Blog Assignment Two: Explaining Contradictions

Contradictions are statements that assert claims that cannot really be true. We could also think of contradictions as statements or arguments that seem inconsistent. For example, the McDonald's memos said that the McDonald's brand essence should work because parents "want the kids to love them...it makes them feel like a good parent" (Schlosser 50).This statement is a contradiction because if McDonalds' actually cared about parent-child relationships they would strongly encourage parents to develop relationships based on trust, mutual respect, and love - not a happy meal or a visit to a Playland. Contradiction is a form of saying one thing and doing another. We could also think of contradiction as a form of conflict. When one thing disagrees with another thing, they contradict.

For this blog, students should find a contradiction in a text from the course. They should then compose a blog that 1) names the contradiction, 2) explains the contradiction, and 3) investigates what they think the contradiction means. Students shouldn't feel the need to take a side, but rather to identify the conflict from a neutral position.

In the above example, the contradiction between McDonald's advertising and its corporate memos points to the tension in the need for marketing to exploit emotional insecurities in consumers in order to win their business. This tension means that the company whose slogans and commercials appeal directly to positive emotions only work because those positive emotions replace the negative emotions that already exist in family life between parents and children. Ironically, working parents are working long hours in part because "McJobs" pay so little. Little leisure time leaves parents with no time to cook homemade meals, and no energy to play with their own children. They then take their children to McDonalds, which is a reason they are so tired and poor in the first place. Without saying whether or not McDonald's is good or bad, the contradiction between McDonald's advertising, its motivations, and its "reality" allows us to explore how the fast food system works.

The contradiction will probably appear in one or more places in the text, or in a couple texts. Students can focus on whatever passage or moment they want to focus on. Students should quote and cite examples in their blog.

It will be up to each student to choose whatever contradiction he or she concentrates on. They should introduce their contradiction by giving it a specific name. They should remember to introduce any course texts to outside readers.

In this blog, students will practice: summary, direct quotation, citation, and analysis.

Grading Grid for Blogs, Blog Comments, and Twitter

ENG 101 Language of Human Rights Grading Grid: Blog, Blog Comment, Twitter

Name

1.   Blog meets assignment criteria; blog contains effective topic sentences, correct direct quotation and citation (25%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

2. Blog provides reader with context, textual introduction, and directions (25%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

3. Blog comment addresses writing strategies discussed in class (25%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

4. Blog comment offers specific suggestions for revision (25%)

1              5              6              7              8              9              10

Total:

Tweets (out of 2)

                /2

Forms to Know

LaGuardia Human Subject form Information:

http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/irb/

CUNY-wide IRB information, with downloads. See: Research Determination Form.

http://www.cuny.edu/research/ovcr/human-subjects-research/forms-research.html

Start Using Twitter!

Everyone should be following everyone else on Twitter. I have been keeping count of Tweets for a week. Let's move forward.

LIB 110: Detailing the Plan

Directions:

1. Individually, students will (1) make a list of the steps they need to take to create their video. The steps should be in chronological order. Next, they will (2) begin composing a paragraph that justifies their project to an outside authority at the college. They should answer the following questions:

* What is the tentative name of the project?
* What questions will the project address?
* What do they think the project will show when it's done?
* Why is it important for this project to be undertaken?

2. Students will enter their teams and compare steps. Each group will do two things:

* Each team must produce a "master plan" for what needs to happen and when. This plan must specify dates.

* Each team must be produce a "master rationale." This will provide the answers to the questions above.

3. Each team must come up with a "ethics plan" for contacting individuals inside and outside the LaGuardia community.

* How will you identify yourself? How will you identify the project?

* How will you set up interviews?

* How will you conduct research before interviews?

* How will you record interviews?

* What ethical guidelines will you follow during interviews?

