Muckraking journalism, especially in magazines, is widely credited with spurring the Progressive Movement, and shifting how the U.S. government viewed business. Using “The Jungle,” and other examples, explain the impact of muckraking. Include one specific instance where muckraking changed U.S. policy or oversight.
Organization: Writing directly addresses all parts of the question and incorporates and cites specific examples from outside the reading. It shows strong attention to logic and reasoning.
Level of Context: content does an outstanding job of analyzing sources within their historical context and synthesizing ideas and information to reach an understanding of causes and consequences of events and developments.
Development: main points are well developed and supported. The work shows a high degree of critical thinking.
Grammar and Mechanics: The writing is free of distracting spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, fragments, and run-on sentences.
Information for paper; “Upton Sinclair was a muckraking reporter for the Socialist newspaper Photograph of Upton Sinclair”Appeal to Reason.” He went to Chicago during the 1904 meatpackers strike to investigate the union’s claims of poor working conditions in the plants. He worked undercover for seven weeks gathering information. He discovered both sub-standard working conditions and problems with disease and rotten and contaminated meat. He turned the material into a novel called “The Jungle,” and published it in serial form in 1905. A year later, Doubleday published it in book form. Sinclair’s goal had been to focus attention on the poor conditions for the workers, but readers saw food contamination as the most pressing issue. Sinclair was quoted as saying, “I aimed for the public’s heart and, by accident, I hit it in the stomach.” Public outcry pushed President Theodore Roosevelt to launch an investigation, which lead Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Read the excerpt from chapter 14 of “The Jungle,” below to get a sense of why the reporting caused such a reaction.”
