Essay 2 Assignment

Intersections: Food, Culture, and Society
Rough Draft Due: Wednesday, May 4th

Sources:
--"The BP Oil Spill and the Bounty of Plaquemines Parish" / Gastronomica
--"Mauritania’s ‘wife-fattening’ farm / CR
--"The Cabmen’s Cafes" / CR
--Super Size Me / Morgan Spurlock / documentary
--"Snacking With the Sons of the Soil" / Gastronomica (current issue)
--"The Wages of Sin" / handout

Relevant Handouts / Other Info:
Summary Handout (CR)
What is a Primary Source? (CR)
Critical Questions (CR)
Tips for Evaluating Sources (CR)
Formulating a Thesis (CR)
Class notes, freewrites, in-class exercises and discussions, and blog posts

Assignment:
The goal is to write a 5-7 page persuasive research paper in which you use evidence from your research to explain how and why food is connected to different dimensions within the social or cultural realm. A persuasive research paper’s goal is to use research findings to help your reader take a side on a particular issue or to get them to understand a side/point of view that is different from their own. In this case, you will choose 3 of the above sources, read them critically and closely, then use those research findings to support your idea about the intersection(s) between food, culture, and/or society. You need to take a side with this essay and then find evidence to support your position.

Documentation:
--Use in-text parenthetical source citations with page numbers
--Include a MLA-style Works Cited page at the end of your paper (use easybib.com)

Essay 2 Writing Skills Goals: Summarizing; quoting; paraphrasing; avoiding plagiarism; using parenthetical in-text source citations; citing different types of sources; implementing critical analysis, indicating titles properly.

 Read, on the OWL:

Academic Integrity/MLA Overview: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/675/1/

Summarizing/Paraphrasing: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/01/

MLA-Style Citations:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/

Sample MLA Essay: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090701095636_747.pdf
　

French McDonald's "Gay Friendly" Commercial and Japanese Happy Meal Commercial

Please note that the titles of these commercials that run at the top of the player are NOT mine, but are those of the YouTube members who uploaded them...

Discussion Questions for Food, Culture, and Society

Intersections: Food, Culture, and Society

1) Compare the perception of obesity in Super Size Me with that of Mauritanians in "Mauritania's 'wife-fattening' farm;" what do you make of the fact that in the former, obesity is often a symbol of low socio-economic status, while the opposite is true of the latter?  (Avoid the obvious responses, please.)

2) From your perspective, who or what do you find to be ultimately at fault for America's obesity epidemic?  Who does Spurlock seem to blame?  Do you agree with his view on ths matter?  How does addiction factor into this situation?

3)  How is food used as social manipulation (or as a 'social tool') in "The Cabmen's Cafes?"

4) Is McDonald's manipulation through advertising any different than the manipulation of the working class  by the upper-class in "Cabmen's?"  Were the cabmen as easy to sway as American children are? 

5)  How does money (and by connection, social status) fit into all three of these pieces?  If you can, try to isolate one or two common themes, but if not, a mere comparison is great...

Third Cyber-Friday Assignment

Hi pals,

Thanks for a good week--it was probably clear that I wasn't feeling all that great physically, but it helped a lot that class attendance was really good, and your food memoirs are OUTSTANDING--I've enjoyed reading all of them, and learning a little more about where my students come from.

Remember that your responses/comments need to be posted by 3 PM tomorrow, Friday, April 22nd.  If you have issues or problems, let me know as soon as possible, and use your classmates as a resource, too.

Here's the prompt/assignment:

You've read a long, dense research article in Gastronomica (Randy Fertel's "The BP Oil Spill"; pp 24-31), and have watched Morgan Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me, both of which will be potential sources for Essay 2 (more on that later).  You've also had a few opportunities to figure out some sort of opinion or critical analysis of these pieces, both of which present, in very different styles, an argument that concerns the overlap between food, and culture/society (you can refer to the Culture vs. Society post on this blog for clarification on this).

Your task now is to compare the arguments presented in each piece.  Some facets to consider are governmental responsibility, corporate responsibility, and the effect of place/geography on food, tone, etc. (there are many more elements to compare, but I want YOU to come up with them--figure out what's most important or compelling in both of these pieces, then decide which engages you more as a scholar).

One paragraph that evaluates which piece argues its point more efficiently is all you need to write.  Keep in mind that your paragraph, just like the sources, needs to present some sort of argument, even if that argument is as simple as "Spurlock's argument is more convincing and better-presented than Fertel's for the following reasons..."

Although your opinion should figure into this, I'm not asking for a personal response, but rather an evaluation based on both men's research, and the way they deliver their findings.

E-mail me with questions, refer to the handouts in the Course Reader that you were assigned this last week, use your best grammar, punctuation, and formal writing style.

Good luck, and happy Friday to all!

Culture vs. Society Handout From Monday 4/18 Class

　
Culture:
1. The arts; collectively: art, music, literature, and related intellectual activities, considered collectively
"Culture is necessary for a healthy society."