4. All students must turn in the master plan and master rationale by the end of the hour.

Students will work in the following gender-balanced teams:

C3G Productions : Christina, Gregory, Christopher, Carol
The Wolf Pack Production: Krystalee, Danny K., Amanda, Javed
Feed Me Productions: Anggie, Kadeshia, Jessica, Juan, Liz
Life Behind Food Productions: Nikhal, Lily, Glenn, Danny B., Audrey
Get Your Eat On Productions: Camille, Jennifer, Jana, Evelyn, Dionne

Critical Thinking: Making Connections, Showing Relationships

Critical thinking tends to become most visible in essays in the second half of supporting, body paragraphs. After students have paraphrased their direct quote for readers, they then must turn to the important task of interpreting that quote, or saying what it means. This usually gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their creative intellectual powers.

Students should think of the critical thinking section as a location for multiple meanings. It is fine to offer two or more perspectives on the meaning of a quote.

* Connect the quoted material and passage back to your overall thesis statement. Highlight, perhaps, one of the big ideas from the thesis statement.

* Just after the paraphrase is usually an occasion for "close-reading," or the special practice of explaining what specific words from the quote mean.

* Introduce a keyword. Define the keyword. This will spur students to explain relationships between one idea and another. Students can then connect one idea from the text to another.

* Connect the material to another passage from the book. Find a "theme" that can shows up in the quoted material and one that appears, perhaps in another form, in another moment of the text.

* Refer the reader to another text altogether, or information from outside the text. Connect the paragraph to an idea from another course, or from another text in the same course.

Control and Profits

The fast food companies rely on meatpacking companies to generate the food products consumers will purchase. They know that meat products must be uniform and cheap. In order to keep meat products cheap the meatpacking corporations exert acute control over the production process. Their power comes from this control, and this power leads directly to real material profits.

First, the companies act as an oligopsony: a group of buyers that have enormous power of cattle ranchers because they are few and the ranchers many (117). Additionally, the meatpacking companies have “captive” cattle supplies to put downward pressure on cattle prices when ranchers go above their desired price. Once the meat has been processed, the final costs are kept down by the fast food companies themselves. They hire “marginalized workers,” or vulnerable workers that are disabled, immigrants, or elderly (71). Paid with a minimum wage, these workers can’t complain out of desperation. They serve the meat products to consumers, and lack better choices.

Stroking

In Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser discusses the concept of “stroking,” which is a psychological technique used by fast food managers to encourage positive emotions in employees. This is a necessary part of company strategy because these workers are otherwise alienated from their work, as it’s “deskilled,” repetetive, and low-paying.

Stroking can also be a useful way to understand an anecdote from a subsequent chapter about selling “success” to middle-management employees of the fast food chains. In this later example, Schlosser explains how celebrity speakers at a “Success Authority” convention tell platitudes to the attendees about achieving their dreams through hard-work and self-confidence.

Both of these instances of stroking seem to imply that forging temporary emotional connections in workers is a necessary part of supplementing work that’s unattractive or not emotionally fulfilling on its own, no matter what position in the corporate heirarchy that variuos workers belong to. While the profit motive makes sense for companies as a whole, it’s often not enough to fulfill individual workers within the company.

TWITTER: Follow ME: JRCFOODETHICS

Some of you have not posted your Twitter ID's on your blog.

All of you should now search for each other on Twitter, as well as for myself. When you find someone from the class, "follow" them. Some of you will not get credit for today's assignment. You can start Tweeting by completing the assignment for Monday.

Blog Link Malfunctions

Jessica, we can't get into you blog without registering on your blog site. Can you please use a blogger.com blog so we can see your work? Also, what is your Twitter ID?

Camille, your link isn't working! Can you re-send the URL?

Audrey, there's no blog and no Twitter ID!

SURVEY!!!!

If you have not taken this survey yet, take it!!!!!!!!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Community2-0_StudentPreSurvey_Fall2011

Weekend Blog Response

The list below links students to their assigned blog.

