Question

writing instructions
target writing level: advanced
write a creative response to the following prompt:
imagine that you are a muckraker living in the gilded age in america. you decide to go undercover and investigate the working conditions of an industry. write a journal entry detailing your findings.
what industry did you choose to research and investigate? meat - packing? automobile? railroad? steel? what did you learn? what did the workers say?

Explanation:

This is a creative - writing task. We need to adopt the perspective of a muckraker in the Gilded Age of America, choose an industry (e.g., meat - packing), and write a journal entry about the working conditions. We should describe the industry, what was learned during the investigation, and workers' statements.

Answer:

Dear Journal,

I've decided to investigate the meat - packing industry. Stepping into the large, bustling factory, the stench hit me first. It was a combination of raw meat, blood, and the unwashed bodies of the workers.

The workers here are a sorry sight. Men, women, and even children are hunched over their stations, cutting, packing, and moving the meat. The hours are long, from dawn till well after dusk, and the pay is meager. When I asked one of the older workers, a man named John, about his working conditions, he just shook his head wearily. "We work like dogs, and for what? Just enough to keep our families from starving. The bosses don't care about us. They only care about filling their pockets with money."

The hygiene in this place is abysmal. There are rats scurrying around the floors, and the meat is often left out in the open, exposed to all sorts of contaminants. I've seen workers coughing and sneezing over the meat, with no one to stop them. There are no proper safety measures either. Many of the workers have cuts and bruises from the sharp knives they use, and some have even lost fingers in the machinery.

I plan to expose these horrors to the public. The people need to know what goes on behind the closed doors of these meat - packing factories. It's time for change.