Exploratory research inquir Literature & Language Essay
I hope to give me a rough draft of about five pages in these two days, and then finish it!
College Writing - WRTG 100 - Writing Project #3 Research Essay Over the course of this semester, we’ve looked at a range of arguments, rhetorical tactics, and strategic methods of promoting and countering ideas. We’ve learned to look for, rely on, and scrutinize the existing thinking, writing, and research on a topic. In class and for homework, we’ve practiced making our own arguments, explored how best to articulate our own thinking, and looked at ways to contextualize and strengthen our positions with research. We’ve practiced finding, assessing, and analyzing sources; using the words of others to further our own arguments; and integrating our writing and thinking with the thoughts and words of others. Now that you’ve completed your annotated bibliography on a chosen topic, it’s time to draw on those sources to make a reasoned and well defended argument. We’ll combine the various skills we’ve worked on to make and sustain an argument over the course of longer essay. The essay should engage with a topic and contribute to it. It should make its topic matter to readers. Furthermore, it should offer a complication, a solution, or a fresh point of view. The Assignment Your job is to use your research from Writing Project #2 (Annotated Bibliography), as well as whatever new research you might need, to describe in full a contemporary topic. You’ll note the various stakeholders, and highlight some of the existing debates surrounding the issue. Then, you’ll make your own strong, interesting, and somewhat risky argument to join the existing conversation. In making such an argument, you’ll have to anticipate how your thinking will be received by others, and who your potential naysayers might be. General Requirements/Info: • approx. 8 pages • MLA Works Cited page • At least 6 sources • 2 scholarly • 3 popular • 1 new! (i.e. not in your Annotated Bibliography) • 25% of your grade The Essay Your essay will draw on previous work done in this course: analysis work, research, the annotated bibliography, strengthening argument and introducing naysayers, source integration, paraphrasing, etc. • The essay you write must be built around an explicit or implicit thesis. The essay cannot be simply a report about a topic. • The essay should be one cohesive piece of writing with a consistent tone and sense of purpose. • It must effectively join an academic conversation, incorporating the ideas and points of view of the academically acceptable sources you gather. Why Are We Doing This? The required length and scope of this essay will challenge students to sustain an argument and support it through reason and interaction with published sources. Schedule: - 11/5: Introduce Writing Project #3. - 11/9: Introductions + Outline - 11/12: Points of Argument: Body Paragraphs - 11/16: Draft Due. Peer Review Round 1; Conclusions - 11/19: Conferences! - 11/23: Final Draft Due Grading: See College Writing Program’s grading criteria. You will be graded on the following: • Does your essay educate or intellectually entertain readers? • Do you make good use of several different kinds of sources? • Are your sources and quotations fluently integrated? • Is your prose tight and well-suited to the thesis? • Is your essay without grammatical or mechanical error?
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Exploratory Research Inquiry
Today, obesity is among the fastest rising epidemics that pose adverse health problems. Medical evidence on the health impacts suggests that there might be a reduction in life expectancy if the disease is not controlled. In the United States, the cases of obesity among citizens have doubled compared to statistical records from 1960. Obesity is associated with adverse medical conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, leading to premature death. Moreover, obesity causes difficulty staying energetic and active, therefore decreasing an individual’s quality of life. The surge in the number of obesity cases in America makes it a public health issue. Moreover, the crisis is associated with a high economic cost for obese individuals and society, continuously growing. The epidemic has been associated with increased expenditure costs in the health care system due to several comorbid conditions related to the epidemic. Various scholars present several arguments on who is responsible for the prevalence of obesity. Opinions from most scholarly sources focus on implementing the roles of stakeholders to decrease the prevalence of obesity. The paper discusses evidence in fast food industries, market failure, corruption, and offers solutions. Furthermore, the research addresses the challenges that arise due to the differing interests of companies. As some stakeholders are working towards supporting health, some institutions' motives collide with their interest in tackling the prevalence of obesity.
