FIND A SOLUTIONAT All A+ Essays
English 1302
Summer 2020
Essay 2: Explanatory Synthesis
Paper Formatting & Length
This essay should be a minimum of four full pages
doubled-spaced and a maximum of five pages. Your “Works Cited” page
does not count as one of those pages. The essay should be presented
in MLA format and should include a Works Cited page for all of the
sources used in your essay. (So long as you formatted them
correctly in your annotated bibliography, you may be able to do
some copying and pasting here.)
What is a Synthesis? Why do we write these?
A synthesis is a written discussion that draws on material in
several texts in order to objectively compare and contrast
information. It is a standard form of academic and workplace
writing. A research paper in any discipline synthesizes multiple
sources. Argumentative essays synthesize information, theories,
etc. into a claim or position. In the workplace, professionals
synthesize information in order to make important decisions or
presentations. Newspaper and magazine articles synthesize primary
and secondary sources; memos and letters synthesize ideas, events,
proposals and so on.
Assignment
Write an explanatory synthesis using materials gathered for
your annotated bibliography. You are asked to develop three to four
synthesis questions. Synthesis questions are questions that bring
your sources into conversation with one another. On the other hand,
you may find that your research has moved you in a different
direction than you initially expected, and you have to develop new
questions.
Answer your synthesis questions using information from the
sources you gathered. As this is a synthesis paper, your goal is to
compare and contrast how your different sources speak to the
questions you’ve posed.
And notably, since this is an explanatory synthesis and not
an argument, your thesis will describe or explain what you will do
in the essay. In other words, this essay assignment is not where
you’ll be taking a stance.
To put it another way…you will compare and contrast how the
different sources you’ve gathered address the questions you’ve
developed. This will involve a lot of summarizing and paraphrasing
of your sources in order to give your reader a broad understanding
of the multiple synthesis questions you’ve posed: your reader will
not just understand one publication’s/viewer’s take on your
subject; instead they will understand your subject from multiple
points of view.
How to Write this Essay
Step one:
Review and select research questions that bring the sources
you gathered for the “annotated bibliography” into conversation
with one another. These questions will serve as your synthesis
questions for this essay. You may have to develop new synthesis
questions as well if you find your old questions are no longer
suitable, or don’t bring your sources into conversation with one
another, etc.
Step two:
Consider which of your sources address each of your
questions. Reread your sources while keeping your synthesis
questions in mind. In other words, reread your sources through the
“lens” of your synthesis questions.
Step three:
Develop a list or an outline of which sources speak to which
synthesis questions. Take notes to help you organize your thoughts.
The biggest challenge of this assignment is organizing a large
amount of information.
On this list/outline, note the page numbers where you find
key points from your texts so that later on you can refer back to
these pages while creating a draft. This essay will use a lot of
summarizing and quoting, so it will be important to keep good notes
that give you the information and page numbers you will need for
accurate documentation.
Step four:
Start drafting your synthesis (aka—start answering those
synthesis questions!). Each synthesis question should require at
least two fully developed paragraphs to adequately respond to the
question at hand. Refrain from creating paragraphs that contain
only information from one source. The purpose of the assignment is
to synthesize material: to bring multiple sources into conversation
with each other. Therefore, each body paragraph will contain
material from at least two sources.
Step five:
As you have been drafting, you have been using transition
phrases such as “…in contrast to Stevenson’s point of view…”,
“…Whereas Hayne asserts this view, Johnson claims….”, “…similar to
Dandy’s position …” etc. These transition phrases are simple, but
when used well they give an essay coherence (aka “flow”) and a
professional quality. They also can be useful in smoothly blending
information from multiple sources into a single paragraph.
Step seven:
After responding to all of your synthesis questions, think
about a thesis and an introduction. As noted above, since this is
an explanatory synthesis, not an argument, your thesis will
describe or explain what you will do in the essay. Your thesis
might read something
In this essay, I will compare and contrast the relationship
between beer and wine consumption and class status in ancient
Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures.
The synthesis questions that such an essay might respond to
in the body of its text might include, for instance,
—Historically, has there been a difference in terms of what
types of alcoholic beverages have been preferred by different
socioeconomic classes?
—Do beer and wine send different social “signals” or “cues”?
If so, what are the meanings and differences between those
signals/cues?
—Are any trends regarding beer and wine shared across
cultures? (specifically Greek, Egyptian, and Roman cultures) Or
does each culture treat these alcoholic beverages differently?
Two other important notes:
1) Simplistic questions will not make for good synthesis
questions. A question like “When did Americans land on the moon?”
will not bring your sources into meaningful conversation with one
another.
2) Make sure the thesis statement you develop is
comprehensive enough that it encompasses all aspects of your topic
that you discuss in the body of your paper. Remember, thesis
statements should be predictive of what’s to come.
For your conclusion, think about what we learn when we
compare and contrast the material in your essay. Think about the
major “take away” points your reader has gotten from the
exploration of your synthesis questions. Synthesis essays always
need a point, and a conclusion is a great place to make it. The
point of the comparison/contrast is the new understanding we get
when we put some information next to other information in new ways.
Why do you feel that what we’ve learned from your objective
comparisons is important? (This is your chance to break away from
the objectivity that you so closely stuck to throughout the rest of
the paper!)
Step eight:
Keep revising and editing your draft. Proofread your draft.
These are all important parts of the writing process.
General Structure of Essay:
Paragraph 1: Introduction that introduces (imagine that)
readers to the context of your community issue. There are probably
different “takes” on your community issue. Give readers a sense of
the major different perspectives that exist around your issue.
(More on this in the “Secret of Good Writing—Intros handout.)
Conclude your intro with an appropriate thesis (see above for tips)
Paragraphs 2-X: These are the body paragraphs of your essay
in which you address your synthesis questions. Each synthesis
question should be written in bold, then followed by at least two
paragraphs addressing that question. When you’ve finished answering
one synthesis question, provide your next question in bold; rinse
and repeat.
Final Paragraph: Conclusion (see above for tips)
Grading criteria and essay goals:
Do you draw on at least seven different sources while
addressing your synthesis questions?
Do you have 3 to 4 synthesis questions and do you draw on
multiple sources while responding to each of them?
Does the essay demonstrate an accurate understanding of all
of the sources you use?
Is the organization a true synthesis of material and not a
source-by-source summary of information? (AKA: Do you tie in
information from multiple sources in a single paragraph?)
Are the paragraphs well-focused and coherent with useful
transition phrases?
Does the introduction contain an appropriate thesis?
Does the conclusion describe those important take away
points?
Are the sentences basically clear?
Do you follow MLA formatting accurately?
Do you use attributive tags and parenthetical citations
appropriately so your reader can tell what information in a
paragraph is coming from which source?
One Final Important Piece of Advice:
This paper needs to contain information from at least 7
different sources. Those sources can be the same ones that were
used for the annotated bibliography. However, as research naturally
evolves over time (we come to understand things in a new light; our
reading propels us in an unexpected direction, etc.) you may find
that some of the sources you used for the annotated bibliography no
longer fit with the larger work you’re doing. If that’s the case,
that’s fine. But that does mean you’ll have to continue researching
your topic, gathering sources, and so on. (This is something you
should be doing throughout the semester anyway.)
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