Diet and health care English paper :) - Page 1

I'm so excited about my English paper. I know, weird right?

But I am in an argument based English class and this is the first time we actually got to choose our topic! :) Needless to say I have decided to do dog diet and health care information. Like exposing the truth about dog food, vaccines, and neutering.

Some of the things I want to include are:

-What are the harmful ingredients in common dog foods. (by products and such)
-What to look for on a healthy dog food label
-Myths about raw diets
-Address the issues with grain based diets
-What goes on behind closed doors in the pet food industry
-Dog diet based on anatomy
-Preservatives and the cooking process

-Mother dogs antibodies and vaccines
-How long vaccines are effective
-The vaccine alternatives (titer test)
-Types of vaccines
-How neutering effects hormone levels
-Adverse effects of annual vaccines (auto-immune)
-What is a more healthy vaccination schedule


And tons more :) I am excited to learn as much a possible along the way.

If you guys have any links to credible sources I would love for you to share. I have alot already, but the more the merrier! I am especially looking for big studies done showing information about vaccinations. A big part of the paper is making sure we use credible sources.


Thanks!

Thank you Deanna :)

Hey Kelly- I always enjoy your Cam videos.

I really hate to seem unsupportive but since I'm sitting here marking essays (Masters level) I can't resist. Here's my unsolicited 1 cent Canadian for what it's worth.

I haven't read your assignment but your topic seems really huge to me- especially for an argument/critical analysis paper. What's your thesis statement? I imagine that the marking rubric is based on clarity of argument and analysis (ie. how well are you defending your point of view) so a clear, refined/narrow thesis statement is vital. The raw diet topic alone is way more than enough material for a paper- particularly given the different flavours of raw diets; you could easily write a paper on the internal/external validity issues in the vet literature on raw diets. Same for the vaccination topic- you could easily write a paper about the rabies vaccine alone.

In terms of vaccination resources- I like the AVMA article collection on rabies as a starting point.
http://www.avma.org/avmacollections/rabies/default.asp

And even the Rabies Challenge fund website for an interesting point of view: http://www.rabieschallengefund.org/

A heartworm preventative topic would be easy to write a clear position statement for- particularly since you could choose a local slant (ie. studies which point to risk of heartworm in your area) to your topic (something I look for when I'm marking). For example, here's a recent heartworm analysis study for Canada (including archival data).

Of course, I could be way off base for your particular assignment. If so, then I apologize for droning on here. Alternatively, PM me if you have any questions.

Laura,

Thank you for sharing the links! I actually really considered narrowing the topic to either Diet or Healthcare, but when I asked my instructor he said not to. I may do that anyway. On the other hand I would like for the information to me more on the general side, so that it is easy for others to understand.
That way I could share it with others to make them aware :)

He hasn't actually given the assignment yet. He just asked us to have a topic in mind and begin researching it. Its broken up into smaller assignments for now. Next week our proposal is due, then we will start on the bibliography.

I really want the title and opening paragraph to be something really catchy...

Title Suggestions:

FIT FOR A DOG, or maybe NOT FIT FOR A DOG, depending on your angle.... or this...

THE "SNOPES" ON MODERN K9 DIET AND CARE

Thanks Beetree! I like that "Fit For a Dog"

Or how about

WHAT VETS DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW   

Melissa