Practice Synthesis Prompt with Commentary

The main problem with this prompt is that the sources do not directly tie to the question. This means you must get creative, and draw evidence where you can from the sources (often you will have to use them as a kind of spring board—as in, “while this source examines the effect on elementary school children, a similar argument can be made about high school students because…”). But be aware that a lot of the evidence and argument may have to come you’re your own head--outside evidence or personal evidence. Luckily, you are a student who has been in English classes, so you have some relevant personal experience.

Step 1: Decide which type of synthesis prompt this is (pro/con/qualify or prioritize the most important issues).

This is clearly a pro/con/qualify type prompt.

Step 2: Read through the sources and try to identify which are reliable, iffy, or problematic. Make notes about which ones could be used to support a pro, con, or qualify argument.

Source A: Could be used for definition purposes, but also to make the argument that not enough women usually appear in high school English text lists. Therefore, you could say we need a mandated list of texts in order to force schools to teach more women writers. You could also argue that you should not have a required list so that teachers can choose to bring in more women writers.
Source B: The only source that actually talks about high school reading lists! Could be used to say we already teach mostly the same works anyway, so making it official shouldn’t be a big deal—or that since we teach mostly the same works, there is a kind of de facto list already, and there is no need to make an official list. You might also note these works are all written by dead white guys—except for To Kill a Mockingbird. This source kind of makes source A’s point for him. This is not a diverse set of texts, so you could say we need to make a new required list that is more diverse.
Source C: this is about college, not high school, so you need to keep that in mind. However, it can give you some good ideas about qualify responses (have certain required texts, but allow teachers to supplement as they see fit based on what they think students need and/or can handle). This source reinforces the problems Landow points out in A, and which are also apparent in B. The canon may end up giving you only a sanitized view of literature.
Source D: An odd one. Ignore it if you can’t think of anything useful to say about it. You might argue that some anthologies do try to include multicultural texts (although a cynical person might ask to see the table of contents. Just saying this is an anthology of “world masterpieces” and putting a Japanese painting on the front doesn’t mean it really contains a good selection of multicultural works).
Source E: Could help support other arguments made in A and C, although this one is really talking about students younger than high school, so you will need to concede that point. It is also talking specifically about African American students, so you will need to deal with that as well. You could say that cultural awareness is important for all students, and argue for broadening the canon, pushing for more mandated texts that are multicultural.
Source F: Mildly amusing now. Bolter and Lanham basically argue that the print canon is irrelevant in the digital age. These are pretty extreme arguments, but you might use a qualified version to say that some of the reasons we teach the works in source B are outdated, and that we need to rethink the canon.

Think of outside information:

No source mentions this, but it is probably not wise to have all levels of junior English (remedial, on-level, honors, AP, and GT) reading the same books. Nor is it wise to have all students in all areas of the country read exactly the same thing. So some sort of qualify answer is probably best.
What do you know about text selections? Who knows what would be best for students? What kinds of texts work best in high school? Why? What will students learn the most from? How important is it for everyone to learn the same thing? How much freedom/variation is acceptable before it becomes detrimental to student learning or college instruction down the line?

Good Sample Thesis: While there is something to be said for the value of the traditional literary canon, in today’s rapidly changing and diverse world, high school English classes must adapt if they are to give American students the skills and knowledge they need to function as useful members of academic and civil society. In order to help bring reluctant teachers into the twenty-first century, there should be certain general requirements for high school English reading lists, but a large degree of flexibility must be built in to these requirements so that different schools and class levels can teach the works that best suit their students’ needs.