1) For the first research assignment, I blogged about reality TV shows and how they are not truly, “reality”, but I realized that this topic would be very difficult to write about for an entire research paper. So, I after I looked through a few articles, I decided that childhood obesity would be a very interesting topic to write about. This topic is everywhere in the news and it is the subject to extreme controversy because politicians are making childhood obesity a political issue by blaming the school systems, whereas doctors and physicians are blaming parents and poor lifestyle choices.
2) My prospected thesis is childhood obesity is a direct result of poor lifestyle choices by Americans.
3) A few possible points I could cover in my paper to support my thesis are how lifestyles of families have changed over the past few decades (ie greater percentage of Americans eat fast food more often), children have become couch potatoes and are not playing outside to get some fresh air and exercise, some believe the government should pass laws to prevent the American population from becoming even more obese than they already are, but it should not the government responsibility or the burden of the schools systems.
4) A counterargument could be that we are becoming a super-sized population because of our addiction to high fructose corn syrup, not a direct result of our lifestyle choices. Since the food companies have substituted high fructose corn syrup for sugar, the amount Americans who are obese have increased tenfold. The reason why it is hard for Americans to lose weight or cut out high fructose containing products is because it has a chemical in it that makes us addicted to it.
5) Some possible research I would perform would be looking through academic journals and newspaper articles on the differing lifestyle choices of Americans (ie more fast food and take out, less exercise, eat bigger portions).
6) One article that I will really support my argument is an E-journal entitled “Childhood Obesity”.
Another article that would support my argument is an E-journal “Obesity reviews”.
One other possible source is an E-book entitled “Childhood obesity: factors affecting physical activity”.
7) I believe this issue would not be very difficult to write about since it’s a very popular issue in the media right now. I still think I will change my thesis to expand beyond the claim that obesity rates only are increasing because of lifestyle choices.
The tension in your thesis comes from this statement: "it is not the government's responsibility or the burden of the school systems." This is where you are going to need to do some arguing against critics and this is what will make the paper interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing you should consider is the actions some institution other than the government might take to preventing childhood obesity or at least educating us about poor lifestyle choices. Are we really going to to just merely blame people for their poor lifestyles? How can we suggest a positive action besides: get off your lazy asses ?