ora Corrigan’s Reacting to the Past Writing Assignments

1. Reacting presentation and position paper: As part of the Reacting game, each student will complete a 4-minute oral presentation making an argument for their character’s position on the USDA Food Pyramid, followed by a formal three-page position paper which will develop this argument in more detail, supporting the student’s position with citations from at least two written sources. One of these sources may be the Game Manual; the other should be one of the original scholarly articles that have been made available through Canvas. Students playing members of Congress should also refer to the arguments made by other students in the game (those playing lobbyists, nutrition experts, and government officials), although these do not require formal source citations.

Position papers will be due at the class meeting after the final vote, so that students can incorporate feedback and questions from the hearings as they revise. You should, however, have a written draft completed by the day of your oral presentation, although you shouldn’t simply read from this draft; the most effective presentations are dynamic, use less formal language than written papers, and allow the speaker to maintain eye contact with the audience.

In most cases, you will be summarizing and paraphrasing your sources in this paper, rather than quoting them directly, but note that summary and paraphrase also require formal documentation. We will review how to cite scholarly articles in MLA format in class; please follow these guidelines rather than copying the citations from your Game Manual, which are in a different format. To cite the (unpublished) Game Manual in your bibliography, use this format:

Henderson, Susan K., and David E. Henderson. Challenging the USDA Food Pyramid – 1991. Student Game Book V-3.6. Reacting to the Past Consortium, 2015.

2. In-Class Writing for EN 102

Name ______

1)Briefly summarize the main ideas you took away from Willett’s article.

2)What DIDN’T you understand? Which parts did you find the most challenging to read, and why?

3)What questions do you have?

3. In-Class Writing for EN 102

Name ______

1)According to Welsh, Davis, and Shaw’s article, what were some of the factors the designers of the food pyramid considered as they were choosing how to represent dietary recommendations visually?

2)What differences did you notice between this article and Willett’s article about the relationship between diet and cancer risk?