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Strategies for Rhetoric and Research Writing Project 3: Social Memory: A Synthesis As you read for your research paper, choose three of your sources and write a synthesis paper, which uses these three sources to help you develop and support a thesis. You will want to make extensive use summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation, and I expect your essay to demonstrate an understanding of Ch. 19 in The Brief Penguin Handbook. The synthesis essay should be 3-4 pages in lengh (not including the works cited page), and follow the General Guidelines for Written Work handout. What is Synthesis? Synthesis is perhaps one of the more common techniques that you can expect to use in college writing. Professors often assign this type of paper so that you can demonstrate your understanding of multiple perspectives on a give issue as well as its context. Synthesis requires that you begin to make connections among ideas, texts, theories, activities, to name just a few of the possible range of options. A synthesis depends on a thoughtful and compelling thesis and entails selectively combining information from several sources into a coherent discussion. For example, you might be asked in your Environmental Ecology class to synthesize the methodological decisions made by three groups of environmental researches in three similar studies of toxic waste contamination at landfill sites to make recommendations for future investigations. To compete either of these assignments, you would first need to summarize the main points and then analyze the required components (e.g. methodological decisions for future investigations) before you could synthesize, or make connections, among the components. Purpose of the Assignment To practice the skills of written synthesis, this assignment asks you to begin to make connections between texts and examine ways in which various texts participate in ongoing academic discussions. You will be identifying, analyzing and then explaining how you surmise that two or more authors are “talking” to each other about a similar theme or topic. In other words, you will first need to consider what the authors are saying to each other, and second, how your views come to terms with the conversation. Then you will write a paper that connects these perspectives around a meaningful thesis. This essay differs from a summary in several respects. Your role when writing a summary was primarily that of reporter. The present assignment requires you to interact with the texts at a different level. You are not expected to be as knowledgeable or conversant as the writers you select, but you can contribute by exploring their respective approaches. It may be helpful to think of your role as that of a discussant, and your paper as a conversation about the topic you will choose to address. How Do I Get Started? As you plan your synthesis paper, keep in mind classroom discussion on relationships among the various readings you will be using as sources. When thinking about a topic, consider the following questions:
Select on issue of particular interest to you and think about how various writers engage it. You will need to begin by going through each selection that you will use and making all the references to your theme. Then you can think about the relationships among those references. Usually, you will have to infer the relationships, though sometimes you will find that writers explicitly address each other. Your goal is not only to analyze relationships among ideas but to contribute some insights of your own to the discussion. The following categories should help you understand how the different authorial positions you’re dealing with relate to each other.
In all of these possible relationships, the point is first to recognize when authors are talking about approximately the same topic and then to examine the nuances in ways they address it. How Might I Organize the Synthesis Paper? Your instructor may give you specific instructions regarding page length and number of articles and/or authors you will need to include in your paper. After you have closely reviewed what your chosen readings said about your topic, you will probably want to begin by writing a tentative introduction in terms of the significant thematic issue you have chosen. In the introduction, you will need to contextualize your topic in the larger discussion in which it participates and to sate your own thesis. Once you have come up with a tentative thesis, you may begin to outline subpoints that explain the relationships you have found among the ways various authors treat your topic. Remember as you develop your working notes or outline into full paragraphs that every time your interpret something an author said, you need to support your interpretation with quotations from the author’s own words. In this way, your paragraphs will develop with your own interpretations supported by the author’s words. This becomes the body of your paper. You should organize these paragraphs so that each subsequent idea builds upon what you have already said previously. By the time you get to your conclusion, you should have demonstrated why your thesis claimed what it did. In your conclusion then, you can emphasize the strongest points you have made throughout your paper in support of your own thesis. In this way, you are becoming a participant in a written conversation with the authors whose ideas you are considering. Peer Review Draft Due: No formal peer review Final Portfolio Due: 13 April 2004 Based upon your peer-review, revise your essay at least once. Your Project 3 Portfolio should include:
Last Modified: 13 March 2004 Syllabus | Policies | Work | Schedule | Assignments | Handouts | Links |