Omnivore's Dilemma by: Michael Pollan

In The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan tells of the hidden truths of our food production industry.  Most consumers, including me do not realize the extensive process behind the production of our food.  This is because companies hide their process for they know that it may hinder consumers from buying their products.  Pollan does a good job at enlightening people to this secret process and pointing out the negative impacts it is having.  He makes his argument seam valid through his research and by siting all of the sources he used.  This is essential for the author to appear to be credible.  Through reading this story and watching Food Inc right afterward my appetite for food is absolutely none existent.  To hear of how prevalent disease is becoming in this new mechanized system makes me wonder as to why nothing has been done to change they process the food is prepared.  An example of this is the whole issue of feeding cattle corn.  In doing so not only is the nutritional value of meat lost, but the animal has an increased chance of dieing due to the gas built up from the decomposing   the corn.  Overall I found this story to be quite fascinating and presented a ton of information.  Yet the read was quite entertaining through Pollan's style of giving the facts in small chunks rather than all at once.

The Everyday Writer

In chapter seven of the Everyday Writer I learned that by creating an organizational plan or outline can really help when trying to put together one's ideas.   Before this I had always just gone right ahead and tried to write out my whole paper.  This usually left it fairly unorganized and often times I would find myself getting off topic.  I think that by making myself an outline or organizational plan I will  have a much better sense of what to include in my written analysis paper.  Due to the complexity of my story I was writing on I was having a hard time narrowing down my thesis, but with a clear plan I think it will become much easier to do.  Overall I think that there are quite a few areas where I still need improvement as a writer, but after reading this I feel that I have a much better grasp on the planning and drafting part of an essay.