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Mary Nell Trautner - Paper Assignment Idea: Obesity Lawsuits

9/8/2015

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*Mary Nell Trautner is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and a CULJP board member.

Paper Assignment Idea: Obesity Lawsuits

One of my favorite topics to teach in undergraduate law & society courses (I teach a 300-level “Sociology of Law” course in a large public university) is the topic of disputing. We spend quite a bit of time considering the question of “frivolous” lawsuits, including the now-infamous McDonald’s Hot Coffee case. In this paper assignment, I ask students to apply evidence and theory to the question of whether obesity lawsuits should be considered frivolous or meritorious.

I’ve only used this assignment a few times; my experience has been nearly every student initially believes that obesity lawsuits are frivolous and should be banned. Some are never able to make an argument that contradicts their personal opinion, even as they seem to recognize that the evidence doesn’t support their opinion. Most students, however, really enjoy watching the film and learning how to build an argument from myriad sources. The feedback has generally been quite positive, in that they view the assignment as an opportunity to a) re-evaluate their personal opinions and b) see how their personal opinions have been socially constructed.

Here is the assignment:

In 2002, two teenage girls issued a complaint against McDonald’s for contributing to their obesity because it did not provide the necessary information about the health risks associated with its meals. The company’s lawyers argued that the case did not even warrant the court’s attention, saying the matter was really about common sense and individual responsibility. Most people who heard about the case found it absurd, including Morgan Spurlock, the director of Super Size Me. When asked what prompted him to make this film, he said, in an interview:
Well, for me it was really inspired by the lawsuits. But what really did it for me was in 2002, at Thanksgiving, you couldn’t open a magazine or turn on the TV without hearing about the obesity epidemic in America, and everyone always singled out fast food as a big problem in the epidemic. People were always pointing the finger at the fast food industry. And I was a big fan of personal responsibility - you know, no one is forcing you to eat. We’re not geese being stuffed with corn.

But the more I started to hear about the lawsuits, I started to say, “Well, there’s something here. There’s something in the marketing, the advertising campaigns. The content of the food is something they really don’t make known, how much fat and sugar is in [the food] you’re eating. There’s definitely a side to this I can understand.”

I was sitting on the couch watching a television program, and I can’t remember if it was someone from McDonald’s or someone from the food company, but they’ve got a lobbyist who came on and said, “You can’t link our food to these two girls getting sick. You can’t link our food to these girls being obese. Our food is healthy; it’s nutritious; it’s good for you.” And I thought, if it’s that good for me, then I should be able to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for thirty days straight and be fine.
In March 2004, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban individuals for suing fast food companies for making them fat. Based on the evidence presented in course readings and discussion and in the film Super Size Me, is such a ban a good idea? Why or why not? What might be some positive and negative consequences of such a ban? Are the obesity lawsuits “frivolous”? Why or why not? What are the arguments on both sides? You must use at least two course readings to support your argument and to anticipate–and address–counterarguments.

I want you to make an argument in your paper. Have a specific point/thesis that you develop and support throughout. Your paper should reflect careful and thoughtful analysis of the film and course materials. It is not to be based solely on your opinions (e.g., “Why I Think Lawsuits Are Stupid” or “My Observations About the Disintegration of Society”). In your paper, your views are important, as they may shape your ultimate argument, but you are expected to use evidence from the film, readings, and class discussions to not only support your argument, but to also explore possible counterarguments.

Your paper should begin with an introduction that clearly states the argument you are going to make and that provides an overview of the paper. The rest of the paper is up to you. You need to accomplish several tasks: you need to describe/summarize the film, describe/summarize obesity lawsuits and the ban on them, and most important, offer an in-depth analysis of the viability/legitimacy/frivolity/whatever of obesity lawsuits. Be sure to support your analysis with specific examples drawn from the film itself and to link your arguments back to the ideas in course readings and discussions. There are many acceptable ways to structure your paper. Feel free to be creative! The movie does not have to be the central focus of your paper.

