Assignment #2.1: Reading and Annotating Pollan

Mlady/ ENG 102 February 12, 2010

We will now begin the second unit of the course which will allow us to slow down the composing process that we undertook in our work with Robinson’s essay. While the reading material deals with a different topic and is written in a different style, the workflow involved towards developing your essay will be similar. New this time will be a focus on research methodology. But just like last time, it begins with your responses to the reading.

Please print Michael Pollan’s “The Age of Nutritionism,” drawn from his book In Defense of Food. You will find the reading posted in the Resources section of the class website.

For Wednesday, February 17th, I would like you to read to page 32 of the text, through the section entitled “Nutritionism Defined.”

As you read each section I would like you to highlight and annotate the text, focusing on the points that are most important to your understanding of the essay. For this assignment, you should utilize glossing and/or double entry notes as note-taking strategies for making meaning of the text. Below you’ll find a reminder of how each strategy works:

Glossing: A good technique to see how the author pieces together his/her ideas. After reading each paragraph, explain in your own words what the author’s key ideas are and what the paragraph is about.

Double-entry notebook: An effective way to name ideas from the text and generate your own meaning in response to them. Draw a line down the middle of your notebook and on the left-hand side of your notebook, record verbatim a passage you find important. Make sure you list the page number of the passage. Then, on the right-hand side, explain what you think of the idea presented in this passage or any thoughts that are prompted for you from reading the passage.

In other words, you need to write comments in your notebook in response to what you are reading rather than simply highlighting passages you consider important. In the end, what you think about the ideas in the text matters most for your writing process.

You need to have several substantial pages of notes (hand-written or typed) by class time Wednesday, February 17th.