Javed- Evelyn
Danny K. - Kadeshia
Danny B. - Jennifer
Jana - Audrey
Carol - Liz
Camille - Jessica
Amanda - Christopher
Gregory - Anggie
Krystalee - Christina
Lily - Nikhal

If for some reason I have not paired you, email me ASAP at jrogers@lagcc.cuny.edu

Grading Grid: Assignment One Peer Review and Revision

Grading Grid Assignment One: Corporate Food and Labor

ENG 101: The Ethics of Food

Name:   

1. Thesis Statement: defines relationship between food companies and food workers; two-three sentence thesis statement expands upon that definition; introduction provides context (text(s), author(s)); opening anecdote (20%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

2. Body Paragraphs: topic sentences refer to thesis statement; summarizes relevant moments from text; provides analysis of relevant evidence (30%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

3. Direct Quote and Citation: correct citation; paraphrase follows quotes; analysis extends arguments; (20%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

4. Conclusion: Introduces new aspect of essay for reader’s consideration; provides memorable concluding statement (10%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

5. Sentence Structure: Sentences are free from distracting errors; they contain obvious polish; there’s evidence they were read out loud (10%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

6. Context and Audience: Texts contain proper introduction; chapters contain proper introduction; key words are explained; (10%)

1          5          6          7          8          9          10

 Key Suggestions:

Reading Quiz Three: Ethics of Food

Directions

Briefly answer one of the two following sets of questions. Students should answer in their own words. If students use language from the text, they should correctly cite the text. It is not necessary to cite the text.

Skill: Summary

1. Explain why the fries "taste good." Why does processed food have flavor? Does the flavor come from the food? Give specific examples. (4-5 sentences).

2. What do independent ranchers have in common with chicken growers?

Open note, or open text with annotations.

Peer Review Guidelines and Response

You will always need three copies of your essay brought to class for peer review.

Peer Review is a necessary part of revising writing assignments in stages. It’s beneficial to writers to always be writing for an audience. It’s beneficial for student readers to see how other students approach similar writing tasks. It’s also important that writers write in communities. Socializing the experience of writing helps develop ideas and accelerate thinking.

The actual experience of peer review can be a strange adjustment for those who have no experience with it. It’s important to remember the following rules:

1.       No matter how attached you feel to a piece of writing, it isn’t you. It’s something you made that has an existence of its own. Comments and criticisms about this piece reflect it, not you.

2.       No matter how unattached you are to a piece of writing, peer review can help you become more attached. Remember that someone else will take pleasure in reading your words and ideas.

3.       When discussing someone else’s writing, it’s generally a good idea to say something positive about the piece first.

4.       When you make a criticism, always make a specific suggestion for how to revise the part of the essay you’re criticizing.

5.       Always begin with “higher-order” concerns first. Higher order concerns involve the essay as a whole: the coherency of paragraphs (how unified and organized they are), whether or not the essay fulfills the assignment, and the general meaning of the piece. Look at the big picture. DO not spend time discussing grammar unless it impedes your ability to understand the piece. You may mark grammar issues on the page by circling them, but do not spend time discussing them unless you cannot understand an idea.

6.       Do not go easy on someone because it’s a strange and unfamiliar thing to do. The more critical you are of an essay the better grade someone will get. You will help another writer by honestly telling them what you think can be improved, and how you think they can improve it.

LIB 110: Production Teams

C3G Productions: Chris, Christina, Carol, and Gregory
- needs camera and maybe editor

Get Your Eat On Productions: Jana, Camille, Jennifer, Evelyn, Dionne
- needs camera, editor

Feed Me Productions: Liz, Anggie, Jessica, Kadeshia, Juan
- needs?

Life Behind Food Productions: Nikhal, Glenn, Danny B, Audrey
- needs camera, editor

The Wolf Pack Production ("We Hunt the Facts Down"): Amanda, Krystalee, Daniel, Javed
- needs camera, editor, Guy Fox masks

LIB 110: Team Formation, Brainstorming Ideas

Directions:


1. Students will be placed in video teams. They will exchange contact information if they don't have it already.
2. Students will give their video teams a production company name (vote or nomination within team).
3. Students will select a video project theme. They may refer to ideas from the professor or create their own or some combation of both.They will brainstorm it. They will imagine "pitching it" to the class and to the professor.
4. The students will begin assessing what they will need to do for their project, and how they can use the LIB 110 course hour. They will share any relevant skills they have with the team.
5. They will pitch their idea to the class.
6. We will discuss teamwork and evaluation of each other.

