ENGLISH 102 PAPER - SYNTHESIS COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY

Your assignment is to choose one option from the following readings :

1- Ch. 10: You Are What You Eat pp. 320-321

Kate Murphy, “First Camera, Then Fork.” 322-325

Taylor Clark. “Meatless Like Me” pp.344-347

2- Ch. 12: Imagining the Ideal Body pp. 414-416

Susie Orbach, “Fat Is an Advertising Issue” pp. 423-427

Susan McClelland, “Distorted Images: Western Cultures Are Exporting Their Dangerous Obsession with Thinness” pp. 430-432

3- Ch. 13: Playing Against Stereotypes pp. 453-454

Dave Zirin, “Say It Ain’t So, Big Leagues” pp. 473-475

Robert Lipsyte, “Jocks VS. Pukes” pp.476-479

Ch. 14: Crisis and Resilience pp. 505-510

Daniel Okrent, “The Public Editor: No Picture tells the Truth-The Best Do Better Than That” pp. 513-516

Joe Strupp, “The Photo Felt Around the World” pp.520-521

Meanwhile, you have the freedom to choose the source articles. Your synthesis paper must include at least two articles.  It is your choice which articles you synthesize.

Steps to write the Synthesis Paper

What steps should you make to accomplish this task?

Essentially, there are six: read, analyze, generalize, converse, finesse, and argue.

1. Read Closely.

First, you must read critically the sources carefully.

2. Second, you must analyze the argument each source is

making. Ask the following questions:

1. What claim is the source making about the issue?

2. What data or evidence does the source offer in support of that claim?

3. What are the assumptions or beliefs (explicit or unspoken) that warrant using this evidence or data to support the claim?

4. Identify a relationship among the source articles that interests you and you think important enough to point out to others; that relationship may involve 1) an idea engaged by the all the source essays, 2) a common consideration among the articles, 3) the subtle differences among the articles, etc.

5. Determine the complementary and contrary ways the source articles deal with their ideas as a means of gathering the evidence (observations, examples, quotations, etc.) you'll need to compose your synthesis.

3. After Analysis: Finding and Establishing a Position Third, you need to generalize about your own potential stands on the issue. You should ask the following:

1. What are two or three (or more) possible positions on this issue that I could take?

2. Which of those positions do I want to take? Why?

It's vital at this point, for you to keep an open mind. A stronger, more mature, more persuasive essay will result if you resist the temptation to oversimplify the issue, to hone in immediately on an obvious thesis. All the synthesis paper prompts will be based on issues that invite careful, critical thinking.

4. Your Position -- and this is the most challenging move –

You need to imagine presenting each of your best positions on the issue to each of the authors of the provided sources. Role-playing the author or creator of each source, you need to create an imaginary conversation between yourself and the author/creator of the source. Would the author/creator agree with your position? Why?

Disagree? Why?

Want to qualify it in some way? Why and how?

5. Refine your thesis

Based on this imagined conversation, you need to finesse, to refine, the point that you would like to make about the issue so that it can serve as a central proposition, a thesis -- as complicated and robust as the topic demands -- for your

paper. This proposition or thesis should probably appear relatively quickly in your introduction, after a sentence or two that contextualizes the topic or issue for the reader.

6. Argue your Position

You need to argue your position. You must develop the case for the position by incorporating within your own thinking the conversations you have had with the authors/creators of the primary sources. You should feel free to say things like, "Source A takes a position like mine," or "Source B would oppose my position, but here's why I still maintain its validity," or "Source C offers a slightly different perspective, one that I would alter a bit."

Composing

Your task is not only to offer summaries of the source essays, though that's an aspect of the synthesis essay.  Your goal is to identify an interesting and important relationship among the source articles and to explain that connection you see to your readers . In a sense, the synthesis paper bears some similarity to a discussion in which you're the moderator.  As the moderator, you must ensure each of the discussion participants (the source article) are heard fairly and accurately, so in addition to summary you'll also be quoting and paraphrasing as a means of demonstrating how the source articles agree and disagree with one another.  You'll need to organize your paper so that your readers can see where the information from the source articles overlap and/or contradict.  In this discussion, however, you get the final word. Your task is not to attack or demean the writers of the source articles.  Rather, it is your responsibility to help your readers understand them more fully by offering your interpretive conclusion and pointing out the consistencies and disparities among them as a means of making clear what you think is most interesting and most important about them.

Most effective paper will be organized around the points of similarity and disparity you identify, for it is these points that explain the relationship among the articles you deem important.

Map for Synthesis Paper/ Comparison and Contrast

I-Introduction:

1-Backgroung information (6 sentences) about your topic

2- Introduce

Article one (title, author, and summary).

Article two (title, author, and summary).

3- Less Point

4-Thesis/ More points.

II-Body: (Choose Pattern)

1- All about A All about B

2- Point-by- Point

A-Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that includes one of the more points.

1-Explain it

2-Discuss A and give example

3-Discuss B and give example.

B-Write at least three paragraphs by following the same structure.

C- One paragraph: Your assessment/ evaluation.

III-Conclusion:

Talk about the less points, then summarize your more points, and paraphrase your thesis.

Remember that you must represent the source articles fairly and accurately