23 Creating a Synthesis Question, Learning Logs, and Thesis

Introduction:

When you write to persuade, you need to have a specific purpose in mind, a good sense of your audience, and an idea of what would be an effective way to persuade that audience. You need to make a point and provide evidence to support that point, along with the goal of persuading your readers to agree with that position.

For this persuasive essay, you will construct a synthesis essay. A synthesis is a written discussion that draws on two or more sources. It follows that your ability to write syntheses depends on your ability to infer relationships among sources. This process is nothing new for you since you infer relationships all the time—say, between something you have read in the newspaper and something you have seen for yourself. In an academic synthesis, you make explicit the relationships that you have inferred from separate sources.

The skills you have already been practicing in this course will be vital in writing syntheses. Clearly, before you are in a position to draw relationships between two or more sources, you must understand what those sources say; in other words, you must be able to summarize these sources. It will frequently be helpful for your readers if you provide at least partial summaries of sources in your synthesis essay. At the same time, you must go beyond summary to make judgments—judgments based, of course, on your critical interpretation of your sources. By summarizing your sources, you should already have drawn some conclusions about the quality and validity of these sources, and you should know how much you agree or disagree with the points made in your sources and the reasons for your agreement or disagreement.

Further, you must go beyond the critique of individual sources to determine the relationship among them. Is the information in source B, for example, an extended illustration of the generalizations in source A? Would it be useful to compare and contrast source C with source B? Having read and considered sources A, B, and C, can you infer something else—D (not a source, but your own idea)?

The ultimate goal of this project is to write an essay that synthesizes the ideas of two different types of sources (a poem & an artwork, or an ad & a song, or a video & an article, etc.).  Your essay should summarize/describe the works and respond to the ideas presented in them. Additionally, you will need to develop and explain your stance on the issues presented in the works. You will need to be in “conversation” with your sources to clearly communicate how and where your stance supports or differs from the ideas in the sources.

This project has several tasks that build upon each other to help you write the final essay, so please complete each task in the order I have listed. You will have to review your sources about your topic as well as create a synthesis question that brings these works into conversation with one another. You will also have to use learning logs to generate ideas for each section of your synthesis essay. Finally, you will have to write a thesis statement with analytical points and synthesis points.

The first part of the assignment asks you to pose a synthesis question. Below, you will find a few example synthesis questions, which I have adapted from The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing (6th ed), to get you started. You are welcome to modify one of these examples. Just keep in mind that your question should specifically address your topic for community change and provide your essay with a unique and interesting focus.

•  Sample Synthesis Questions:

Once you pose a synthesis question, you will complete a set of learning log tasks (see assignment below). These tasks are fairly simple and should allow you to generate ideas for each section of your synthesis essay. Below is an example of how a synthesis question can create focus and help you complete your learning log tasks:

Jane Smith, a college freshman, is assigned to write a paper that requires an analysis and synthesis of two articles on dieting. After reading the articles, she notices that each author devotes a portion of his/her argument to the environment. Jane has never thought about the connection between diet and environment before and believes this would make an interesting focus in her paper. She decides to pose the following question:

How does our diet affect the environment?

While writing her learning logs, Jane focuses on the parts of the article that deal with her synthesis question. For example, while summarizing the dieting articles, she writes out the main argument and then concentrates on the sections that deal with environment. These passages, in turn, give her direction as she completes the rest of the learning logs and drafts her thesis. Because of her unique focus, she earns an “A” on the final draft of her essay. Jane’s story is an example of how a synthesis question can help you think in terms of relevance as you complete your learning log tasks and generate ideas for your synthesis essay.

Note:  One of the learning logs in the following assignment asks that you analyze your works’ rhetorical strategies. Be sure to review the class lecture notes on the rhetorical triangle, read “Rhetorical Analysis” in Something to Say (221-227) and do the best you can.

Assignment:

• Select two different types of work about your topic for community change (a poem & an artwork, or an ad & a song, or a video & an article, etc.) and create a specific synthesis question that helps you zero in on a specific problem that these works address.
• Complete the five learning log tasks below.

Learning Log Task 1: In light of what you have read/viewed and thought about so far, explore your own views on the synthesis question that has guided your probing of the works. Explain the angle of your particular question and why it is unique.

Learning Log Task 2: Summarize/describe each work you plan to use in your synthesis paper—you will want to briefly pinpoint the overall argument and then concentrate on the parts of the works that connect to your synthesis question.

Learning Log Task 3: Analyze the rhetorical strategies used in each of your works (for example, the way the works appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos). Refer to pages 221-227 in Something to Say to help you with this step. You will want to focus your analysis on the passages you summarized in Task 2.

Learning Log Task 4: Identify the main issues or themes in your chosen works. Then explore the similarities and differences in their ideas.

Learning Log Task 5: Reread your first four learning logs and consider how your own views on the synthesis question have evolved and emerged. Think about the risky, surprising, or new views that you can bring to your readers. In light of your reading and thinking, explore what you want to say in your own voice to show the connections you made and any new insights you now have.

Next, Write a thesis for your synthesis essay that forecasts your main rhetorical points and synthesis points.

It might help to think about the main components that a synthesis thesis should contain:

• identify the common theme or rhetorical strategy among sources;
• identify how the authors are using that theme or rhetorical strategy
• say more than just stating the similarities and/or differences; the thesis asserts what larger idea can be arrived at by looking at both texts. It is not enough to say “Both author A and Author B discuss ________.” Why is that significant, relevant, or important?

Tip: Use the thesis template on the Writing Assignment Guidelines

Although [Source A] and [Source B] both _______ [identify a commonality between the texts by considering how they both address your topic for community change], [Source A] sees _________ whereas [Source B] __________ [identify where the texts differ from each other, how they support each other, or how one text builds upon the ideas of the other]. Both sources made me question/further understand/realize how ______________ [identify what new idea/perspective you’ve come to based on what you’ve read/viewed in these two sources].

 _{(assignment adapted from UI’s ISI ENGL 102 course)}