Writing Assignments Food

Short Writing Assignment #1: 600 words

• Stage 1: Please write an 600 word maximum answer to the following question by October 23, 2020 11:59pm.

• Topic: Give a concise summary of the critique of agriculture we have been reading and the alternative view from Steven Pinker. Then assess Montgomery's argument.

• Advice about collaboration: I encourage you to collaborate with other students, but only up to the point of sharing ideas, references to class notes and readings, and your own notes. Collaboration is part of the academic process and the intellectual world that college courses are based on, so it is important to me that you have the possibility to collaborate. It's a great way to make sure that a high average level of learning and development occurs. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to NOT share text of draft answers or outlines of your answer. Keep it verbal. Generate your own examples.

• Prepare your answer and submit it in the following way:

1. Do not put your name in the file or filename. You may put your student id number in the file. Put a word count in the file.
2. In Word, check "File" and "Options" to make sure your name does not appear as author. You may want to change this to "anon" for this document.
3. Format your answer in double spaced text in a 12 point font, using normal margins.
4. Save the file in the ".docx" file format using the file name "Assessment1".
5. Log in to courses.alfino.org. Upload your file to the Points dropbox.

• Stage 2: Please evaluate four student answers and provide brief comments and a score. Review the Assignment Rubric for this exercise. We will only be using the Flow and Content areas of the rubric for this assignment. Complete your evaluations and scoring by October 28, 2020, 11:59pm.

• Use this Google Form to evaluate four peer papers. The papers will be on the Sharepoint site under Student Writing, but please do not edit these files or add comments directly on them. This will compromise your anonymity.
• To determine the papers you need to peer review, I will send you a key with animal names in alphabetically order, along with saint names. You will find your animal name and review the next four (4) animals' work.
• Some papers may arrive late. If you are in line to review a missing paper, allow a day or two for it to show up. If it does not show up, go ahead and review enough papers to get to four reviews. This assures that you will get enough "back evaluations" of your work to get a good average for your peer review credit. (You will also have an opportunity to challenge a back evaluation score of your reviewing that is out of line with the others.)

• Stage 3: I will grade and briefly comment on your writing using the peer scores as an initial ranking. Assuming the process works normally, I will give you the higher of the two grades. Up to 21 points in Points.

• Stage 4: Back-evaluation: After you receive your peer comments and my evaluation, take a few minutes to fill out this quick "back evaluation" rating form: [1]. Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino. Up to 10 points, in Q&W.

• Back evaluations are due TBD, 11:59pm.

Short Writing Assignment #2: 800 words

• Stage 1: Please write an 800 word maximum answer to the following question by Monday, April 8, 11:59pm.

• Topic: Present and assess David Montgomery's thesis about the relationship between agriculture and the fate of civilizations, as well as his view of the implications of this history for organic methods of soil management. Consider other viewpoints such as Pinker's. How strong is the case for more active conservation of soil and promotion of sustainable farming methods?

• You may bring outside research into your answer. Citations do not count in the word count.

• Advice about collaboration: I encourage you to collaborate with other students, but only up to the point of sharing ideas, references to class notes and readings, and your own notes. Collaboration is part of the academic process and the intellectual world that college courses are based on, so it is important to me that you have the possibility to collaborate. It's a great way to make sure that a high average level of learning and development occurs. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to NOT share text of draft answers or outlines of your answer. Keep it verbal. Generate your own examples.

• Prepare your answer and submit it in the following way:

1. Do not put your name in the file or filename. You may put your student id number in the file. Put a word count in the file.
2. In Word, check "File" and "Options" to make sure your name does not appear as author. You may want to change this to "anon" for this document.
3. Format your answer in double spaced text in a 12 point font, using normal margins.
4. Save the file in the ".docx" file format using the file name "SW2".
5. Log in to courses.alfino.org. Upload your file to the Q&W dropbox.

• Stage 2: Please evaluate four student answers and provide brief comments and a score. Review the Assignment Rubric for this exercise. We will only be using the Flow and Content areas of the rubric for this assignment. Complete your evaluations and scoring by Thursday, April 18th, 2019, 11:59pm.

• Use this Google Form to evaluate four peer papers. The papers will be on the Sharepoint site under Student Writing, but please do not edit these files or add comments directly on them. This will compromise your anonymity.
• To determine the papers you need to peer review, I will send you a key with animal names in alphabetically order, along with saint names. You will find your animal name and review the next four (4) animals' work.
• Some papers may arrive late. If you are in line to review a missing paper, allow a day or two for it to show up. If it does not show up, go ahead and review enough papers to get to four reviews. This assures that you will get enough "back evaluations" of your work to get a good average for your peer review credit. (You will also have an opportunity to challenge a back evaluation score of your reviewing that is out of line with the others.)

• Stage 3: I will grade and briefly comment on your writing using the peer scores as an initial ranking. Assuming the process works normally, I will give you the higher of the two grades. Up to 28 points in Q&W.

• Stage 4: Back-evaluation: After you receive your peer comments and my evaluation, take a few minutes to fill out this quick "back evaluation" rating form: [2]. Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino. Up to 10 points, in Q&W.

• Back evaluations are due TBD, 2019, 11:59pm.

Final Essays

• Please write two 600 word essays on the following two prompts. The deadline for this assignment is Thursday, May 9, 2019, 11:59pm.

• Topic A: Imagine that you came across two people arguing over the future of food production. One believes that the harms of industrial foods are overstated and efforts to focus on soil conservation are really expressions on an anti-industrial anti-technological ideology The other has trouble believing that any industrial foods can be safe and believes that we should not only promote soil conservation, but actually prohibit GMOs, herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides, and all added synthetic fertilizers. Using your critical philosophy of food superpowers, how would you help them get past these kinds of polarized and, perhaps mistaken, attitudes? Please draw on specific courses resources in your answer.

• Topic B: Choose one of the following topics for topic B:

• B1. When we think about our obligations to animals, is the language of "rights" helpful? In what contexts? Consider the contract based rights views from the reading by Milligan. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of rights talk for animal ethics.
• B2. Review the readings from our ethics classes and then select the most important or persuasive moral arguments you have found for a low meat diet, a no meat diet, and a vegan diet. Then briefly articulate your own view. Are we "moral ominvores" (there are no moral considerations for including or excluding kinds of foods from our diet) or do moral considerations play a role in what foods we will or will not eat.

• Collaboration: Unlike the papers, these essays are your final exam. Therefore, please do not confer with each other about them.

• Prepare your essays and submit them in the following way:

1. Do not put your name in the file or filename. You may put your student id number in the file. Please put your word count in the file.
2. Format your essays in double spaced text in a 12 point font, using normal margins.
3. Save each essay in a separate file, using the ".docx" file format. Use the filename "A" for the first essay and "B1" or "B2" for the second essay.
4. Log in to courses.alfino.org. Upload your file to the Final Essays dropbox.