2. Knowledge and sophistication: enlightenment and sophistication acquired through education and exposure to the arts
"They are people of culture."
3. Shared beliefs and values of group: the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people
"Southeast Asian culture"
4. People with shared beliefs and practices: a group of people whose shared beliefs and practices identify the particular place, class, or time to which they belong


5. Shared attitudes: a particular set of attitudes that characterizes a group of people
"The company tries hard to avoid a blame culture."
Society:
1. relationships among groups: the sum of social relationships among groups of humans or animals


2. structured community of people: a structured community of people bound together by similar traditions, institutions, or nationality


3. customs of a community: the customs of a community and the way it is organized, e.g. its class structure
"the role of women in society"
4. subset of community: a particular section of a community that is distinguished by particular qualities
"In those days, the subject was never mentioned in polite society."
5. prominent people: the prominent or fashionable people in a community, or their social life


6. companionship: the state of being with other people
"seek the society of coworkers"
7. group sharing interests: an organized group of people who share an interest, aim, or profession

Culture vs. Society

Second Cyber-Friday Assignement

Read pages 1 and 5 in your COURSE READER.  Page 1 is just a couple little jottings that I find helpful (it'll take you about 20 seconds to read this page), and page 5 is all about the art and practice of summarizing.  

After you read page 5 in the COURSE READER, read the first section (pages 1-6) of Gastronomica, which is entitled "Rumblings from the World of Food".  Within this section are 4 short articles: "Remembering Anna Tasca Lanza," "Bonnaroo's Victory Garden," "Helping New Orleans Recover," and "Low-Carbon Eating."   All of the above are relevant to us because they look at various topics through the lens of food.  

Choose ONLY ONE of these 4 very short pieces named above, and try your hand at summarizing it in as many sentences as you think it takes to encapsulate all of what seems essential to you in the article. This means that no two summaries (even if they're on the same piece) will look alike, and that while some might be only a few sentences, others might be as long as an entire paragraph.  Make sure to include the title of whatever piece you choose to work with, and don't forget to put your full name and class time at the bottom of your comment.

Don't worry about what I 'want' out of this; this is practice, and I don't expect perfection, just a good, sincere effort.  Consult the summarizing handout (again, on page 5 in the COURSE READER) mentioned above for help as you go.

THIS IS DUE BY 2 PM TOMORROW, WHICH IS FRIDAY, APRIL 15th.

E-MAIL ME WITH QUESTIONS AS SOON AS THEY ARISE; DON'T WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW AT 1 PM!

Tips for Incorporating Research Into a Memoir

1) Use an epigraph: In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, etc. that is set at the beginning of a document or composition. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, as a suggestion of a theme, etc. to your memoir, and can do a lot of legwork for you the same way a newspaper headline helps you understand what the article that follows is about.

Here’s an example of an essay opened by an epigraph, which I’ve excerpted from part of my master’s thesis:

A love of organs can be compared to any other handicap, physical or mental: it is only a question of how to get along in spite of it. - Charles Brenton Fisk in a letter to a prospective young organ builder 

*

It impossible to speak of my father—his name is John—to explain his ways, without speaking of pipe organs.  It is likewise impossible to consider the subject of organ building without addressing the person of Charles Brenton Fisk, a prominent American organ builder who built and wrote prolifically, and whose life parallels uncannily with my father’s.  My dad is a pipe organ builder.  His profession is one whose intricacies are often likened to those of neurosurgery.  Organ building even looks like neurosurgery.  At 65, he continues to design, maintain, and renovate organs despite the fact that in 1995 he suffered blitzkrieg on the brain in the form of an aneurysm—a type of explosion that usually segues into a stroke that in turn renders the patient paralyzed or mute.

2) Isolate an element of your memoir that can be researched; things like cultural cuisine, a particular food item, a certain food habit, recipes, etc. are all great—think of NOUNS; that’ll help a lot. Create a brainstorm, or peruse the table of contents from the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture for a list of ideas if you don’t know where to start.

3) Bear in mind as you write that expanding the context of your memoir by including some hard facts, some historical background, or something instructive, will engage your reader more than just a personal story will.

[See “A Fig by Any Other Name” (handout from Tuesday) as examples for Tips 2 & 3]

P.S. Don’t forget that not everyone can relate to your life, but everyone can relate to the significance of food in all facets and phases of life; so when telling a story culled from personal experiences and memory, use food as a way to ‘open up’ the narrative and make it more universal.

Link to the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture

Hi guys,

Click on the link below, and you'll get to the encyclopedia.  (It's the one under 'Featured Title' and I've included an image of the cover below.)

http://libguides.seattlecentral.edu/content.php?pid=158870&sid=1553749

First Cyber-Friday Assignment

Hi everyone,


So, here's the blog!  I'm going to give you quite a bit of time to complete this first blog comment/response, since some of us don't have much experience with this type of forum.


Make sure that your screen name contains your real first name in it somewhere, and please include your full name and class section at the end of your comment/response.


Here's the assignment, which you have until 2 PM tomorrow to submit:


Comment on/reply to this post with a highly descriptive and detailed paragraph about one of your food experiences; if you're really on top of your game, you could write a paragraph that will end up somewhere in Essay 1.  Treat this as a pre-writing exercise.


Here's an example from Louie, one of last quarter's ENGL 102 students:

     Our order came. A large wooden bowl filled with organic strawberries, honey, blueberries and banana that adorned earthy, sweet granola which was just a prelude to the main event - the dark blue Brazilian Acai blended with frozen yogurt. It tasted like a cool tropical paradise. I watched her eyelids slowly close and her head tilt slightly as she inserted the spoonful of island delight. I will forever remember that night.

She was happy so I was happy, and she made my Acai bowl overflow that whole summer.

Good luck, and don't hesitate to e-mail with questions!