Writing Project #1: Researching A Community Issue
So far we have been reading In Defense of Food, a text that researches a community issue.
Michael Pollen takes up what he calls “nutritionism” to argue for a different philosophy toward
food. “Nutritionism” is a term that Pollen uses after doing research on public policy making and
public and governmental campaigns to understand how they created our current health culture.
Instead of writing about obesity, a common research topic, Pollen looks at what is behind
obesity; he critiques the culture that created obesity and created a general sense of not knowing
how to eat right. He draws on scientific, cultural, and policy research in order to create a context
for his argument. At the same time, he demonstrates a relationship between his community (ie:
the United States) and a particular issue he is interested in. It is clear from the introduction how
Pollen became invested in this issue, his personal experiences related to this issue, and how he
sees this issue affecting others in his community. He is making an argument; that is clear from
the introduction, but it is also clear that he is trying to present multiple aspects of the issue, trying
to think critically about all of the various reasons that we relate to food in the ways that we do. In
other words, Pollen’s text could be used as one model of how and why a person does research on
a community issue.
Getting Started
For this writing project you need to research a community issue, an issue that you can point to
that you care about and that affects you and / or people you know. Your job, first of all, is to
inquire: find out what the issues are. Talk to people. Read the newspaper or a magazine. What
issues are people talking about? What are the problems in your communities? Some examples of
communities that you might want to inquiry into would be your hometown, your neighborhood,
the town you live in currently, the university, the Fraternity or Sorority or other club you are a
part of, your church, your job, an online community, etc.
After settling on a community issue, you should do three things to help you brainstorm what you
might write about:
1. Describe what you know about that issue. What do people say about it? What “sides” are
there on this issue (as a side note, often there are more than two “sides” to an issue and
your job will be to describe the complexity of this issue)?
2. Freewrite about how you relate to this issue. Why is this issue important to you or your
community? What experiences have you had that affects you position on the issue?
3. Research the issue. Start with questions: what do you want to know? What information
do you need to find out? Try to draw on the four sources of information that are usually
included in a researched essay to develop your articulation of the issue: memory or
experience, observation, interviews, and reading (see page 443 in The Curious Writer for
more information).
Resources
Remember you have resources to draw on to help you research and write this paper. Chapter 11
“Writing a Research Essay” (starting on page 429) in The Curious Writer is a good place to find
information about the genre of the research essay, the process of writing it, some questions to
consider as you are writing, etc. Additionally, you can check out Chapter 9 “Research
Techniques” (starting on page 301) to help you consider what kind of research to do, how to
evaluate the research you find, and how to search and look for academic sources. Finally, chapter
10 “Using and Citing Sources” can help you put together your works cited and help you to think
about how to integrate your sources and cite sources in the text as well. Once you have done
some brainstorming and some research, you should be ready to start writing the first draft.
Bottom Line Requirements
1. You need to write about a local issue. Please do not write about an issue that is not
specific to one or more of your local communities. You should make it clear in your
writing project how you relate to this issue or why this issue is important to you.
2. You will need to educate your readers on the various facets of the argument(s)
surrounding this issue. It is important to provide some scope and consider various points
of view.
3. You will need to take your own stand on the issue.
4. You should use outside sources and information in writing this paper (and cite those
sources according to MLA style guidelines). You could use information from interviews,
newspapers, web pages, books, and / or magazines. You will need to include 5 sources
for this paper. Four of those sources have to be from acceptable academic sources (ie:
.gov websites, articles or books found in the library or through the electronic databases in
the library).
Researching and inquiring into community issues connects us to the purpose and power of
writing as a public citizen and intellectual. Writing can be used to make change, but you have to
know how to use it, where to find information, how to situate that information for an audience,
and you have to focus on issues that you and others in your community care about. Researching
and writing about a community issue can be a powerful way to help you and others to understand
the issue, what is at stake, and to come to some potential solutions or revised understandings to
that issue. Many, many books like In Defense of Food have been written on a variety of topics to
help people to change their mind or to change their practices.
