English 1301 with Nikki Slack!

Synthesis Essay Assignment 

This open-ended assignment asks you to synthesize your ideas about several texts from the unit.

The hardest part of being a writer can be finding out what you want to say.  In some situations, we can just write an outline and fill it in.  More often, we must go through an extended process of drafting and revising before we have something worth saying.  As novelist E. L. Doctorow notes, “writing … is like driving a car at night.  You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Begin by re-reading and re-visiting your favorite essays from the unit.  Pick an interesting theme, issue, or subject present in three or more essays.  Review the texts to find passages that you find most compelling and important in relation to that topic.  You may also write about texts in The Blair Reader we have not read for class.  Next, find a thought-provoking visual element (such as an image, poster, magazine ad, or CD cover) that you wish to discuss in relation to the texts and, in particular, the passages you chose.  Develop an essay that discusses these written and visual texts together.

For this assignment, you must:

·   Include a thesis statement that makes your point.

·   Support your thesis with evidence from all four texts (three written texts and a visual).

·   Integrate quotations properly and explain their significance.

·   Paraphrase properly by communicating the authors’ ideas in your own words, not imitating their vocabulary or sentence structures.

·   Cite sources correctly.

·   Write 4-6 pages in MLA style with Works Cited (12 pt Times New Roman font and one-inch margins).

Due dates:

Nov. 20:  Synthesis Issue Proposal due.

Nov. 27:  Rough draft due!  AND conferences. After a brief class, we will dismiss for conferences, which will continue throughout the day.

Nov. 29:  Second 4 page draft due. Bring three copies of your draft to class. If your draft is not 4 full pages, you will receive a 5 point reduction on your final grade.

Dec. 6:  Synthesis Essay Portfolio due.

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