Deon Seng Prof. Presnell Engl. 1103 23 Oct.

2012 Coffee Proposal Inquiry Question: Is drinking coffee actually good or bad for me? Primary Purpose: To explore then lead to argue, I would like to know if drinking coffee is good or bad. Once I gain some research and informative sources, I could lean towards one or the other and argue why I believe it is the better choice based on evidence. I want to know the benefits as well as the harmful effects of this drink. I would then argue for the side that I agree with and use the information that I have learned to validate my opinion. 10 Questions: 1. What made coffee so popular? (Such as Starbucks) 2. Why do people actually drink it? 3. Can one overdose from drinking too much coffee? 4. Are there any long-term effects of drinking coffee? 5. Where did it originate? 6. What are the negative effects? 7. What are the positive effects? 8. Is the argument that it can stunt your growth just a myth? 9. Are there other uses of coffee or the coffee beans in general? 10. What place is best known for coffee?

Prior Knowledge: I really do not know much about coffee although I have heard a lot about it from my childhood. My grandparents drink coffee in the mornings, and that is how I first heard about it. My friends have been drinking coffee since they were young, but I actually did not have an experience until recently. I tried my first cup of coffee ever just last week. It was something I randomly did with my friends after we were talking about the subject, and they were surprised I never tried coffee before. I decided to try it out, and I went to Starbucks and got a cup of coffee to try. It was actually not as bad as I thought it may have been, and it did keep me awake, which I needed badly since I was going to do a lot of work that night. Prior beliefs, assumptions, stereotypes: I have heard some things about coffee not really much facts besides that it is made out of coffee beans, it has caffeine in it, it helps you stay up, and the myth that it can stunt your growth. I dont really know why I never tried it until now, but I guess it was just something I never got interested in doing. I have always seen others drink it around me and countless companies advertising it such as Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and others. There were assumptions that coffee was actually bad for you, but I think it may be really good for the human health. This is something I am looking forward to finding out because I probably will be continuing to drink a lot of coffee soon because of late nights and school work. I never really felt a need for it, so it may be a time for change since I did have a recent experience with drinking it. I am not too biased about it since I am not in love with drinking coffee nor do I hate it, so it will be interesting to discover what information there is out there about it. I think since it does have caffeine in it, which will be a critical part of my research, there could be beneficial effects from drinking coffee either in the morning or during the night. I have always had questions about the drink due to its popularity amongst the population. Working Knowledge: After searching up the general word coffee in Google, many results popped up. I discovered a lot of the companies that produce it and actually sell it. I changed my search to Coffee Effects and actually found some interesting results. There have been studies on the use of coffee, and what it actually is and why people drink it. One specific site that provided some helpful information that gave me a better idea of what to look for was www.webmd.com. It actually gave an overview on coffee. It defined it as a drink made from coffee beans, which are the roasted fruit of the Coffea Arabica bush. It also stated the reasons why people drink coffee are to relieve mental and physical fatigue and to increase mental alertness. Some remarkable information that it provided was that coffee has multiple uses such as preventing Parkinsons disease, gallstones, lung cancer, and other common diseases or cancers. It is also used for other treatments such as of headaches. This will be

researched as well in order to balance out the positives and negatives. The information I found was very strong and guided me toward how to approach my topic. LINK: http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-980COFFEE.aspx?activeIngredientId=980&activeIngredientName=COFFEE If I have to narrow: I would focus on the benefits primarily. If I have to broaden: I dont believe I have to for my topic.