After reading all assigned materials for this week – especially the

essay 2 prompt

, 

TPRW chapter 5 (連結到外部網站。)

(working thesis essay) and the

sample essay

– respond with at least one thorough paragraph (7+ sentences) here with your answers to the below questions: 

• Are you clear on what a working thesis essay is and what the essay 2 prompt is asking you to do?  How is this different than other essays you have written?
• How would you describe the strengths and weaknesses of the sample essay assigned (not the sample given in chapter 5 ; that one is weak)?

After you post, respond to at least two classmates: you can look for those you agree with and share your common points, or look for those with different views and offer your differing perspective. Your peer responses should also be at least one paragraph (5-6 sentences or more).

http://www.stevendkrause.com/tprw/chapter5.html (link for reading)

Essay 2 Assignment Instructions (Working Thesis Essay) ( just have to read this, no need to work for this!!!)

Final Draft Due: week 4 (see Canvas for due dates) Worth: 20% of your total grade

Rough Draft Due: week 3 (see Canvas for due dates)  

PURPOSE

• To demonstrate critical reading and thinking skills
• To illustrate the ability to formulate a strong and compelling thesis statement
• To understand how to utilize pre-writing and revising techniques
• To prepare an MLA-formatted essay to serve as a plan for a research essay
• To illustrate how to take feedback on previous essay to improve in a subsequent essay

For essay #3, you will be writing a “Working Thesis Essay,” as described in 

chapter 5 of TPRW (連結到外部網站。)

. After reviewing this prompt, the research essay prompt, and the sample essay(s), write your own MLA-formatted working thesis essay, following the instructions below:

WRITING PROMPT

Write a brief narrative essay where you discuss the topic you have decided to research and write about.  Tell your audience, your fellow classmates and your instructor how you arrived at this topic, some of the other ideas you considered in your brainstorming activities, and the working thesis you have settled on for the start of your project. Also, be sure to let us know about some of the initial library [or other online/credible] research you have found so far.

Even though this is a short essay (approx. 750 words), it should be very detailed, show evidence of significant thought and consideration, as also illustrate that you have started your research by including several credible sources you have found. In addition, attention to the feedback you received on essay 2 peer reviews should be obvious with evidence of revision and editing on this essay.

*This essay is required to move onto essay 3 (the research essay). Students who change their topics for the research essay after writing this essay must first complete a new working thesis essay based on the new topic

respond 1

Yes, I am clear on what a working thesis essay is and what the essay prompt 2 is asking me to do. I are supposed to write about a debatable topic I decide to research, the process that leads to an initial stance on that topic, other topics I consider, the initial working thesis I decide on, and the initial resources I find while researching. This is different than most other essays in that this will be a narrative essay, written in first person. Also, it’s not an actual essay per se but an essay about the thesis of the essay to come that will evolve and change as we do more research.

The sample essay is a great example of a working thesis essay, and clarifies what is expected for this assignment. It gives background information about the topic and why the student chose that topic. Stu went further to explain how a more general topic, through brainstorming and research, the working thesis was derived, and why it’s important. He also gave several resources he found to progress in the research process. A possible weakness I can think of is, I’m not sure if the thesis is debatable. It sounds like it may be more of an informative essay. Also, if the student was given the same prompt, he didn’t include other topics that were considered.

respond 2

Before reading chapter 5 I have never ever heard about a working thesis, I have always thought that a thesis was constant. While reading the chapter I understood that a working thesis is supposed to evolve while writing an essay and not stay as a final thesis. While a regular thesis is stated and keeps its statement throughout the essay a working thesis essay will not stay the same since it is evolving during the course of the writing of the essay. The working thesis is evolving because while writing, researching and gaining more knowledge about the topic the thesis will evolve too in the same way the person that is writing the essay will evolve its own thoughts while gaining more information about facts about the subject.  

