Final Paper: Formal Textual Analysis
Purpose
This assignment is meant to synthesize the skills weve been working on this semester: critical
thinking, close reading, writing, research, textual analysis, and argument. To put it in terms of
the course outcomes, this paper should
Demonstrate an understanding of the consequences of human actions in social and
environmental contexts, and an ability to consider the ethical and practical implications
of those actions
Demonstrate an ability to recognize the importance of creative human expression
Demonstrate an ability to recognize and respect the rights of the individual and to
appreciate the complexity and variety of divergent attitudes, values and beliefs in society
Demonstrate an understanding of the cultural and historical heritage of contemporary
society and the implications of this heritage
Assignment
Select one text or author that we have read this semester and explain how it/they make us
reconsider food or help us reimagine food. That is, demonstrate how the text or author can help
us understand our relationship to food in new waysways that arent boiled down to food-as-
nutrition or food-as-fuel.
The paper needs to be 1750-2000 words; the works cited page does not count as a page. Please
use proper MLA style: one-inch margins, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font
(easier on the readers eyes than other fonts). Dont forget your works cited page.
Research is not required. I mostly interested in seeing how well you analyze texts. However, you
are free to use outside sourcesor other things we have read in this class. (If you have questions
about how to research for a paper like this, how to use that research, or how to incorporate that
research into the essay, let me know. We can use Cranium Caf or a phone call to discuss your
particular needs and interests.)
Keep in mind, though, that this is not a research paper. Focus on the primary text. I want to see
how well you use the tools we have practiced in classespecially how well you identify and
analyze pertinent quotations in the text. Arguments start with the text; you build your thesis
through analysis of individual elements of the text.
Tips
A thesis comes from looking closely at specific elements of a poem, story, novel, or other text.
Once you identify quotations, words, and images that you think are important or interesting, you
need to ask questions that will tie them to the reinterpretation or new understanding of food you
see operating in the text. For example:
-What does this textual element suggest about the relationship between the food on our
plates and the planet, ethics, politics, the economy, race, gender, etc.?
-Does the vision serve everyone equally or seek to make food relations more equitable?
-Does the vision of food or gastropolitcs/gastroethics/gastroaesthetics that the text seems
to promote have identifiable winners and losers?
-Does the author seem to promote or endorse a particular type of food
politics/ethics/aesthetics/science? What? Most important, why does it matter?
-Does the author seem to be interested in critiquing food as we currently grow it, eat it,
think about, talk about, etc.? Why? And, of course, why does this critique matter?
Feel free to ask your own questions. These are just ideas to get you going.
Example Draft Thesis:
Certainly, David Foster Wallaces Consider the Lobster is about the ethics of eating lobster. At
its heart, though, the essay urges people to think critically about the food they eat and to make
food decisions as deliberately as they would make any other decision that has a moral dimension.
In fact, Wallace provides all the material we need to forge a new food ethic.
Criteria for Evaluation
-You must have a thesis, and it must make a claim that is arguable, significant, and specific to
the text you are analyzing
-It should be clear why your argument matters. That is, your argument should fit into some
bigger picture than the course assignment. If you think a text is about ethics, for example, what is
the potential influence it will have on readers, eatersthe world?
-You have topic sentences that clearly articulate the purpose of each paragraph
-You use quotations from the text to support your argument; the quotes are not merely there to
add emphasis to a summary of the text; the quotes are properly introduced and analyzed rather
than dropped in and expected to do all the work on their own
-You break the supporting quotations down to show how they support your claim; essentially
you are trying to reproduce the way you read the text for an unknown reader who is less familiar
with the text than you are
-You grapple with complex ideas and ask questions (explicitly or implicitly) that are not easily
answered by finding the right answer on a particular page; you go beyond translating surface
details of the work (i.e., rephrasing a statement in your o
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