A Comparison of "In-N-Out Burger" and "Fast Food Nation"

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Often people buy a book at a bookstore after reading the first few pages to make sure that the book is interesting enough to continue reading at home. That is why Amazon has a “Click to LOOK INSIDE!” button on each book. It is the most important part of a whole book in order to catch potential readers. One would expect that both In-N-Out Burger and Fast Food Nation must have strong hooks at the beginning since they were both New York Times bestsellers. Although they both focus on the fast food industry, there is quite a contrast in the way they are written. In the prologue of In-N-Out Burger, the author Stacy Perman writes not about the hamburgers or the company, but mainly about the phenomena that the burgers caused. On the other hand, in the introduction of Fast Food Nation, the author Eric Schlosser splits it into two different parts, a story about Cheyenne Mountain Base and a quick overview of fast food industry. Throughout the prologue of In-N-Out Burger, Perman successfully gets the attention of the readers by describing the facts in detail, which makes them want to turn the pages for further reading. On the contrary, despite Schlosser’s concise and precise narrative, the introduction of Fast Food Nation does not seem to make the readers want to read more due to his unsuccessful analogy and composition of the chapter. The introduction of In-N-Out Burger definitely draws more attention of the readers than that of Fast Food Nation due to the rhetoric and composition.

First of all, the ways In-N-Out Burger and Fast Food Nation display the facts are quite different. In In-N-Out Burger, Perman introduces many episodes with details. In the middle of the chapter, she quotes what many celebrities actually said about the burgers, wh...

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...nse, Perman’s prologue is interesting enough to keep reading the following story of the book.

Perman successfully starts the story with many details and hooks, whereas Schlosser fails to motivate the readers to go on to the next chapter because of an inadequate analogy and quick summaries of the whole book. For writing, especially for non-fiction, an introduction always plays a very important role to draw the readers’ attention. It is a good strategy to leave them a little unsatisfied so that they will look for more and turn the next page. These two introductions are perfect examples of what is effective and ineffective.

Works Cited

Perman, Stacy. In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-counter Look at the Fast-food Chain That Breaks All the Rules. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 2010. Print.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005. Print.

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