Video Ideas
Interview decision-makers around LaGuardia about food on campus (facilities, cafeteria)
Create news segment about food surrounding LaGuardia (food carts, diners, cafes)
Create news segment about LaGuardia students
Track and follow relevant student clubs (Food and nuitrition club, Environmental Club, etc)
Follow food back to its "source": discover where LaGuardia food comes from, transmit that to viewers
Create video from Fast Food Nation or other course text

Students will work in the following gender-balanced teams:

TEAM ONE: Christina, Gregory, Christopher, Carol
TEAM TWO: Krystalee, Danny K., Amanda, Javed
TEAM THREE: Anggie, Kadeshia, Jessica, Juan, Liz
TEAM FOUR: Nikhal, Lily, Glenn, Danny B., Audrey
TEAM FIVE: Camille, Jennifer, Jana, Evelyn, Dionne

Reading Quiz: "Behind the Counter"

One of the main ideas from the chapter "Behind the Counter" is "throughput." This idea is essential to understanding why fast food companies use "de-skilled" workers. Yet the use of de-skilled workers can also alienate those workers from their jobs, since they are required to perform the same, repetitive tasks again and again for low wages -- and sometimes, as Eric Schlosser relates, for even nothing at all.

In this quiz, define throughput and its connection to de-skilled workers. Explain what other de-skilled workers corporations also target. Then name and define one of the techniques that Schlosser cites that companies use to keep those workers "happy" on the job.

Open note; open textbook if student shows annotated pages.

In-Class Assignment: Composing Supporting Paragraphs With Evidence from the Text

Directions for in-class assignment:

First, students will locate and discuss a relevant passage for class discussion assigned by the professor.

Second, students will individually locate a passage from the reading that connects to the first essay assignment, or that they found interesting. The passage should be one-two sentences in length. They will note the page number and take notes on what they believe to be the main points of the passage. They should also make note of the "context" for the passage they select. (The context is anything important for a reader to know about the text they're working from, and from the "moment" of the text they've found. They will also write down (in note form) what they believe the passage "means," and/or why it's important.

In small groups, students will then share the passage they found. Students should at least take notes on the page numbers of the texts the other student's chose, and any other information they might find valuable. After students share each other's passages, other students should offer each other another possibility about what the text means, or why it's important.

Finally, students will compose a paragraph that reflects their passage. This paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that is also a claim (a claim is a smaller, supporting argument that supports a thesis statement). The paragraph should then alert the reader to context for the passage they will describe. Students should then quote the passage using direct quotes, with the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence (page number). After the quote, students should paraphrase the quote. Then they should explain why it's important, what it shows, what it means, and/or what a reader should learn after reading it.

Students should then post the assignment to their blog.

NOTE:

Students should avoid the pronoun "you."
Students should read their sentences out loud.
Students should write the paragraph to an audience of LaGuardia students and professors who are not taking this course.

My Twitter ID

# jrcfoodethics

Blogging Class Summaries: Brand Essence

Here is the summary we wrote in class after reading the bottom of page 49.

McDonald’s corporation’s sales are at risk due to customer dissatisfaction and intense competition from other fast food establishments. McDonald’s will try to gain back those customers with more personal connections and care (49).

Blog Assignment ONE: Summarizing How Corporations Target Children

For this blog, students are asked to summarize the main ideas and examples from Schlosser's chapter about food corporations and advertising. First, the blog will briefly introduce the text and author to readers. Then, students should be able to state the main ideas from the chapter at beginning of their blog. Studnets should be alert about defining how McDonald's believes advertising "works" in a psychological sense. Then students should be able to relate at least two more examples from the chapter that they believe best expresses the main ideas from the chapter (McDonald's history with Disney, the construction of Playlands, the influx of corporate food and texts into public schools, the personal politics of Ray Kroc and Walt Disney).

Since students are practicing "summary," they should be practicing paraphrase, objectivity, and accuracy (putting Schlosser's words into their words, trying to be neutral, and trying to represent his ideas faithfully). Students should direct their blog toward an outside audience of other students and faculty. This blog is very much "public" within the LaGuardia community. The blog should be between 250-400 words.