Fast Food Industry
There is a parallel relationship between the expansion of fast food industries over the past 50 years and the surge in obesity incidences (Alston and Okren 4). Consumers are more inclined to consume fast food compared to healthy foods for several reasons. However, the consumption of fast food and trans fat poses a significant challenge in the fight against the obesity epidemic. This challenge is attributed to the fact that fast food can be accessed easily in restaurants. Moreover, the taste is appealing, and the food is relatively affordable. Fast foods are high in calories and fats, yet they serve minimal nutritional purposes. However, fast food industries promote fast food consumption and ignore the negative implications of these foods. These industries invest heavily in food-related advertisements, focusing on brand recognition (Bhattacharya and Bundorf). These industries are also aggressively involved in the sales and marketing of their products to attain significant profit margins. Furthermore, most companies consider obesity less significant than their businesses’ profitability due to the influence of profit-oriented businesses consumers trade-off their health for pleasure. Ludwig and Rogoff share similar opinions of imposing taxation on processed foods and banning fast food advertisements among children (Ludwig and Rogoff). The authors also provide other solutions, including funding obesity research projects, establishing a commission to implement obesity policies, and advocating for quality nutrition in institutions. A more direct approach all reversing the obesity epidemic primarily focuses on mitigating the impact of fast-food industries on people’s health. This approach provides immediate feedback since fast food significantly contributes to weight gain. The technique of regulating the fast food industry could work independently, unlike other methods. However, the government may consider the possibility of a self-imposed economic depression. Some government officials are stakeholders in fast food industries, and thus, they might influence government involvement.
Market Failure
Market failure is an obesity crisis since individual interest is more dominant than the welfare of society. Therefore, it is a challenge to the government and other stakeholders to reduce the surge of obesity cases. Market failure becomes inevitable due to the divergence between public interest and private profits. The food market has proved highly competitive; therefore, it is not an efficient market where individuals act for society’s welfare. Market failure has contributed to the high cost of living a healthier life than the cost of being obese. The food industry has responded appropriately to most consumers who prioritize taste and price in foods over control of weight and nutrition. The food industry has provided tastier and inexpensive foods regardless of their effects of causing rapid weight gain. Due to the greed for profits, the market food companies do not consider the costs and harm of obesity. Customers are rendered vulnerable due to the market failures resulting from negative externalities and asymmetric information (Karnani et al. 4). Negative externalities occur when consumers do not consider or are not aware of the longer-term health implications of the food they consume. For their benefits, food companies set the prices according to the cost of production and ingredients and not the significance of the population’s health.
Marketing is an essential part of food companies. In 2012, food companies spent 4.6 billion on advertising and marketing in the United States, and their primary target was children and adolescents (Hemphill). Children are usually a significant target for food marketing by food companies due to their vulnerability. Aesthetics easily lures children in advertisements, and therefore they have limited cognitive abilities to make decisions based on preferences. Children are significant to food marketers since they can easily influence purchases made by their parents. They are also the future adult market, therefore increasing the food companies’ profits. Advertising can have a strong influence on children, marketing of low nutrients products to children can increase obesity epidemics (Alston and Abigail 28). Social contagion fuels the rapid spread of obesity. Since it is human nature to learn from those around them, it is easier to influence others in accepting their social behavior in food and norms that support being overweight. However, it is not acceptable to stigmatize obese individuals since this has adverse psychological health effects on vulnerable populations. Market failure can also be caused by the use of information that several consumers do not understand. Individuals tend to overestimate their calorie expenditure and underestimate calorie intake. Moreover, customers have limited information on the connection between calories and weight gain or weight loss. Food addiction can be termed as a market failure for adults who are vulnerable to food addiction. Therefore, market failure serves as evidence for the collision between some stakeholders and profit-oriented institutions.
Corruption
Corruption is a vital factor to be considered when selecting ways of mitigating the prevalence of obesity. The fear of double standards leads to conflicting forces from stakeholders in support of health and profit-making businesses. Corruption influences government decisions on taxation and impedes rationality in decision making. The government ought to focus on the benefits of minimizing the massive expenditures in the health sector due to obesity. However, political powers concentrate more on the economic losses in their businesses. These conflicts lead to resolutions that fail to resolve the problem of obesity epidemic prevalence. For instance, the government would prefer to impose health initiatives like labeling fast food and transfer the burden to the consumer rather than banning or regulating consumption. Therefore, in most cases, government policies may be implemented as mere formalities rather than matters of public health concern. Furthermore, due to corruption, the government provides incentives to industr...