ENG 101: Essay Two
Dr. Justin Rogers-Cooper
Essay Title: The Feelings That Make Fast Food
See Syllabus for important dates
Length: 4-5 pages (minimum 750 words)
Goal: To write an essay that (1) uses investigative research to (2) discover the feelings on the long assembly line of fast food so that (3) students can communicate original arguments about the emotional facts of fast food production.
Description: It can be argued that corporations influence consumers to buy their food products by creating positive feelings about their brands, and also about the act of consumption itself. This is certainly true of the fast food industry, and to that end we examined the production of “brand essence” in the first assignment. This essay asks you to consider the “feelings” at earlier stages of the assembly line.
With Fast Food Nation as your inspiration, this essay asks you to become your own investigative researcher. Your assignment is to research the feelings that arise during the production of fast food. The stages of food production that you will research will be the fast food kitchen and the CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeing Operations) – the factory farms. The feelings that you find could come from the workers, the supervisors, the “growers” or ranchers, or the animals.
Your argumentative/thesis statement will be present in your introduction. It will communicate to your readers what feelings you found in your research, and will explain what you believe is the significance of those findings.
Research Agenda
For the essay, you will research fast food kitchens, CAFOs, and/or other growing/ranching sites where fast food has its origins. Narrow your research by asking the following question: what feelings are made here?
Your goal is communicate to readers who is feeing what, why they are feeling that way, what causes those feelings, what effect those feelings have, and why these feelings might be significant.
You must find at least one source for every location that you research. For example, you should find a source on
**fast food kitchens
** a source on CAFOs,
** and/or a source on ranchers/growers.
You may use Fast Food Nation or the film Food, Inc. as a source for this assignment, but you must find at least two other sources, including one academic/peer reviewed source. There is no limit to sources that a student can use.
The minimum sources a student must include are two academic sources other than Fast Food Nation and Food, Inc.
We will also use our library visit ON TUESDAY 10/25 from 9.15-10.15 am as an opportunity to review and learn techniques for research. Students are also strongly encouraged to visit a fast food restaurant first-hand to observe how feelings are made there.
Interviews with workers are possible, but students must incur the risks of this investigative strategy on their own. They are *not* required, although some students have found them useful in the past.
Students with personal experience are strongly encouraged to use them in their essays (especially introductions and conclusions), but they will *not* substitute for academic sources.
Introduction
The essay requires that you produce a statement in your introduction that clarifies, defines, and explains what you see as the major relationship between the feelings of two different places in the chain of production and consumption that makes fast food possible. In this statement, you will have to say what your research means, and use the rest of the essay to support this idea.
Thesis: The important 2-3 sentence argumentative statement in the introduction that provides a map of what follows in the essay.
Topic Sentences/Topic centered paragraphs: Topic sentences should describe what follows in the paragraph.
Transitions: Sentences that link paragraphs in the essay together.
Peer Review: Students that miss peer review must take their essays to the Writing Center.
Writing Center: Students are strongly encouraged to attend the Writing Center, but will not receive extra credit.
Grading Grid
Essay incorporates a minimum of two original research sources with proper quote integration, in-text citations, and works cited page (20%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10
Essay explains two different stages of the assembly line and organizes a coherent thesis statement how feelings are made, by who, for what purpose, and what their effects are (30%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10
Essay contains a 2-3 sentence “critical thinking” explanations in several research paragraphs that fully explain the significance of feelings discovered in research (20%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10
Essay contains a revised sense of organization (topic sentences, unified paragraphs, transitions) (20%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10
Essay contains a revised sense of style at the sentence level (free from major grammatical issues, has awareness of sentence boundaries) (10%)
1 5 6 7 8 9 10
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