusively, as this was where many of her sources were focused, and where I sensed her research interest lied. She is now planning to write an essay that sheds light on the environmentally-centered reasons for why Britain lost control of India.
Lastly, we discussed some exercises about using the active versus passive voice that Shruthi had requested, as it is a problem she struggles with in her writing–see attachment. Active PassiveVoice