I have to write an essay about the exploitation of farm workers and I am struggling to write the paragraph about the strawberry workers. I have the two sources; http://hispanicexecutive.com/2012/strawberry-fields/
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/03/us/the-battle-of-the-strawberry-fields.html but I need help writing that paragraph. I usually am pretty good at writing. So far I have:
Dolores Huerta asks, “Every single day we sit down to eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and at our table we have food that was planted, picked, or harvested by a farm worker. Why is it that the people who do the most sacred work in our nation are the most oppressed, the most exploited?” What Delores is saying is that every day most people sit down to eat not putting into consideration all of the hard work and effort a worker puts into providing that food. If a group of strawberry pickers, for example, decided not to pick strawberries for two years the people buying the strawberries would be upset. Same goes with tomatoes. If a group of tomato pickers quit picking for 1 year all of the foods that require those tomatoes would be harder to make for one reason; there are no tomatoes to buy. What the consumers of those products do not always realize, if at all, is that farm workers in the United States are being exploited, however there are programs working to end poverty and exploitation of farm workers in the United States.
Farm workers in the United States are being exploited. According to the documentary “Food Chains” the pickers only receive $40 a day as long as they actually pick tomatoes and fill up a bucket. Even though a picker does everything they only actually make money if they fill a bucket with tomatoes. Additionally, the pickers all live below the poverty line. Most, to all, families live in a very cramped trailer and get up at 5:30 in the morning.
In addition to farm workers being exploited the Fair Food Program works to end poverty and exploitation of farm workers in the United States. The farm workers worked together and created a group called The Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW). The farm workers also started a six day hunger strike to protest the poor treatment they are enduring. The workers are unable to make enough money to live a decent life and protest to try and raise more money.
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It’s really not a good idea to have strangers online help you with your HW. The best advice i can give without giving you any exact help for future assignments (since your assignment would’ve been turned into day) is this:
For the synthesis essay, keep in mind it’s an argumentative essay with the sources given to you! Take a position, then develop 3-4 key points that develop around your THESIS, not your sources. You are using your sources to solidify the key points that qualify your claim. Make sure your thesis CLEARLY defines your stance on the issue. I suggest for intro paragraphs do not include any quotes and commentary. You are just presenting your thesis statement, that other stuff should be saved for a body paragraph about one of your key points. My intros were usually 2-3 sentences long, and my conclusions the same length.
So a body paragraph would be, in order,
-Key Point
-Quote/ paraphrase of one of provided sources
-commentary on this quote and how it relates to thesis
-a second quote (always good to have 2 for each key point if possible)
-commentary on this quote and how it relates to thesis
- final sentence that helps round out the paragraph to show readers how this key point qualifies your thesis
repeat for 1 or 2 more paragraphs. In AP Lang, you should abandon the 5 paragraph essay you were taught. It is really just about finding those key points and structuring your essay around those. You only need to use 3 documents, but 4 or 5 looks ways better.
Remember, synthesis essay is taking the provided sources and SYNTHESIZING them to create a clear, strongly supported argumentative essay.
Hope this helps for future synthesis essays!
Do your own homework. Shady.