Zachary Thomas

Professor Benjamin Good

RC 1000 Expository Writing

10/14/2021

Project 3: Research Process & Annotated Bibliography

Part #1: Annotated Bibliography

Austin, S. Bryn, et al. "Clustering of fast-food restaurants around schools: a novel application of

spatial statistics to the study of food environments." American journal of public health

95.9 (2005): 1575-1581.

This source is from a publication of the American Public Health Association published

online in 2011. This article examines the “concentration of fast food restaurants” in school bound

areas to determine and characterize the food environments of such areas. This source uses

statistics such as the walking distance from various schools in different cities to the nearest fast

food restaurants and the amount of nearby fast food restaurants in the general vicinity of school

bound areas to conclude that “Fast-food restaurants are concentrated within a short walking

distance from schools, exposing children to poor-quality food environments in their school

neighborhoods.” These findings are credible as they were completed by multiple experts and

published under the American Public Health Association. This article could potentially be a part

of my researched argument essay because it offers an opposing viewpoint. This source clearly

doesn’t agree with the idea of their being great fast food restaurants as it essentially is composed

on the basis that every fast food restaurant promotes unhealthy and “poor-quality” food. In my
paper, I plan on using at least one or two articles that oppose my thesis, and this paper would be

an excellent candidate to fulfil that need.

Currie, Janet, et al. “The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain.”

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, vol. 2, no. 3, American Economic

Association, 2010, pp. 32–63, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25760073.

This source is titled “The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain.”

It was created by Janet Currie, Stefano Della Vigna, Enrico Moretti, and Vikram Pathania, and

was published by the American Economic Association as part of the American Economic

Journal on Economic Policy. This excerpt from the journal investigates how changes in the

supply of fast food restaurants affect weight outcomes of children and pregnant women. This

source is certainly credible because it was published by a very reliable source: the American

Economic Association. Lastly, I plan on using this source in my argumentative paper as a source

of opposition against my view point. This article uses data, analysis, and statistics to explain how

various fast food restaurants cause mass obesity among children and pregnant women, and quite

obviously, the idea of fast food restaurants causing mass obesity completely goes against the idea

of there being ‘great’ fast food restaurants.

Fryar CD, Hughes JP, Herrick KA, Ahluwalia, N. Fast food consumption among adults in the

United States, 2013–2016. NCHS Data Brief, no 322. Hyattsville, MD: National Center

for Health Statistics. 2018.

 This source is titled “Fast food consumption among adults in the United States,

2013-2016.” It was created by Fryar CD, Hughes JP, Herrick KA, and Ahluwalia N, and was

published on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, under the ‘Health

Statistics’ sub-category. The study conducted within this article used a series of graphs and

statistics to conclude that during 2013–2016, approximately 37% of adults consumed fast food

on a given day and the overall percentage of adults who consumed fast food decreased with age,

increased with income, and was higher among non-Hispanic black persons compared with other

race and Hispanic-origin groups. Additionally, a higher percentage of non-Hispanic white adults

consumed fast food than did non-Hispanic Asian adults. Among men and women who consumed

fast food, a higher percentage of men ate it for lunch, while a higher percentage of women ate it

as a snack. This article is very credible as it's published on the CDC’s website. I can easily use

the findings from the study in this article to show reasoning for a potential sub-topic: exactly

who the fast food restaurants of America appeal to.

“Highest Paying Fast Food Jobs.” Indeed. Oct. 5 2021. Highest Paying Fast Food Jobs |

Indeed.com

The title of this source is “Highest Paying Fast Food Jobs.” It was composed by the

Indeed Editorial Team and was published by Indeed themselves. Within this article, Indeed gives

reasons with evidence as to why someone should choose to work in the fast food industry, and

they then go on to list the highest paying fast food companies with detailed information

describing each company including some of the different positions they have and how much they

pay for it. This source is undoubtedly credible simply because it was created and published by
Indeed, one of the most established job-searching websites, and their editorial team. With this

article, I plan on using it in order to give a perspective from a workers point of view. In my

opinion, customers are just one half of the people that fast food companies should attempt to

satisfy, the other half of course being their own workers.

Kabir, Jahangir M. “Speed of Service and Fast Food!” Linkedin.com. Jul 9, 2016. Speed of

Service and Fast Food! (linkedin.com)

The title of my final source is “Speed of Service and Fast Food!” It is an article that was

created by Jahangir Kabir and published by Linkedin on their official website. In his article

Kabir explains the importance of speed of service in the fast food industry, including several

components that can yield excellent speed of service times: Properly training and growing a

team, composing a workable schedule, and contributing to suggestive selling. This article comes

from a reliable source as it was published by Linkedin, an established job-searching service, and

created by Jahangir Kabir, a teacher at a college-board school that has exceptional knowledge

within this field. For my argumentative research paper, this source could definitely be helpful as

it includes key insights on speed of service among the fast food industry. Speed of service is one

of the most important factors when it comes to customer satisfaction, and I plan on speaking of it

in my paper, so this article will certainly help.

Knutson, Bonnie J. "College Students and Fast Food— How Students Perceive Restaurant

Brands." Cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly 41.3 (2000): 68-74.
 This article is titled "College Students and Fast Food— How Students Perceive

Restaurant Brands." It was published through Cornell University and created by Bonnie J.

