Rhetorical analysis of Project 3

What's going on?

In this blog post I will be discussing the ins and outs of the rhetorical situation that surrounds my topic regarding school lunches and packed lunches.

Author

1. How will I draw on my interests and goals?

• This topic relates to dieting which I have a strong interest in. I'm very much into learning more about dieting, especially when it concerns my background growing up. I know personal experiences will be huge for me in this project.

• By majoring in business I won't have a direct connection to this situation, but I will have secondary connections. The advertisement of school lunches, and ads that revolve whether packing your lunch or buying school lunches will come into effect here.

• Social issues that have come about regarding weight loss and dieting interest me deeply. With the obesity epidemic that has struck the United States, i feel as if it's a great project idea. I like to follow bodybuilding.com as a source of this information, for tips on dieting and weight loss.

• This topic also follows one of my professional goals in life which is to create awareness for obese children. Growing up having experienced this, I understand how this happens and what the causes of this epidemic are. One of the main instigators of this epidemic starts with the lunches kids eat every day.

• The personal interest factor that comes from this is that I grew up severely overweight. I was extremely obese for 12 years of my life and I firmly believe this could have been a link to it. The school lunch vs. homemade lunch idea has sparked an interest in something I have personally experienced, which I think makes it an excellent topic to talk about.

2. Preconceptions and previously held opinions?

• Family values tie into this well. My mom has always had the sense that she needed to make sure that her kids were fed well. This extends to past generations, it's just how my family is. That being said I was always thinking that I was eating healthier than other kids, but it may have not been the case. We eat very well in my family to say the least.

• Social class can tie into this issue, but it didn't apply for me as much. We were middleish class so we could have either bought or made my lunches growing up. Now for someone growing up in poverty, the option of bringing lunch from home may not have been an option.

• School lunches are pretty regulatory amongst public schools, so location didn't really have an enormous impact, compared to something like economic status.

• Religion didn't tie into this project for me either. I wasn't raised Catholic or Jewish so there were never any dietary restrictions. This isn't going to play in personally to me, but it's definitely something to keep in perspective.

• Political and cultural factors also don't play a big part into this from a personal side. There's just not much connection.

Audience

• I'm making this project primarily for parents and school staff members. These people are going to be the most concerned with whether or not which kinds of lunches are healthy or not. I'm going to lay out the facts behind the topic and allow the parents and school staff to try and make the best decision for their children, rather than force a biased opinion down the audience's throat.

• I feel that the parents side may feel that what they are doing is best for their child. Whether that's packing a lunch for their kid or not, I feel that the parents will be more stubborn on this issue. School staff will probably lean more towards the side that school lunches are healthier just because that may disrespect them to say that their food isn't good. I'll respond to this by presenting studies that give concrete evidence behind the school vs. packed lunch argument.

• I think the parents will react kind of offended towards the argument, depending on if they are doing the healthiest choice for their child. I feel like they may brush it off at first but then realize that what they're doing may not be the best idea for their child. School staff will probably react less due to the fact that there isn't much that they can do, as it's their job to cook and serve as they're told to do.

• I will connect to the audience by speaking as a kid who has grown up with the bagged lunch aspect in my history. I know the kinds of food my mom put in there, and the foods most moms will typically put in there. I will argue with concrete facts so that I have official evidence behind the topic, so then people who disagree can't really tell me no.

• I know for a fact that currently my Aunt Margaret would fall into this category as she has a daughter (my cousin) who is currently going through elementary school right now. I think if I showed her how healthy school lunches actually are, and that the lunches she packs could damage Kaitlyn's health, then I could get her to agree with me.

Purpose/Message

1. What am I trying to accomplish?

• My hope for this project is that the audience will take into consideration what the best option for their children are. This project is focused on providing the best options for the children going through school that don't have much knowledge on nutrition and other aspects of a healthy lifestyle. If the parents can go out and make a positive change for their child's well-being, then I'd consider this project to be successful.

• The audience must consider that this is not universal. Obviously if you and your child are vegans or vegetarians then the diet will change, and this argument may not fully apply. The audience needs to realize that these studies are based on averages and not a case to case basis. I just want the audience to consider that there are other factors behind this argument.

• I want the audience to believe that their child comes first. I'm not doing this to take shots at parents and tell them they suck at parenting, I'm doing this to provide insight on what the best option is for the children. What the parents do with that knowledge is totally up to them.

2. What still needs to be accomplished?

• I'm going to lay it all on the line, every fact and every detail. So if anything needs to be better explained after this, I don't think I did well. The only thing post viewing will be for the audience to make a judgement based on the information that I've provided them.

• People arguing about this need to be reminded that this isn't about them, but rather their children. They need to put pride and other selfish traits aside and think about their children in this argument.

• I addressed the perspectives earlier, the only other perspective that would need to be reviewed is the actual food manufacturer's perspective.

• I don't think that there is any other people that we need to hear from as of right now.

• The information we need to gather is who exactly the manufacturer's are for school food, and what exactly is in the school food that kids are eating.

Context

1. What genre?

• I will be doing the standard college essay.

• Audience expectations include things along the line of formal writing, proper grammar, and basically your standard essay conventions with intros, body paragraphs, conclusion and all that good jazz.

• I've done many essays throughout high school so I have a little bit of pre-college experience with this genre of writing.

• My comfort level is good, I'm very passionate about the subject so it'll be a good topic for me. The genre makes me feel a little nervous, as it doesn't allow me to get as creative as other genres, but I'll have to work with what I've got!

• The two most effective conventions are the hook and the conclusion paragraph. I think these are the most effective because just for someone to read your paper, you have to draw them in effectively. Without that, the audience won't go past the first paragraph. As for the conclusion, you have to finish the essay on a great note. 

2. When?

• The only historical event that can be really linked to this is Michelle Obama's influence on school lunches. She recently set the standards for what foods students are allowed in schools, which controls calorie totals and requires certain amounts of food groups that students must consume at every lunch. Other than this there aren't too many government laws that have actually affected the school lunches across the United States.

• Four media outlets that are discussing this are The New York Times, CBS, Huffington Post, and U.S. News.

• Some major counterarguments that I'll have to respond to are the price factor of the food, diet exceptions for students that may not be able to eat school lunches, and the idea that parents only pack healthy snacks for their kids. These are the main counterarguments to my main argument.