Foundations of the Regulatory State
 Spring 2003, Section 2

Writing Assignment #2

(Posted 2/24/2003)

This writing assignment is designed to reinforce material discussed in class and to help you prepare for the final examination. You must complete at least 3 of the 4 exercises assigned during the term. These assignments will not be graded, but will be marked "check," "check-plus," or "check-minus," generally with brief comments. Consistent, superior performance will count in your favor when I calculate final course grades.

As before, please send your essay to me via e-mail, and  please give your essay a filename with the following format:  <yourlastname.memo2. fmt>, where yourlastname is your last name, and fmt indicates the type of file you are sending [i.e., .doc =  Word, .wpd = WordPerfect, .pdf = Adobe Acrobat, etc.]   Also, please be sure to include your name in the memo text, so that it will show up when I print out a hard copy.  Several people forgot to do this with their first submission and we had to go thru and put in the names by hand.  I will presume, unless you tell me otherwise in your cover message, that if I find your essay to be among the best I receive, I have your permission to post it [with your name removed] as part of my feedback to the class.

This assignment is due on Friday, March 7, at 9 am.  [The original due date was Wednesday the 5th, but I have extended it by two days to accommodate competing responsibilities from moot court.] Further extensions will not be granted absent compelling circumstances.  You should not do any additional research in preparing your analysis, and you should limit the time you spend on this assignment to not more than four hours.

The issue of the nutritional content of restaurant food has attracted substantial public attention in recent months, in part due to a well-publicized lawsuit brought by two New York teenagers and their parents against the McDonald's Corp., in which the plaintiffs alleged that McDonalds had manufactured and marketed its products in a deceptive way, and that this deception caused the minor plaintiffs to become obese and thus to injure their health.  While this initial lawsuit was dismissed, the trial judge (the aptly-named US District Court Judge Robert Sweet) gave the plaintiffs leave to amend their complaint so as to support a claim that McDonald's deceived the plaintiffs by withholding or misrepresenting relevant nutritional information.

In the wake of this lawsuit and the publicity it generated, the plaintiffs' attorneys have vowed to refile the suit, amending their complaint along the lines suggested by Judge Sweet, and anti-obesity activists are organizing conferences for lawyers interested in planning similar lawsuits against other fast-food companies and food processors.  In addition, state legislators around the country are introducing bills aimed at the alleged obesity problem.  In New York, for instance, State Rep. Felix Ortiz has introduced a law that would require fast-food and chain restaurants to provide nutritional information on their menu boards and regular menus.  Other proposals in other states include mandating health and nutrition education, limiting the sale of soft drinks and other snack foods in schools, and allocating funds to promote physical fitness.

 

Because your boss and the other officials who may read your memo have limited time and patience for reading policy papers, you should limit it to no more than 500 words and no more than two pages, and should write it in "bullet-point" format;  i.e., with individual points explained in one or two sentences at most, and with minor points indented and set off by bullet-points or similar markings in order to distinguish them from major points.  [You are strongly encouraged to look at the feedback memo from last year's third assignment for further illustration of this format, as well as successful memos making use of it.]

Two caveats:  first, remember that when writing in bullet-point format, you still need to explain your reasoning and logic.  Full sentences are usually best in this regard, though if you are clear enough you may be able to get away with less.  Second, although you have been asked to advocate a policy position, you should make sure to identify and respond to possible counter-arguments to your position. 

For additional factual background, you may wish to consult the following sources:

One last warning: beware of taking all the claims that are made in the background news articles at face value. One of the goals of the course is to teach you to take a critical perspective on arguments that you may hear coming from lawyers, lobbyists, and journalists.