English 101 Fall 2012
Questions on the Reading “Stanford Scientists Cast Doubt….”
After you have read the article (see source information below) and marked up a copy or taken notes, write short answers to the questions, using complete sentences and giving examples. Do not do more research on the Web. Use only information that you can find out by reading this article. You may, however, look up words in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online or in a hard copy. The first questions here are mostly on content; others ask you to do a rhetorical analysis and draw inferences about other elements in the article.
1. What is the main point of the reading? Write down the sentence(s) from the article, copying exactly what is in the article and putting it in quotation marks.
2. Now that you have copied the main point(s), try putting that into your own words, not using the same language or sentence structure that was in the original. Obviously, you will have to use a few ordinary words like “food” but use as few as possible and do not put these in the same sentence structure as in the original.
3. What is the purpose of the article and the genre (kind) of writing? What is the structure? Where are the more important and less important pieces of information? Why is it organized this way?
4. What kind of research did the scientists at Stanford do? What was their method of coming up with this conclusion? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this method of research? Who funded the research?
5. What do the scientists seem to assume about consumers’ thinking and habits? Are there any details not included in the main points of the article which may still influence consumers’ choices?
6. Does anything seem to be left out of the study? Are there issues you think they might have dealt with? What did the scientists not investigate that perhaps they should have? What reasons do the scientists give for using present safety standards? Are those reasons convincing?
7. Rhetorical Analysis: Who is the author? Are you told anything about him? Do you get any sense of his personality or personal feelings? What is the tone of the article and the attitude toward the scientists? Where did this appear and what might the target audience be? What seem to be the assumptions about the target audience (interests, level of education, values, etc.)? Do you think the style is clear? Are both sides (or several sides) of the topic covered?
8. If this were a different type of writing—for example, something written from personal experience-- how might it have been written differently? If it were an argument, an editorial or opinion piece, how would it have been different?
9. Fill out the chart below, just using the information from the article. Be sure to pay attention to who is making the claim and whether the researchers support the claim.
Perceived advantages (consumers’ view) / Perceived disadvantages(consumers’ view) / Stanford researchers’ conclusions
Organic
Conventional
Source used for this exercise:
Chang, Kenneth. “Stanford Scientists Cast Doubt on Advantages of Organic Meat and
Produce.” The New York Times, September 3, 2012. Web. September 8, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/science/earth/study-questions-advantages-of-organic-meat-and-produce.html
Organic v. conventional exercise, 2of 2