Specifications: 5-7 pages, 12 point font, double-spaced. A works cited needs to be included in
MLA format and does not count as part of the page requirement.
Timeline:
1st draft due
2nd draft due
Midterm portfolio due
Writing Project #2: A Mini-Ethnography of Food
In part II of In Defense of Food, Michael Pollen focuses on the relationship between traditional
ways of eating and our Western diet. He summarizes research on Aboriginals in Australia
showing how they were able to become healthier by resuming their indigenous diet. He also
summarizes the work of Dr. Weston Price who researched indigenous diets around the world to
understand the relationship between diet and health and to compare those diets and health
problems with the Western diet and health problems. For Pollen, it is useful to look at cultural
eating habits to create a context for thinking about how food relates to health, to create
comparisons between diets and cultures, but it also provides some additional scope to his
research, to demonstrate how his theory of eating healthy comes from a variety of different
sources and perspectives.
What is a Mini-Ethnography?
For this writing project, you will need to do a mini-ethnography of food. An ethnography is a
method of research, a way of seeing, and a way of writing. Used in anthropology and literacy
studies, ethnography focuses on gaining cultural knowledge and understanding. Relying on
qualitative research methods such as observation, interviews, and collection of artifacts,
ethnographic researchers look for significance in the everyday, look for patterns of behavior that
are meaningful, and represent the group through the observations of a few. Generally,
ethnographies take several years of observation to write. Additionally ethnographers generally go
into a culture that is foreign to them in order to better understand it. As we don’t have the time in
this class for you to observe another culture over several years, you will write a “miniethnography”, which means you will only have a couple of weeks to do your ethnography, so it
is best to choose a culture that you know or are familiar with. If you want to choose a culture you
know nothing about, that is fine, but be sure you have some resources you can tap into (such as
friends, community members or family members) who can get you access to that community
quickly. We will talk more about ethnographic research as you continue to write this paper, but
in the meantime, know that Chapter 10 in The Curious Writer “Writing an Ethnographic Essay”
will be a good resource for this project.
Some Examples of Culture and Food
Aside from the ethnographic part of the writing project, I am also asking you to focus
specifically on food. This way you can draw on the knowledge you have gained from your
reading of In Defense of Food to help you with this writing project; additionally this writing
project can help you complicate your reading of In Defense of Food as well. Below are some
examples of potential topics or places to look for your ethnography of food:
 Known as Ayurveda, this East Indian philosophy of mind / body healing suggests that
food can be used as medicine. Additionally some cultures have special diets or foods for
people in particular health conditions; for example, in the Hmong culture, postpartum
women can only eat a special chicken soup and rice for 30 days after birth.
 Cultures that live near to the equator, where it is hotter, tend to eat more spicy foods (as
eating hot foods actually cools a person down). This means that places like Mexico have
a much wider variety of hot peppers grown in the region and used in their cooking than
other cultures, for example.
 Food is used to mark cultural rituals and holidays, for example, cake is eaten for
birthdays, weddings and other special occasions in the US and other places. Marzipan
and gluwein is a special Christmas holiday treat for Germans, traditional Italians eat
seven different kinds of fish on Christmas Eve, and tamales are a traditional favorite
holiday food for the Mexican culture.
 In some religions, fasting is an important part of becoming closer to God. For example,
Muslims practice Ramadan, which is a month of fasting from dawn until sunset. Other
Christian cultures give up particular or favorite foods for Lent, or wine and bread are
used during communion to represent the body and the blood of Christ.
These are just some examples of the relationship of food to culture. There are certainly more.
With some brainstorming you should be able to come up with an idea that you are interested and
invested in inquiring into.
Getting Started
To start on this writing project, brainstorm some questions you might have about food as it
relates to culture. You might want to do some preliminary research on the web or by talking to
people after you have an inquiry question to see if there is some more general information you
can find about the issue. Then you should think about what you want to know about the issue:
are you researching a tradition, a body of facts, the effect of this food on health or environment,
etc. From there you will need to collect your research. We will talk more about how to collect
research, conduct interviews, and to write up your ethnography in class.
