ENGL&102Jewell – SYNTHESIS ESSAY
Rough draft due Tuesday February 19 – Final draft due Friday February 22
Your job in a synthesis essay is to find the places where ideas from multiple sources overlap, and then describe their relationship to one another. For your 4-6 page synthesis essay, please choose one of the following prompts:
1) The lens essay uses one text to shed light on another in order to show readers something they would not have been able to see if they had examined the texts in isolation. For this assignment, you will use Rushkoff’sProgram of Be Programmed as a lens to focus discussion on Shteyngart’sSuper Sad True Love Story. You may also incorporate ideas from other class readings.
Your aim is to synthesize your understanding of the claims, arguments, and thinking in Rushkoff’s work with your interpretation of themes in Shteyngart’s book in order to create an argument you could not have made through close reading of Shteyngart alone. You seek to inform your readers, to encourage them to understand and apply ideas common to both books in new ways. In order to be successful at this assignment, you will have to narrow down and select threads from both Rushkoff and Shteyngart book, and make specific references to each text, including inferences about each author’s purpose. This essay must be thesis-driven; the thesis a) constructs an argument about the relationship between the two texts and b) answers the question, “So what?” or, “Why do/should we care?”
2) Identify an idea, concept, or theme that two or more of the texts we have read for class have in common (for this prompt, you must use either the Rushkoff or Shteyngart book, though you may use both). Sample themes you might consider: privacy, personal and public identity, globalization/delocalization, consumer culture, individual and group agency, futurism and speculative fiction, intellectual property (and this list just scratches the surface). With each of these themes, you‘ll need to identify a more specific question to focus your synthesis of the texts. You may include your own reaction to these texts in the form of your own agreements, disagreements, or mixed feelings, and you are certainly allowed to use your own experience or draw on your own awareness of social issues as a way into discovering the complexity of the driving forces behind these texts, but the body of your paper should focus primarily on analyzing quotes or examples, extending themes, and seeking out points of connection.
It will be impossible to create the kind of conversation this assignment demands if you treat sources separately or produce one body paragraph about each source. This is not a research paper; your goal is to tell a story or present a theory about the relationships these sources have to each other. Your body paragraphs will have to be organized by ideas and treat sources in some combination with each other. Your organization will be determined patterns you see in the material you are analyzing.
4-6 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman, 1” margins. Please include your name, the date, and your class section in the upper left hand corner of the first page. All essays should include a title and must use MLA citations of referenced work.
Grading Rubric
Process (rough drafts, peer review, proper format) 10 pts
Interesting, non-obvious, and arguable thesis that addresses source texts 10 pts
Reflects critical reading of multiple texts from different perspectives 10pts
Develops meaningful connections between texts (beyond simple compare/contrast) 20 pts
Thoughtful analysis and effective argument 25pts
Well-organized (by idea, not source) with clear transitions between important ideas 15pts
Proper use of MLA citation and good grammar/punctuation/spelling 10pts
TOTAL 100 pts