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TheCompositionProcessPartVSynthesis1.pptxThe Composition Process Part V
Synthesis: Connecting Multiple Sources of Information around a Single Topic
What is a synthesis?
A synthesis is a written discussion that draws on one or more sources (such as essays, articles, films, television, and recordings), establishing relationships among them. This process is similar to that required to construct research papers; the difference is that the research component is not necessarily required for a syntheses. A non-research synthesis may simply require that you make connections between multiple assigned sources, or sources with which you are otherwise already familiar.
General Requirements of a Synthesis
The skills you have already been practicing in this course will be vital in writing syntheses. Drawing relationships between two or more sources requires that you comprehend each on its own merits; it is therefore important that you provide brief summaries of sources in your synthesis essays. At the same time, you must go beyond summary to make judgments based on your critical reading of your sources. You should already have drawn some conclusions about the overall points being made in these texts, as well as details which support your conclusions.
Two types of Syntheses: The Explanatory Synthesis
An explanatory synthesis helps readers to understand a topic, as a result of the writer dividing a subject into its component parts and presenting them to the reader in a clear and orderly fashion (i.e. a Process Essay). Explanations may entail descriptions that re-create in words some object, place, event, sequence of events, or state of affairs. The purpose in writing an explanatory essay is not to argue a particular point, but rather to present the facts in a reasonably objective manner. The explanatory synthesis does not go much beyond what is obvious from a careful reading of the sources. However, your argumentative synthesis essays (i.e., Capstone Essays), will include sections that are explanatory in nature.
THE ARGUMENT SYNTHESIS
The purpose of an argument synthesis is for you to present your own point of view, supported by relevant details, drawn from sources, and presented in a logical manner. As you are already aware, the thesis of an argumentative essay is debatable. It makes a proposition about which reasonable people could disagree, and any two writers working with the same source materials could conceive of and support other, opposite theses.
Standards for Synthesis Essays
Use your sources to support your ideas and claims, not the other way around.
Create a "dialogue" between yourself and your sources, and also among the sources
themselves. Imagine a synthesis essay as a room in which you are joined by the authors of your
stories, with everyone engaged in conversation or debate, with everyone commenting on (or arguing
against) each other's ideas directly.
Establish your credibility on the subject and provide sufficient information to make your argument
(thesis) convincing.
Standards Continued
Organize your paper logically:
A. State your thesis clearly and make sure that it reflects the focus of your essay.
B. Divide paragraphs logically, including:
Topic Sentences (each of which should connect to your thesis.
Evidence (i.e., quotes and paraphrases from the texts)
Commentary demonstrating the connections between your claims and your support
Develop each main idea thoroughly. Use specific examples and source materials appropriately as support. Integrate source materials smoothly into your own writing using attribution phrases (i.e., Gordon-Reed states that) and transitions. Also be sure to avoid unnecessary repetition, which is often an organization problem, and an indication that revision may be necessary.
Standards Continued
Proofread carefully to identify and correct mechanical errors, such as errors in plurals or possessives (i.e., three dogs vs. the dog’s bone), subject-verb agreement (i.e., I think vs. he thinks), shifts in verb tense (I take vs. I took), or person (you probably think vs. one would probably think), comma errors, spelling errors, and so on.
Check your MLA documentation. Are your parenthetical citations correct? Is your Works Cited list correct according to MLA style, and does it include all sources cited in your essay? Is your essay formatted correctly?
Be sure to give your essay a descriptive and attention-getting title (NOT "Synthesis").
Organizational Approaches to Synthesis
The key to organizing a synthesis is that your thesis conveys an idea that is relevant to both (or all) sources that are being referenced. In the current assignment, the connecting thread is marriage, and the connecting concept is war/conflict. Consequently, whatever argument you make must connect both stories along the conceptual thread of conflict within a marriage. The most simple way to accomplish this is to make your point, and then to introduce each text separately, as though you were calling on witnesses in a trial. Each source must be briefly introduced (summarized), when initially referenced, after which, you can move back and forth between sources as needed.
Organization Continued
The important thing, is that your paragraphs should be focused around a subtopic, which may apply to one or both stories. It is not necessary for each point being made to apply to both texts. It is necessary, however, that your overall claim be relevant to both stories, which does not mean that the authors must agree. On the contrary, it might be about how different factors influence the perspective of the writer (i.e., writer’s gender, era of composition, class of the couples, etc.).
The Assignment
Using the short stories “Popular Mechanics” and “The Story of an Hour,” write an essay of approximately 3-4 pages in which you make an argument addressing the concept of war, in terms of how it manifests within a domestic relationship, such as a marriage.
No additional research is required; however, you must refer to (summarize, paraphrase, and quote from) each of the texts referenced above.
Your paper must be double-spaced, in 12 point plain font. Neither a Works Cited page, nor a counterargument are required at this point; however, both will be required with revisions (i.e., second drafts).
This assignment is consistent with the work that will be required for the final Capstone paper.
