Final Paper: What to Eat?
D. ChristensenFall 2015
Presuming that we have sufficient resources to feed ourselves, deciding what to eat becomes one of our most basic daily decisions. Apple or chocolate chip cookie?Vegetarian or Carnivore?Organic or not?Salmon baked or salmon broiled (salmon wild caught or salmon farmed)? Asparagus or artichoke?Strawberries year round or only in late June?
You’ll write this essay in steps, and each step will inform the whole essay. Here’s a timeline:
Phase 1: Report your favorite meal. 1-2 pages. Due November 15th
Start this paper by reporting on one of your favorite meals. This might be a holiday meal. Maybe it’s one you associate with a special occasion or place. Maybe it’s a meal you prepare yourself, or perhaps it’s one that others make. So, decide on a favorite meal and report it. Use 1-2 pages to explain what goes into this meal (what exactly do you eat?) and why you’ve chosen it. Help us understand what makes it a favorite for you.
Phase 2: List essential ingredients that go into these dishes. 2-3 pages. Due November 22nd
Phase 2: List essential ingredients that go into these dishes (Remember this is a meal not just one dish).
With your favorite meal clearly identified in your own mind, do some digging to see what ingredients go into the foods that comprise your favorite meal. If it’s tiramisu for dessert, what’s in tiramisu? If it’s a Waldorf salad, what is that made of? Obviously, some parts of your meal might be easier to identify than others (romaine lettuce for a Caesar salad is simple enough; the dressing might be a little harder). Make a list of dishes and ingredients, being as complete as you can be. If you’re not sure what goes into a particular dish, do your very best research to find out, but if this results in a dead end, account for it.
Phase 3: Research: You need to spend some time researching how to make your meal, define all the ingredients, figure out how experts might go about making this meal a reality.
Phase 4: Peer review of rough draft: December 2nd in class
Phase 5: Report your findings:Monday December 7th and Wednesday December 9th
During the time of our scheduled final exam, you will each be asked to report to the class on what you have learned. This will be a graded presentation, so prepare accordingly. You will present your meal to the class. You will have access to the projector should you choose some kind of power point presentation. You may also bring some part of your meal for students to try. (See food safety rules for this in the full assignment description).
Writing 110 Favorite Meal
Ingredients Worksheet
Read this entire sheet!
Name ________________________________
Favorite meal (brief description):
List six ingredients you plan to research (you can change this list later if you wish and these ingredients may comprise only one or two dishes in your favorite meal):
1. _____________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________
6. _____________________________________________________
As you consider these ingredients, your aim is to find out as much as you can about each of them. Keep track of the information you discover (make copies, take notes so that you can locate this information again if you need it).
Ultimately, you’ll be making an argument about this meal. The question at issue will be something like this: before eating this meal, what is important to consider? This question is broad. Your specific question will be a bit more specific. To help you get started, you might start by considering the following, non exhaustive list of questions:
• Where does this food/ingredient come from at the time of year when you eat your favorite meal?
• How is it grown, raised, produced, or caught? What sorts of regulations, if any, are important here?
• What positive or negative effects on people or on the environment can be seen from how this food is raised, produced, caught, etc? What products or processes keep this food fresh?
• How many miles does this food likely travel to get from its place of origin to your plate? How does it get there? If it needs to be processed (cooked, dried, powdered, etc), who does this and where does it happen? If it’s an animal food (chicken, pork, etc), how are these animals raised, kept, fed, etc? How are they slaughtered?
• What controversies surround the production of this food? What groups or organizations are involved and what does each advocate?
• How healthy/nutritious is this food? What makes it taste good?
• Are there organic and non-organic versions of this food? What are the differences and why do some people think these differences are significant?
• What direct costs can you identify as part of the purchase price you pay for this food?
To complete this worksheet, begin investigations for at least two of your ingredients above. For each of these two, locate at least three sourcesthat might give you useful information. These sources might be internet websites, academic journals, books, government publications, or publications by advocacy groups. (Wikipedia doesn’t count here, though it might still be worth consulting as a way to get started. (You must find at least 2 sources off-line; i.e. your mother’s recipe book, the library, a restaurant.)
Using your own paper, follow the format belowto give me a quick preliminary report on your research. Staple this page as a cover sheet to your own.
First Ingredient/Food researched:
Source 1: (title, author, publisher, date published, found where?)
Findings: (use telegraph style: what is asserted or reported as true?)
Source 2:
Findings:
Source 3:
Findings:
Major issues/concerns/questions about this ingredient? (a list)
Is this researching producing results you can use? (a paragraph explaining why or why not)
Then repeat with a second ingredient/food.
Final Essay: What to Eat
The result of all our inquiry about food, ingredients, and meals will be a 7-8 page, double-spaced research paper with one-inch margins in MLA format. Like all of our papers in this class, you will be answering a question at issue with a thesis. In the broadest sense, the question for all of us is the same: is this meal good? How you answer that question specifically, however, will be unique (the devil is in the details). What do you mean by good? (for example).
Format
Your paper should go something like this (this is a suggested format, which means it is somewhat flexible).
• Introduction:
Describe your meal: What is it? Why is it your favorite? With whom do you eat it? Is there familial, religious, or other cultural significance?
Introduce the larger question at issue and the sub questions you will address: Is it nutritious? What are the cultural, community, environmental issues this meal raises? Are there other issues to consider?
• Body:
Give the reader an idea of the ingredients that go into this meal and then tell the reader why you selected the ingredients you did to pursue further.
Share with the reader what you discovered through your research.
Work through the various questions you have decided to ask. Discuss how they bear on this meal.
• Conclusion:
Sum up your findings.
Restate a clear answer to the question at issue.
This might be a good place to discuss how you might view this meal differently, whether or not you will still eat it, or perhaps if you will change how you shop for the ingredients.
For a custom paper on the above topic, place your order now!
What We Offer:
• On-time delivery guarantee
• PhD-level writers
• Automatic plagiarism check
• 100% money-back guarantee
• 100% Privacy and Confidentiality
• High Quality custom-written paper