Essay 2 Fast Food Nation

                                                         Essay 2 Instructions

Essay 2 (500 words) will be an argument synthesis paper concerning any of the topics brought up in Fast Food Nation. (I have included some ideas for prompts, but if you would like to write about another issue, then let me know.) Use only your book. DO NOT USE OTHER SOURCES. Read the helpful “MLA Formatting and Style Guide” from the OWL. This time in your essay, you will use information you’ve obtained from the book to support your argument. You must include at least three quotes and at least three paraphrases from the book. You must include MLA in-text citations (parenthetical references) after using quotes or paraphrases, but you do not have to include a works cited page. 

Possible prompts for Essay 2:

1. Fast      food companies hire more teenagers than any other business in the U.S. They have often been accused of not      training their young employees sufficiently. Do you agree or disagree? Provide plenty of evidence from the book      to support your argument.
2. Like      many American industries, the meatpacking industry changed its way of      business and shifted to a cheaper source of labor, ending a decades-long      association with unions that protected workers by demanding safe working      conditions and decent wages. Argue      for or against this practice.
3. In      Chapter 5, “Why the Fries Taste Good,” Schlosser tells us about the flavor      industry and its role in processed food. Do you think food companies need to be more honest about the      ingredients they use? Why or why      not?

Some important features of Essay 2:

1. Summarizing,      quoting, and paraphrasing must be documented using MLA
2. Organization      of argument must be clear
3. A      balance of your ideas and ideas from your sources must exist
4. Counterarguments      must be summarized, discussed, and refuted (responded to)
5. Logical      fallacies must be avoided; authors’ logical fallacies must be discussed

MLA in-text citations, also called parenthetical references, are very important. Here are a few examples of using them with quoting and paraphrasing:

Paraphrase (idea/information from source, but put into your own words): 

• Since Hurricane Katrina,      Social Services said there are about six thousand more homeless people in New Orleans (Saulny 2). **Notice the last name of the author and      the page number where the information was found are both included. Notice the parentheses, and notice that      the punctuation comes after the last parenthesis. This is considered a paraphrase because      the student writer put the information into her own words.

Quote (exact wording of author): 

• One writer has the right      idea: “Solutions need to start at the grassroots, but we now have models      that can be followed nationally” (Smith 2). **This quote is preceded by a signal      phrase that makes it clear that the writer agrees with the quote. Always introduce a quote with a signal      phrase; never have a quote just sitting there on its own, which would make      it a freestanding quote. The quote      is in quotation marks because it is the exact wording of the author.
• His intent is to “take      homeless policy from the old idea of funding programs that serve homeless      people endlessly and invest in results that actually end homelessness”      (Gladwell 8). **This is a quote      that is integrated with a paraphrase.

According to FEMA spokesman Ronnie Simpson, “It’s the individual’s responsibility to go out and find what’s suitable for them” (qtd. in Saulny 3). **This is quote within an article, meaning that the author, Saulny, interviewed Ronnie Simpson, and is quoting him in her piece. The student writer used this quote in his own essay, and to let us know that it is not Saulny’s words, he used qtd. in in front of the author’s name and page number.