There are three bottom line requirements for this writing project:
1. You need to do at least two interviews or at least two observations (of about an hour
each). Interviews need to be cited according to MLA format.
2. You need to collect at least two artifacts (these can be recipes, photos, etc). Where
appropriate, these also need to be cited.
3. You need to include at least two scholarly sources, not including our course text In
Defense of Food about the issue you are writing about. These sources need to be cited
according to MLA format. In order to focus you research on culture, you might use these
library databases: Anthropology Plus, Humanities and Social Science Index
Retrospective, Sociological Abstracts, Food Science and Technology Abstracts.
Specifications: 5-7 pages, double-spaced, 12 point font with a Works Cited page that is not
included in the page count.
First draft due
Second draft due
Writing Project #3: Choosing a Response to In Defense of Food
Our longer work for the semester In Defense of Food was chosen for multiple reasons, one of
which was because it joins a conversation on a contemporary issue that can be found in our
nation’s current conversations. It is common to hear stories about the dangers of obesity in the
news, in the newspapers, and in health magazines and journals. In the last election, it has been
said that issues surrounding health care and moving to a national health care system is at least
one of the reasons Barak Obama got elected as president. You can’t turn on the television
without seeing commercials about how to lose weight and can’t go to the bookstore without
finding the latest book about dieting. Farmer’s Markets have been springing up everywhere and
“organic” food is starting to become more common in the grocery store. City planners lament
that urban sprawl takes up valuable farmland and local farmers talk about not being able to
compete with corporate agriculture. Food and health and nutrition are everywhere, in the family,
local, public, and policy conversations surrounding us. Thus, your job in this writing project, is
to enter that conversation about food, dieting, nutrition, health, etc by choosing one of two
options below:
Option 1: Arguing about Food
In this option, you will need to think about what to do with Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of
Food. His book makes an argument for a way of thinking about food, managing food choices,
filtering information about nutrition and dieting, and living a life in peace with food. Your job, if
you chose this option, is to think about what you take from this book, what you disagree with in
this book, and how you think our society should change – or not – how we relate to food. In
other words, you will do two things in this project 1) you are responding to his argument; this
means you are thinking about what you agree with, what you disagree with, and what is – and
how you can – complicate his argument. And 2) you are responding to his argument for the
purpose of trying to persuade others. Maybe you have a better way of thinking about food.
Maybe you find that he doesn’t account for something really important that you think needs to be
visible. Or maybe you apply his text to current issue such as national health care. Maybe you
filter his text through what other writers about food say or maybe you compare his text with the
advise that athletes or diabetics, for example, are given and consider how these special
circumstances affect people’s food choices. The options are endless, but the idea is that you are
using the argument of this text to make your own argument. “Chapter 7: Writing an Argument”
in The Curious Writer can help you think about the purpose of writing such a text and help you
think about genre decisions as you write.
Option 2: Critiquing the Text
For this option, you will critique In Defense of Food. Choosing this option means that you are
looking at the text for how Michael Pollan’s argument functions for readers: how does he
persuade us? How does he draw on rhetorical appeals such as ethos, logos, and pathos to make
his argument? Does he use any logical fallacies? Who is he writing to and why is he writing?
What is his agenda or worldview? What authority does he have to write this text and how does
he create authority in the text? Choosing this option means that you will have to go back into the
text and look at the ways the text functions. It also means that you will need to put the argument
of his text into a larger conversation about what folks say about these issues to know how his text
relates to what other texts argue. The purpose of writing such an essay is to think about how this
text can have an impact on readers, why readers should or should not take it seriously, and to
consider who might benefit from reading this book and who might not. Chapter 8 “Writing a
Critical Essay” in The Curious Writer can help you in this regard, though you have to take that
chapter with a grain of salt, as it focuses on critiquing a literary text rather than a nonfiction one.
Instead of looking for plot, character and symbols, you can draw on the rhetorical reading
discussions and handouts we have had in class and use that lens to help you critique the book.
Bottom Line Requirements:
 You have to use Michael Pollan’s text in this writing project
 You need to include at least two additional outside sources; three additional sources if
you want to use this writing project for the final portfolio. Only one of the two required
sources can be a nonacademic text, such as an article found in a newspaper or magazine.
