Skilled Writing through Inquiry
WR090.98, Winter 2012
Essay One:
The Expository Essay
Sustainable Food | Sustainable Agriculture
100 points
Due Dates

Linking sentences, Wednesday, Feb. 20th

Blueprint / first draft: Friday, Feb. 22nd

First draft: Monday, Feb. 25th
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Second draft: Wednesday, Feb. 27th
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Final draft: Friday, March 1st
Essay Purpose
This essay will serve one primary learning purpose: You will use this assignment in order to
demonstrate that you have beginning skills in writing an organized, unified formal fiveparagraph essay that demonstrates you have learned to how use coordination, concession,
verbal phrases, and noun phrase appositives in the development and articulation of your
ideas. You will find that this approach leads to strong writing because it is based on
disciplined thinking, and the result will be a well-written paper.
Assignment Description
You will write an essay of five to seven (5 – 7) paragraphs in which you develop a thesis on a
topic of your choice having to do with sustainable food. You might want to use the
definition of sustainability presented in the videos. (See the portal for notes from the short
video we watched and discussed in class.) As you develop your discussion, you will use the
sources and ideas presented thus far in the course, drawing on Food Inc., your reading, a
website, class discussion, and outside sources. This means that you may use the sources we
have already explored in the course— the movie (Food, Inc.), an article of your choice from
the list provided in class, at least one web-based resource, our class discussion, and your
previous free-writing on sustainable food and agriculture. Please also draw upon what you
know and learned about the topic outside of this course. Your own experience, of course, is
invaluable, so you should also use it.
Your paper will have a descriptive title, one that hints at or summarizes the content of the
essay.
Mt. Hood Community College
Mary Kelly-Klein, Instructor
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Your introductory paragraph will introduce your thesis and paper by explaining why your
reader should care about the topic (its importance) plus your thesis statement. Your thesis
will advance your own ideas about the sustainable food. Your thesis will express an opinion,
be debatable, and state some kind of relationship. Ideally, you will use concession when you
express your thesis statement.
Each body paragraph will explain a reason to support your thesis in at least 5 or 6 sentences.
The ideas in the paragraph will be framed by a topic sentence. You will use reliable facts,
statements by acknowledged authorities, and examples whenever possible. So, for example,
if your thesis is solution-focused, one body paragraph might make the case for the need to
change the way we do things, another body paragraph might describe in some detail what
the solution(s) is (are), another may discuss projects that currently exist. Or one of your
body paragraphs may discuss the plusses and minuses of solutions.
You will use the vocabulary of the inquiry in your essay (Food, Inc.).
Your conclusion will summarize your major points and reflect back to the thesis. You will not
introduce any new material or major points in your conclusion.
Essay Length & Formatting
Your essay will be composed of an introductory paragraph, three to five (3 –5) body
paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph for a total of five to seven (5 to 7) paragraphs. Your
essay will be between 2 and 3 pages in length, double-spaced, with margins of 1.25 inches on
both sides, and use 10 to 12 point standard fonts. You will title your essay with a descriptive
title, and your name and a page number will be present on each page.
Please carefully review and use the essay rubric as you write your paper. I will use it to
evaluate your essay. And please do call, text, or email me with your questions or concerns!
Citations & Avoiding Plagiarism
You will cite the sources of all material that you either paraphrase or quote, and you will use
quotations marks when you do directly (word-for-word) quote an author or source. You will
name the person you are quoting in the body of the paragraph itself, and you will use an
appositive to state the credentials or authority of that person. You will cite by placing the
name of the source of your quotation in parenthesis after the quote. If you use a website,
you will copy and paste the specific web address where you found the material right into the
body of the paper, enclosing the quote in parenthesis as in the example below. If you omit
words from a quote—which you should do if the quotation is lengthy, you will use an ellipsis
(three dots in a row …). You will learn how to do official MLA style citations in WR115 and
beyond. Please refer to the sample, below:
Smart-Alec Knowitall, distinguished professor of food science at Elite University and head of the National
Poultry Science Association reminds us that “…food science is an emerging science…” Knowitall adds,
Mt. Hood Community College
Mary Kelly-Klein, Instructor
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“… if we do not take action soon, we may find ourselves in an untenable situation” within one or two
generations (http://www.npsa.gov).
A Word about Revising and Re-Writing this Essay
You will receive a raw score, a score converted to a percentage, and a letter grade for this
paper. You will be wise to schedule an appointment with a writing tutor and/or your kind
and helpful writing instructor (that would be me). Since writing tutors become quite busy
at this time of the year, you might think about scheduling your appointment sooner rather
than later in the process.
What Must Accompany Your Essay (please check off)
 These instructions
 Freewrites, brainstorms, and any other pre-writing you may do
 The annotated article you used to support your thinking and/or paper
 The Essay Blueprint, using complete sentences throughout
 Your first draft and unity notes
 Your second draft and peer review notes (coordination, concession, appositives)
 Your proofreading draft, marked up
 Your final draft
 A thoughtful, typed and proofread paragraph about the experience of using a
process in writing this essay.
And as always, email/text your questions!
Remember, the only silly question is the one not asked!
Mt. Hood Community College
Mary Kelly-Klein, Instructor