Professor Tyler Thompson
RWS-100
Project #2: Gathering Sources and Situating Arguments
In the documentary Food Inc., director Robert Kenner traces the evolution, processes, and politics
of industrial food production. Through a series of interviews with environmental writers, food advocates,
and farmers, Kenner suggests that careful examination of our food system reveals shocking truths about
what we eat, how it’s produced, and who we have become as a food nation.
Your task is to construct an account of Kenner’s argument in light of outside sources. Once you
have identified Kenner’s most important claims, you will use three outside texts from the designated list
to illustrate, clarify, extend, or complicate the arguments advanced by Food Inc.
Criteria
• Accurately describe the film’s project and
argument.
• Signal the topic and give a clear indication
of how the paper will proceed.
.
• Locate claims and/or evidence from 3
outside sources that connect with the argument.
• Analyze these claims/evidence in order to
show how they illustrate, clarify, extend, or
complicate arguments found in Food Inc.
• Present evidence that explains in detail how
these texts illustrate, clarify, extend, or
complicate the movie’s arguments.
• Use an effective structure that carefully guides
the reader from one idea to the next that is
thoroughly edited so that sentences are
readable and appropriate for an academic paper.
• Include an annotated bibliography with a short
summary of a minimum of six outside sources.
• Correct MLA format (See Keys for Writers),
size 12 Times New Roman font, Include a
properly formatted Works Cited.
• Length: 5-6 pages.
Due Dates:
-First draft due October 25, 2011
-Graded draft due November 3, 2011
-Final Draft for revision grade due
November 17, 2011
Assignment Structure
Part 1. Introduction (1-2 paragraphs)
1. Introduce the author/director and his project. Address:
a) Credibility
b) Project (What sort of work the filmmaker set out to
do, how, and why?)
2. The author’s main argument - what is he trying to get
us to believe?
3. State the direction of your analysis and the steps you
will take to get us there (“metadiscourse.”) (E.g., “In
my analysis of Kenner’s text I will examine X and
show Y.”)
Part 2. The Body, your central analysis
In this section, you will analyze 3 major claims that can be
related to outside texts.
For each claim, you will:
 Identify Kenner’s claim in your own words.
 Identify a connecting claim from a secondary source.
 Identify and explain how the secondary text illustrates,
clarifies, extends, or complicates Kenner’s claim.
 Explain how the secondary text connects to Kenner’s
claim.
 Discuss the significance of the connection.
 Use appropriate examples and quotes from Food Inc.,
and the other texts to support your analysis.
Part 3: Your conclusion, which tells us “So What?”
In this section, discuss issues of significance / effectiveness.
 Consider as a whole what the other texts do to
Kenner’s argument.
 Consider the effectiveness of the argument – focus on a
key strength or weaknesses.
 What is the significance of the argument – why does it
matter? Has the author impacted your thinking/views
on this topic? If so, in what way?
Part 4: Properly Formatted Works Cited Page (See Keys
for Writers, part three)
Professor Tyler Thompson
RWS-100
Secondary Texts
You will read at least six of the designated texts from the list below. We will read the
first two articles in class together. You will choose the other four articles to read. Then choose
three out of six of the articles you read to illustrate, clarify, extend, or complicate one of the
arguments advanced by Food Inc.
Include every text you read in an annotated bibliography. Every student should cite
Pollan’s “Farmer in Chief” and Bittman’s “Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables” in your
annotated bibliography, as we will read these texts in class.
You may also choose to find and use an outside source from your own research.
However, if you choose to do so, you must get approval to use the source from me. There will be
no exceptions. Any outside sources used without approval with result in a failing grade.
Designated List:
1) "Farmer in Chief" by Michael Pollan.
2) “Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables” by Mark Bittman.
3) "Declare Your Independence" by Joel Salatin.
4) "The Future of Fish, the Last Wild Food" NPR Interview with writer Paul Greenberg.
5) “The Indignity of Industrial Tomatoes” by Barry Estabrook. An excerpt from Tomatoland:
How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.
6) “What Food Activists Ignore” by Rebecca Ruiz.
7) “The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals” by Blake Hurst.
8) “Eco-Farming and Hunger in the World: Organic and eco-friendly farming can feed the
world” by Kristin Palitza.
9) “Organic farming can’t feed the world, we need modern methods” by Alex Avery.
10) “Organic farming combats global warming—big time” by Laura Sayre.
11) “Organic farming ‘no better for the climate’” by Cahal Milmo.
12) “Organic food is just a tax on the gullible” by Dominic Lawson.
13) “Are Organic Veggies Better for You?: Maybe, or maybe not. Either way, it’s a useless
debate” by James E. McWilliams.
14) “Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008” by Paul Roberts.
15) “Organic Panic” by Christopher Beam.