Fast Food

1) a) FIRST FAST FOOD EXPERIENCE: My mom loves cooking. She seldom takes me and my sisters out to eat. She doesn't want us to eat candies or drink sodas. When she took me out to McDonald's, I cannot express through words how happy I was. The cashier was patiently waiting for me and my mom to place our orders. I stared at the menu for the longest time. Finally, my mom placed our orders. I did not care what meal she got me, I would still eat it, anyway. With my Happy Meal came a 101 Dalmatians toy. It was a dalmatian on top of a drum. As a kid, I was more excited about the toy than with the meal. The meal I had was the most common meal for any occassion in our country; fried chicken and spaghetti. When we got home, I immediately showed my dad and my sisters the toy. My sisters and I decided that we wanted to collect all designs of the 101 Dalmatians toys that McDonald's would release. These toys was the reason why we kept buying Happy Meals at McDonald's.

b) 3 FACTS: Eating fast food has become a routine, Franchise stores value uniformity, and Fast food is heavily marketed to children.

c) AREAS OF RESEARCH: Fast Food's Impact on One's Life, The Nature of Franchised Businesses, and Marketing to Children

2) I think the way Schlosser combined personal and scientific research is effective. Instead of just reading a book of facts and information, Schlosser made it interesting, easy to understand, and to visualize. Readers can put themselves in the writer's shoes and readers can easily relate to the situations and issues presented in the book. An example is on page 83 about the fast food restaurant employees Schlosser interviewed, "They preferred working in the kitchen, where they could talk to friends and fool around. Food fights were popular." In this example, it may be a common situation in a fast food but this actually presents a problem - that of the cleanliness and proper handling of food in restaurants.

I think using this technique, combining personal and scientific research, when writing is useful both for the readers and the writer. I prefer to use the same technique when writing because of the same reasons I mentioned earlier -- writing about my own experiences and/or the people I interviewed then the message behind it and the important facts and issues that the readers should consider and think about.