Course:LFS350/Reflective Essays

Overview

• 30% of Final Mark (10% outline and 20% paper)
• The academic and experiential review outline + paper are intended to provide you with the opportunity to reflect on and integrate what you have been reading and discussing in class, your own interests, experiences from your community-based experiential learning (CBEL) project, and scholarly perspectives on an issue or topic related to food justice.
• In the form of an argumentative essay, you are expected to make a claim about a topic (Thesis Statement) and justify this claim through logical reasoning supported with specific and reliable evidence.

Learning Objectives

• Critically analyze connections between food, health, social justice and the environment within food security discourse
• Integrate academic and community-based evidence to understanding food security issues
• Reflect on and assess personal experiences gained through participating in a collaborative community-based project
• Develop information literacy competencies through advanced search strategies in academic databases and non-academic sources

Format

• Outline should be 1-2 pages, single-spaced PLUS appendix
• Paper should be 5 pages (max), double-spaced, 12pt font, and 2.54cm margins (page length excludes your references and appendix).
• Use APA style for in-text citations and references - https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
• Use a minimum of 5 scholarly and 2 community-based sources. Use readings and materials from the course for core concept definitions (e.g. community food security, food insecurity, food justice, asset-based community development)

Examples of Community-Based (non-academic) Sources:

• Personal communication with community partners and individuals in the community
• Organization's Websites (e.g. Gordon Neighbourhood House - Mandate and Vision)
• Organization's Reports (e.g. The Hua Foundation's 2017 Vancouver Chinatown Food Security Report)
• Government Reports and Websites (e.g. Metro Vancouver's Regional Food System Action Plan or City of Vancouver's Hasting-Sunrise Neighbourhood Profile or Stats Canada Household Food Insecurity, 2011-2012)

Paper

State and defend a food justice related claim that relates to your community-based project.

• (~1 page) Begin the paper with a brief introduction to the topic (i.e. a hook or "why-should-you-care" statement to the reader), a sentence or two on how it relates to your CBEL project, and state your claim in the form of a Thesis Statement (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/)
• (~3 pages) Provide 3 premises to support your position - https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/02/ AND https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/04/
• Identify and integrate academic and community-based evidence on the issue to support your argument
• (~1 page) State the implications of your position (https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/writing-conclusions.html)

Outline

• 1-2 pages, single-spaced PLUS appendix
• Write your thesis statement following these guidelines: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/
• State how your thesis connects to themes/element of your CBEL project
• State your 3 premises that support your thesis statement (as bullet points) - https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/02/
• Include in-text citations for scholarly AND community-based sources of information beneath each premise (and include a reference section)
• State the implication(s) of your position (as bullet points) (https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/writing-conclusions.html)
• The outline has an appendix for you to document your search process and your reasons for selecting the articles and information used.
• Please include the completed appendix at the end of the outline.

Research Methods Appendix

• You must complete specific sections of the Library Research Skills for Land and Food Systems to complete the following appendix.
  
• http://guides.library.ubc.ca/tutorial-lfs

You are required to demonstrate that you can use the CAB Direct Index to identify scholarly literature (although you will likely use articles from other search engines and indexes in your paper). The easiest way to access CAB Direct is through the UBC Library website Index and Database page.

1. Complete the interactive exercise available in the Search Strategies section (Activity break: Identify search terms) and use the output generated to fill in the following:

• Identify your research topic: ______________________
• Key concepts: _____________________
• Related keywords: ________________________
• Provide an example of how your key words can be combined using Boolean Operators for searching
  

2. Review section in the tutorial on Finding Articles - Advanced --> CAB Direct.

• Based on your keywords above provide a phrase you searched for (write it as you would in the Cab Direct search engine) and list the top 5 articles that occur.
  

3. Review sections in Evaluating

• Briefly describe ONE of your community-based sources of information and evidence using the criteria in the Library Tutorial (use headings for each criteria and point form)