Tim La Pira
Paper #1: Schlosser
Rough Draft: 4 pages due in class Wednesday, September 15 (bring three copies)
Final Draft: 5 pages due Thursday, September 23
Perhaps due to the popularity of Schlosser’s full-length book Fastfood Nation or to Morgan Spurlock’s film Super Size Me released this past summer, McDonald’s has discontinued the Super Size option in most of its restaurants in the United States. This decision seems to contradict Schlosser’s claim that, “the major chains have apparently decided that it’s much easier and much more profitable to increase the size and the fat content of their portions than to battle eating habits largely formed by years of their own mass marketing” (539). However, in a press release responding to the release of Spurlock’s film, McDonald’s claimed that, “Our customers are smart. They know what’s best for themselves and their families. And our customers continue to trust McDonald’s, because they know we offer a wide variety of high-quality food choices” (http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/news/corppr/cpr_04292004.html).
Question
Are consumers or corporations responsible for the escalating obesity rates in the United States? Do people simply crave larger, fattier portions today more than in the past, or have years of mass marketing changed people’s eating habits for the worse? If McDonald’s believes their “customers are smart,” then why would they make their menu healthier? How does the company’s insistence that “our customers continue to trust McDonald’s” actually imply that the food service industry rather than consumers are to blame? In your paper, take a position on personal responsibility versus corporate responsibility. Argue whether individuals or corporations are the primary cause of the obesity epidemic in the United States. Use textual evidence from the Schlosser text to support your position.
Objective
For this writing assignment, focus your attention on the following:
Project: Develop your own position on the question of corporate and personal responsibility.
Working with text: Use the Schlosser text to support your argument, but do not simply summarize his argument and use it as your own. Refer to the reading by directly quoting or paraphrasing parts of the text. Explain all textual references and relate them to your project.
Organization: Incorporate one distinct idea that relates to your project for each paragraph in the body of your paper. Use clear transitions between paragraphs, as well as between Schlosser’s quotes and paraphrases and your interpretations.
Presentation: Proofread your paper. Then proofread it again to make sure it is free of punctuation, grammar, spelling, syntax, and other errors. Spell-check will not do this for you.
Paper #2: Schlosser and Kaldor
Rough Draft: 4 pages due in class Wednesday, September 29 (bring three copies)
Final Draft: 5 pages due Thursday, October 8
In the first reading, Schlosser uncovered how the McDonald’s Corporation—once a modest, family-owned business from Muncie, Indiana—has expanded worldwide in predatory fashion, resulting in what he interprets as the Americanization of many cultures across the globe. In the second reading, Kaldor describes the advent of what she calls “new wars” fought by unconventional forces consisting of “armed networks of non-state and state actors” (385). A key feature of such “new wars” is that they are often waged without regard to the Cold War nation-state alignments and involve sprawling networks of actors across the globe. Both of these authors seem to question, albeit from very different perspectives, the traditional definition of the modern state as an organization, group, or party with a monopoly over violence and coercion in a given geographic area.
Question
Is the modern nation-state becoming obsolete? How do both Schlosser and Kaldor implicitly challenge the state as the dominant form of political, economic, and social organization throughout the world? If both the globalization of American culture and the advent of “new wars” are occurring, then what will happen when these worlds clash? In your paper, make a reasonable argument whether nation-states will endure in the 21st Century, or whether there will by some new dominant form of organization to replace it in the decades to come.
Objective
For this writing assignment, focus your attention on the following:
Project: Make connections between Schlosser and Kaldor to support your project.
Working with text: Use both texts to support your argument, but avoid summarizing Schlosser’s and Kaldor’s arguments and using them as your own. Refer directly to the reading and relate all textual references to your project.
Organization: Organize your paper around three or four specific connections between Schlosser and Kaldor. Each connection can be treated as a separate idea and given one or two paragraphs in the text. Use clear transitions between paragraphs and between quotes/paraphrases and your interpretations.
Presentation: Proofread your paper. Then proofread it again to make sure it is free of punctuation, grammar, spelling, syntax, and other errors.
Paper #3: Schlosser, Kaldor, and Drucker
Rough Draft: 4 pages due in class Wednesday, October 13 (bring three copies)
Final Draft: 5 pages due Thursday, October 21
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