Specifications: 5-7 pages, double spaced, 12 point font with a works cited page in MLA format
that is not included in the minimum page count. Please note that Pollan’s text will need to be
included in the works cited.
First draft due
Second draft due
Third draft due
Writing Project #4: Reflection on Writing and Learning
Along with choosing one writing project that shows your best work of the semester, you will
need to include a reflective essay in your final portfolio. This essay should be a self-assessment
on your learning over the entire course and, additionally, focus specifically on the learning you
have done in the process of writing what you have chosen to be your best work. Reflecting on
the course and your writing should help you to take stock in what you have learned over time.
Reflecting on your learning allows you to remember where you started and allows you to trace
how far you have come. This essay is meant to help you, me, and the portfolio readers
understand what you learned over the course of the semester, and it allows you to have some say
in how your portfolio is read.
Genre:
Choose one of the two genres below for your reflective essay. Because you are making choices
about what to include in the portfolio, you need to think carefully about what genre would work
best to present the kind of information that you want and to connect to the reader in ways that
you think are important. Your genre options include:

A Letter: Writing a letter to the portfolio readers about what you learned in the class and
on the piece of writing you included in your portfolio. Letters are more intimate and they
are directed to particular readers. You could use this intimacy rhetorically to persuade
your readers about how to read your portfolio and maybe even persuade them to give you
a high score. On the other hand, letters are not a very academic genre, so be sure that the
other paper you include demonstrates strong abilities with academic writing if you choose
this option.

A “Recycled” Research paper: With this option, you look back on the writing you have
done for this class as research that you can cite in your writing; in other words, you are
citing your own writing as “research” for this paper. Within this option, you can also
choose whether you want to talk about your research in first person (ie: I wrote X and
here is an example and therefore I learned Y) OR you can choose to write about your
research and learning from a third person perspective (ie: she argues X and this therefore
leads me to believe/know Y). Choose this option if you want to further persuade your
readers that you have a handle on academic writing or to show the breadth of abilities you
have with academic writing. Though this option doesn’t allow for the kind of intimacy
that the letter does, it provides further evidence that you can do what this course is
teaching you to do.
Content:
Within these two choices, you will want to reflect on what you learned in the class(es) and what
you learned writing the other writing project you include in your portfolio. As portfolio readers,
we want to see that you have learned something in your course(s) about writing, revision,
research, analysis, and so on. We want to see how you have taken the work of the course(s)
seriously. For your overall learning in the class(es), you could consider:
1. What the most important learning moments were for you in your class(es).
2. What strategies you learned to write or revise your writing.
3. How the teacher or your peers helped you to understand something you didn’t know.
4. What kinds of things you have been exposed to and may not have been able to
accomplish but are still working on implementing.
5. What you still need to learn in the future.
In addition to your learning in the class(es), you will want to also focus on your learning
specifically on the text you have chosen to be your best work. You could write about:
1. Your learning process in writing this paper.
2. The drafting and revision you did with this paper to make it into a final product.
3. The risks you took in writing this paper.
4. Feedback from your teacher or your peers and how their responses to your writing helped
you to think about your writing differently.
5. Areas you still need to work on or learn in relation to this piece of writing.
Please do not write about all of these questions and please do not answer these questions one by
one in your essay. Try to come up with an overall learning objective you pursued, which divides
your learning into specific claims, delivered by your paragraphs with good supporting details
from your early drafts, journal entries, reading responses, Blackboard postings or any other
writings you created over the semester. The point is for you to create a focused, purposeful,
reflective piece of writing that demonstrates what you learned in your class.
To be clear, an important part of writing in either genre for this essay is to include actual
examples and detailed evidence of the claims that you make about your learning. If you say that
you learned to revise, for example, give some evidence: what kinds of revision activities did you
take up? How did these activities help you to see your writing in new ways? Feel free to actually
quote from your writing project and/or other texts written in your course as evidence for the
claims you are making.
Specifications: 3-4 pages, double-spaced