You should write your paper as if your intended reader was an intelligent person, perhaps another college student, but someone who has not taken this class and has not seen the film. Therefore, if you refer to a scene or person in the film, you must provide sufficient detail for the reader to understand. Similarly, when referencing a course reading, you should outline the argument or describe the research finding in sufficient detail for someone not in the class to know what you are talking about. If you use any technical term from the readings, be sure to define it in your own words. 
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Sue Patrick - Teaching Difficult Legal or Political Concepts: Using Online Primary Sources in Writing Assignments

9/4/2015

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Sue Patrick, Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, Barron County, has an extensive discussion of teaching legal and political primary sources (with links) at the AHA's Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age blog. 
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Paul Collins - Using Music to Create a Successful Extra Credit Assignment

9/1/2015

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Paul M. Collins, Jr. is the Director of Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also a board member for the Consortium for Undergraduate Law & Justice Programs.

One of the things I have always struggled with in introductory classes is extra credit assignments. Over time, I came to learn that students expect their instructors to assign some type of extra credit, but I have often found my assignments consisting largely of busy work that seldom engaged students in any real way. Seeking to remedy this, last fall I introduced a new extra credit assignment in my Introduction to Legal Studies course: 
The extra credit assignment is based on the way law is portrayed in popular culture, specifically music. For the extra credit assignment, students will write a two page (double spaced) paper that discusses the lyrics to a song and explains how those lyrics connect to the law. More specifically, the paper calls for students to discuss the lyrics to a song that has a law-related theme and explain how the law is portrayed in those lyrics. In addition to the two page paper, students need to attach a copy of the lyrics to the song and a link to where the song can be streamed or viewed (such as YouTube). I strongly encourage you to submit your extra credit assignments earlier than the due date as we will be listening to law-related songs prior to class throughout the semester. By submitting your extra credit assignment early, your song may be played prior to class.
This assignment was a huge hit with the students. It was the first time in my teaching career that I observed more than a handful of students get excited about an extra credit assignment and turn it in early. In fact, the assignment became so popular that I had to institute a first-come, first-served basis in terms of playing the songs before class. 

I will continue to use this assignment as I believe it offers students a number of benefits. By compelling them to think about how law is portrayed in a song, they are able to better understand many of the theories discussed in class. Who knew that natural law theory was reflected in so many Johnny Cash songs! In addition, this assignment helps students appreciate law and society as a scholarly enterprise by showing them how ubiquitous law is in our everyday lives, including in popular music.

The assignment also had some unanticipated effects. Once students realized that I would play a song before every class, many began to arrive early to listen, promoting punctuality. Unintentionally, I started asking students to say a few words about the song they chose in class. Although this wasn’t a condition of the assignment, none declined, and I suspect that, for many students, this was the first time they spoke before 100+ individuals. I think the nature of the assignment – describing how law is portrayed in a song of their choosing – made it easier for students to engage in this type of public speaking. 

In terms of the costs associated with the assignment from an instructor’s perspective, they were negligible. The most time consuming part of the assignment was grading the papers, something I would have done anyway with other types of assignments. Since I asked students to provide me with a link to where I could stream the song, preparation was minimal and consisted largely of keeping a list of the order of songs to be played. As I was accustomed to arriving to class early, I didn’t have any problems on that front, although I did learn to sync the songs to end when class was scheduled to start. This meant some class-to-class variation since Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane” is far longer than Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty.”  

Ultimately, I found this to be a very successful extra credit assignment. The one area that I may improve on next time is to insist (or strongly encourage) students to find versions of the song that include lyrics, many of which are available on YouTube. I found that the class became more engaged in thinking about the portrayal of the law in the song when they could read the lyrics. 


If you’re anything like me, the big question on your mind is how quickly a student submitted a paper featuring N.W.A.’s “Fuck tha Police.” It was the very first assignment handed in, on the second day of class. 

What types of extra credit assignments have you found effective?
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