Syntheis Essay

Synthesis Essay Your third assignment is a 1350-1500 word essay in which you analyze and synthesize two texts on a particular topic, in this case you will be using two texts. As it says in the text, “Synthesis is an especially important component of academic research writing, where you use synthesis to carve out your own thinking space on a question while sifting through the writings of others. Synthesis, then, is the skill of wrestling with ideas from different texts or sources, trying to forge a new whole out of potentially confusing parts. It is the principal way you enter into a conversation on a social, civic, or scholarly issue” (Allyn and Bacon 217). With this essay you want to demonstrate dialectical thinking. This means that you won’t want to simply adopt the argument of any particular source. Neither will you want to completely reject each source’s argument in favor of your own preconceptions. Rather you will want to “wallow in the complexity” of the topic, examine the issue carefully from each angle represented, and come up with a new point of view. In other words, in this essay, you want to show that you can compare, contrast, complement, and/or combine ideas from three sources (from your own experience and worldview and from your two chosen texts) and come up with new ideas to answer your synthesis question(s). Like all good writing, this essay will start with a question. Potential synthesis questions and the accompanying texts for analysis are listed on page 227. You are to choose an article, video, podcast, or picture about social media and activism to analyze. Your Synthesis Essay Must Include the Following: – Statement of the synthesis question that shows your interest in the texts and presents this question as problematic and significant – Short summaries of these texts to give your readers a sense of the readings you are working with – A thesis that indicates how you have analyzed and synthesized the readings to arrive at a new perspective – Your analysis of key points in these texts, determined in part by the synthesis question – Your new view, which combines ideas gathered from readings with your own independent ideas. – Appropriate incorporation of sources that accurately attributes all outside words, ideas and information to their source – A Works Cited Page that uses MLA formatting to accurately list all Works that are cited in the essay.