ENG 104-021
Ins: Engholm
2nd Major Essay Assignment:
An Investigation of Food Culture
Learning Objectives: The goal of this project is to encourage your inquiry into an unfamiliar food culture, but
also, at the same time, to encourage you to interrogate and analyze its community and its relationship to your
own.
Prompt: For this assignment, you are asked to identify, research, investigate, and explore an unfamiliar food
culture, which can come from a different cultural cuisine, like international foods; food fads, like diners, diets, or
popular products; or eating movements, like vegans. Essentially, you face four major challenges:
1. You should identify a particular unfamiliar food culture—a culture that is foreign, unusual, and
uncommon to you. The only condition on this culture is that it must include a community of people
around it who identify themselves in this way, whether because of how it reflects their personal values,
their heritage, or their individual needs.
2. You should research this food culture and community utilizing valid, scholarly resources as
well as information from the food community itself, like newsletters, bulletins, brochures,
literature, films, websites, etc. The goal of this research should be to acquaint you intellectually with
this culture/community’s values concerning food.
3. You should investigate this food culture and community through a planned fieldwork project
that may consist of interviews and observations. Consider visiting restaurants or markets or
interviewing members of this community. The goal of this fieldwork should be to introduce yourself to
this culture/community, to step outside of your usual comfort zone to experience this culture so that you
can better reflect on your feelings and explore them.
4. You should explore how and why this food culture is unfamiliar to you. Is it outside of your
community? Why? Or has it infiltrated in certain ways? Are their stereotypes associated with this
culture that you found confirmed, refuted, or complicated by your experience? The goal of this
exploration should be to inquire and analyze this community’s relationship to your own.
Requirements: This essay must be at least 5-7 double-spaced pages in length and make use of proper MLA
format and citation. (Note: see “Manuscript Preparation” section of syllabus for full details.) Also, for this
project, you will need to make use of at least three sources for your essay, not including your fieldwork project.
Remember: you may always use more than the minimum required for any project.
Grading Criteria: Essays turned in that do not reach the required page limits will be consider incomplete.
Remember to see your St. Martin’s handbook for general grading criteria, and your grade will be recorded
according to an A,B,C,D, or E scale. Please see ENG 104 Course Guidelines for further grade details.
Important dates:
 Essay Proposals: due Monday, Feb. 18 (Please bring three copies to class)
 1st Rough Draft: due Monday, Feb. 25 (3-5 pages long; please bring three copies to class)
 2nd Rough Draft: due Monday, Mar. 3 (5-7 pages long; please bring three copies to class)
 Final Essay: due Wednesday, Mar. 5