Knutson. Overall, this article explores the popularity of fast food restaurants among college

students, how those students perceive such restaurants, and which restaurants are the most

visited. It uses data and statistics to conclude which restaurants are the most popular and why

college students are consistently drawn to them despite no marketing effort from the visited

franchises. This source is credible because it’s composed by an expert who has a Ph.D. in this

field. This article could potentially be useful to me in my researched argument paper as it

contains statistics regarding various topics that relate to my chosen topic: “What is America’s

best fast food restaurant?” The given statistics offer potential talking points and subtopics for my

paper as they give a subtle ranking of fast food restaurants based on popularity of a specific

audience: college students.

Nezakati, Hossein, Yen Lee Kuan, and Omid Asgari. "Factors influencing customer loyalty

towards fast food restaurants." International Conference on Sociality and Economics

Development. Vol. 10. 2011.

This source is titled "Factors influencing customer loyalty towards fast food restaurants.”

It was published through the International Conference on Sociality and Economics Development

and created by Nezakati Hossein, Yen Lee Kuan, and Omid Asgari. Overall, this article aims to

suggest a variety of factors that influence customer loyalty towards fast food restaurants and then

pinpoint which factors are the most significant. Furthermore, a variety of statistics, data, and

surveys are used to conclude that product quality, customer satisfaction, and brand trust are the

three most important or most significant factors that influence customer loyalty towards fast food
restaurants. This research is credible as it was conducted by three highly qualified individuals, all

of whom are very familiar with and are experts within this field. This source could certainly be

useful to me when it comes to my researched argument paper. Although this article doesn’t

attempt to answer my chosen topic, it gives analysis for potential sub-topics as it explains what

makes customers choose and stay loyal to various fast food restaurants. The significant factors

provided within this article are factors that can be used in my paper to prove my given argument.

Sun, Kyung-A., and Dae-Young Kim. "Does customer satisfaction increase firm performance?

An application of American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)." International Journal

of Hospitality Management 35 (2013): 68-77.

This source is titled "Does customer satisfaction increase firm performance? An

application of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)." It was published through the

International Journal of Hospitality Management and created by Kyung-A Sun and Dae-Young

Kim. In this article, a study was conducted that includes the Customer Satisfaction Index, as it

examines the relationship between this index and the financial performance of companies within

the hospitality industry. Furthermore the study concludes that the American Customer

Satisfication Index does indeed have an effect on companies’ financial performance, in fact its

impact is reflected in the profit margin (PM), return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE),

proxies of a firm's profitability, and in the market value added (MVA), a proxy of firm value.

This source is very credible as it was created by two professors employed in the hospitality

departments at each of their respective universities. I could and do plan on using this source as

evidence to back up the worthiness of using the American Customer Satisfaction Index as a

ranking factor in my paper.

 What are the best fast food chains and what makes them the Best?

In this personal narrative, I will explain chronologically my thought process during my

completion of my annotated bibliography, including the different steps I took along the way.

To begin, I took a look at the Project 3 assignment description document, the Project 3

rubric, and the research strategies document. After coming to a conclusion with myself on what

it was I had to do for this project, I began part 1: Annotated Bibliography. I was required to find

a total of at least eight sources and then compose the annotated bibliography utilizing each one,

so I decided to search for my sources first, and after finding each one I would complete the

annotated bibliography. I first attempted to use the ASU Library Databases mentioned in the

research strategies document, but was rather unsuccessful at first. I moved on to Google Scholar,

where I saw much more success. My first four sources I found all came from Google Scholar:

“Clustering of Fast Food Restaurants Around Schools”, "College Students and Fast Food— How

Students Perceive Restaurant Brands”, "Factors influencing customer loyalty towards fast food

restaurants”, "Does customer satisfaction increase firm performance? An application of the

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)." Three of the remaining four sources were found

using Google Advanced Searches, while the other one of the four was actually taken from a peer

response given by fellow student Malory Ma, which she found using the ASU Library Databases.

These four sources were taken from separate places because they provided insight and evidence

on areas that I couldn’t find with Google Scholar: “The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on

Obesity and Weight Gain” (peer reviewed source; opposition against my chosen topic/question),

“Speed of Service and Fast Food!” (insight on speed of service), “Fast food consumption among

adults in the United States, 2013-2016” (insight on how often people get fast food and which

types of people get it the most), “Highest Paying Fast Food Jobs” (a perspective from the point
of view of the workers). After finding all of these great sources, it was time to construct my

annotated bibliography, which wasn’t too difficult. I created this based upon the same general

structure for each source: Cited source; Introduction explaining the title, creator, and publisher;

Brief summary of the source; What makes the source credible; How I could use the source in

project 4. I’m very happy with how everything turned out, especially when it comes to the

information I received from each source, and I very well may end up using each one! After

completing a citation for each source and the paragraphs to go along with each one, all I had left

to complete was a final structuring of part 1, in which I arranged each source into proper citation

format.

To conclude, I can now state a tentative thesis: Fast food is a great and satisfying part of

society, and Chick-Fil-A is the best fast food chain among the rest for a variety of reasons. After

viewing the sources, I realized that much of the opposition against any fast food chain had much

to do with the entire industry as a whole, rather than why specific industries are worse than

others. Because of this, I’ve decided to support the fast food industry as a whole, as well as

express my position on which specific company is the best of them all.