Food opens with a recipe for “steamed Maryland blue crabs.” This single recipe connects the author to a lifetime of memories, binds her to a locale, and represents a narrative of family ties and traditions. Yet it is merely a gesture toward the singularly important place that food holds in our lives. Far more than providing sustenance, food defines us. It connects us with people and places. It sets us in relation to others. It calls up important questions of sustainability and production, of ethics and responsibility.
For all these reasons, food gives us a rich variety of opportunities for writing and research, and this text is designed so that students will read, think, and compose with all of these considerations and questions in mind.
In addition to written and visual texts, Food includes invention, research, and composing prompts that help students add their voice to the ongoing conversations about a variety of food-related issues. And students will do more than write here: prompts and other assignments in the book encourage them to explore various modes of communication—by asking them to write scripts and produce videos, to develop presentations, to conduct primary and secondary research, and to analyze and explain menus and food production practices.
978-1-59871-431-9
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Sample Syllabus - Food
Sample Syllabus - Food & Praxis: A Brief Rhetoric