Reading Quiz: Your Trusted Friends

Chapter two of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation defines its title, "Your Trusted Friends," with the idea of "brand essence." What is brand essence and how does it work?

If you have time, consider the following question as well: what did McDonald's corporation learn from the Disney corporation?

Student Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Community2-0_StudentPreSurvey_Fall2011

Blogging the Diagnostic Draft

The goal of the diagnostic is for students to tentatively create a thesis statement. We have defined the thesis statement as a 2-3 sentence argument. For now, we're saying that the first sentence goes something like this:

             I believe that the relationship between food companies and food workers is __________.
             The reason I believe this is because___________________________________________.

In that second sentence ("The reason I believe..."), students could provisionally list two or three reasons based on just the short video clip we watched in class yesterday (Eric Schlosser on PBS, linked below) and the passage from Fast Food Nation that we read today in class (linked below). We then began to imagining the ways that those reasons could help shape the paragraphs to follow (one reason for one paragraph).

One student used the word "unfair" to describe the relationship between corporate food workers, and another used the word "injustice." In the latter example, the student cited reasons such as poor wages and overtime hours as well as poor working conditions.

Another way to think about the introduction might be as follows:

             Each of the reasons you give for your argument is a "sign" of things to come in the essay, like a sign on the road. When you give people directions, you tell them what to look for. The introduction can be like that.
             Each sign is linked to one or more "places" you'd like to take your reader. For example, one "place" you could them is the strawberry pickers in California. Another "place" you could take them is the sexual harrassment lawsuits of slaughterhouse workers.
             You don't want to explain all the details of all the signs you post in your introduction. You'll want to save those details for when the reader "actually gets there," which is in the paragraphs that support your thesis.
              The reader will know he or she is there when they see that "sign" again in a topic sentence.

Diagnostic Draft

Directions:

Students will here revise their class draft from Monday about Eric Schlosser’s perspective on immigrant labor practices in the industrial food system. They will do so by expanding their source text from Schlosser’s PBS video interview to the short passage below from Fast Food Nation.

For this assignment, students should refer back to the Assignment One hand out. They are trying to name and then define the relationship between corporate food companies and corporate food workers. This act of naming is, in fact, a form of argumentation. Students are then also trying to organize claims to support this argument.

Students should aim to draft at least ONE type-written page by expanding their introduction, possibly revising their thesis statement, and writing at least two paragraphs that support their thesis statement. Each paragraph should contain a topic sentence that supports the thesis statement. This topic sentence should also contain the main idea of the paragraph.

Students should incorporate their work on the passage below into the writing they have already begun.

Passage:

Production supervisors tend to be men in their late twenties and early thirties…They earn about $30,000 a year, plus bonuses and benefits…It comes with a fair amount of pressure…The job also brings enormous power. Each supervisor is like a little dictator in his or her section of the plant, largely free to boss, fire, berate, or reassign workers. That sort of power can lead to all sorts of abuses, especially when the hourly workers being supervised are women.  

Many women told me stories about being fondled and grabbed on the production line, and the behavior of the supervisors sets the tone for the other male workers. In February of 1999, a federal jury in Des Moines awarded $2.4 million to a female employee at an IBP slaughterhouse. According to the women’s testimony, coworkers had “screamed obscenities and rubbed their bodies against hers while supervisors laughed.” Seven months later, Monfort agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of fourteen female workers in Texas. As part of the settlement, the company paid the women $900,000 and vowed to establish formal procedures for handling sexual harassment complaints…

The sexual relationships between supervisors and “hourlies” are for the most part consensual. Many female workers optimistically regard sex with their superior as a way to gain a secure place in American society, a green card, a husband – or at the very least transfer to an easier job at the plant.

            From Fast Food Nation (175-176)

Class Links: Schlosser

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/220021/june-03-2009/eric-schlosser


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy1d1c1ffoc

TWITTER ID

My twitter ID is jrcfoodethics.