For the sample essay I would say that one of the strengths would be that it has a good structure, probably a structure that I will get inspired of and try to copy it a little myself but still make it my own. To be completely honest, I do not see a weakness in the sample essay, I am not sure if it is because English is not my first language or about something else. I would love to for someone to answer my discussion post with answers about the weakness of the sample essay for me to understand and to be able to see it from another point of view. The only thing that I would want to add would be to at least add the links for from the info, just because if I would write this kind of draft, I would like to have the links to the research I have made available.  

Dent 1

Stu Dent

Angelina Misaghi

English 1

28 October 2018

Revealing the Truth About What You Feed Your Body

To live, we must maintain our body and health by nourishing it constantly with

nutrient-rich goods, such as food, fluids and vitamins. Food stabilizes our body and also

gives it the energy it requires to progress through one’s day. In the modern world, farms

utilize many conventional ways of growing their produce—often geared towards the

fastest way to create the best-looking produce with the longest shelf life. Consumers can

be under the mistaken impression that they chose a healthy food or product, but with a

few minutes of basic research into the company that produced it, they can discover their

mistake and determine that their “healthy choice” could have harmful effects on their

body and future health. Healthy food is the general topic I started with.

Brainstorming strategies such as freewriting and clustering helped narrow my

topic from healthy food to the specific problem of conventional farming methods. I chose

this issue primarily because of my passion for “clean” eating. While healthy foods and

their benefits have always intrigued me, finding clean and superior quality foods

produced from trustworthy companies has been a greater interest because it is much more

challenging than one could imagine. I was also interesting in this topic because my father

was diagnosed with a digestive disease that required a very specific diet. In the

beginning, it was difficult to find a place where we could all eat as a family. Since then

his disease, celiac disease, has become more widespread and gluten-free foods have

Dent 2

become more common. Not only did my family and I have to find nutritious and gluten-

free food for my father, this change in all of our lives forced us to learn about the

importance of food quality and finding trustworthy companies with honest labeling.

After researching and brainstorming and realizing that my problem was

conventional farming methods, I took a quick trip to the grocery market, and

somewhere between the meat and poultry aisle I ultimately came up with a very rough

idea of my working thesis: “Although all produce might seem fresh and wholesome,

many produce farmers use conventional methods (versus organic methods) to grow

their foods to be most visually appealing, without regard to harmful—or even life-

threatening—effects they may have on one’s health and future.” I know I might need

to cut this down more, or put it into two sentences to make it clearer.

Now more than ever, it has become a trend in society to eat fresh and healthy

foods. For example, super foods like kale and quinoa are becoming more popular.

However, the problem is that not everyone inquires about the source of their kale or

quinoa prior to consumption. Consumers should investigate and scrutinize the source of

their fresh produce and other grocery items, including the reputation of the growers and

the manner in which they were grown.

I started my research process and organization by gathering articles that relate to

my topic specifically. So far, I have found four articles from the SMC database, namely,

“Association between Time Perspective and Organic Food Consumption in a Large

Sample of Adults”, “Is Eating Organic a Healthy or Safer Option”, “A Profile of the

Organic Produce Consumer” and lastly, “Aspects Regarding the Evolution the Organic

Food Market in the World.” These articles discuss the various dangerous health effects of

Dent 3

conventionally grown foods on a human being, as well as the different growing process

protocols involved in producing organic versus conventional produce. In addition to the

articles, I found an incredible Ted Talk called “Why You Have the Right to Know

What’s In Your Food” which gave me a lot of information, but I am still trying to decide

what I might use from it in my essay. I also have my textbook from the Nutrition 1 class I

took last year, and I hope to find useful information in there. I know there are several

documentaries on the problems with the western diet so I will research some of those for

my paper.

The chemicals, hormones, and additives put into our produce, dairy, fish, meat

and poultry by farms and production companies are not given the attention and scrutiny

they deserve. We must be armed with knowledge in order to properly choose what we

want to feed our bodies and the bodies of those we care for. Conventionally grown foods

are a serious issue, with lasting impacts on people’s well-being and lifespan. I hope that

my research paper can be a helpful tool in providing information and evidence of the

effects of conventionally grown food as well as provide my audience a beneficial

solution.