Hunting by Kristina Kilbourne Essay

The culture being explored in the essay â€Å"Hunting† by Kristina Kilbourne is one regarding hunting and changes in its overall perception by the public throughout the past two centuries. The narrative also explores the benefits and costs to society of promoting the hunting culture in modern-day America. No explicit and concise definition of hunting and the culture is provided. However, the entire introduction does provide a clear and detailed explanation of the players involved in the hunting culture as well as where, why, and to what extent such a culture exists in the United States. The stereotypes concerning hunting presented in the passage depict it as an inhumane practice that does not consider the environment. However, the writer also points out a growing media understanding of the population and ecological benefits that hunting presents for the environment. She uses examples from published population demographics concerning the animals most hunted, and demonstrates how hunters contribute to wildlife preservation through activism and contribution of taxes. Kilbourne describes the history and values of the hunting culture by providing information concerning the historical population trends that show hunting as important in population control. She also shows hunters’ values by pointing out their dedication to preserving the populations of the animals they hunt. To substantiate this, the author uses real-life examples of hunters she knows and demonstrates their attention to hunting population trends. In providing research evidence for exploring the stereotype, Kilbourne hints at scientific evidence concerning the necessity of hunting in preventing animal populations from getting too large to be sustained within the environment. However, had this evidence been more explicitly presented and explained, the argument would have been stronger. Other evidence presented includes testimonials from the author’s husband who is a hunter. While this anecdotal information was of some value, the fact that this took up half the essay reduces its overall impact. The reason for this is that such information may be biased, since it comes from a source that is a close relative of the author. Furthermore, the overuse of this source had the effect of reducing the variability of the sources within the paper. The format of the paper is adequate as far as in-text citations go. Since the sources were taken mainly from the internet, one understands why no page numbers were provided. The author might have considered providing paragraph numbers, however, as well as providing the URL’s for the sources on the works cited page. For the first two paragraphs, Kilbourne does provide lead-in and topic sentences. However, no topic sentences are provided for the last three paragraphs. The writer does provide direct quotes as well as paraphrasing of the sources. Most of the works cited sources do match the in-text citations, though in one instance the Ohio citation would have been better replaced with the author (Myers’) last name.