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Synthesis Essay

|English 9, 2nd Quarter Writing Assessment |

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|Synthesis Essay Writing |

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The second quarter of ninth grade has been devoted to reading and examining the issues and themes in To Kill a Mockingbird in addition to several other writings. Now you will write a synthesis essay, putting together related thematically to our novel.

|Synthesis in Every Day Life |

Whenever you share with a friend what other friends have said about a movie (or a tv show or a website, etc.) you engage in synthesis. People synthesize information naturally to help other see the connections between things they learn; for example, you have probably stored up a mental data bank of the various things you have heard about certain movies. If your data bank contains several negative comments, you might synthesize that information and use it to help you decide to not watch a movie. Synthesis is related to but not the same as classification, division, or comparison and contrast. Instead of attending to categories or finding similarities and differences, synthesizing sources is a matter of pulling them together, into some kind of harmony. Synthesis is the process of searching for connections between materials in order to construct a theory, or in writing, a claim.

|Key Features of a Synthesis |

(1) A synthesis accurately reports information from the sources using different phrases and sentences (ie. you may not copy from the text without quotes, and then you still have to explain the quote in your own words);

(2) A synthesis is organized in such a way that readers can immediately see where the information from the sources overlap;

(3) A synthesis makes sense of the sources and helps the reader understand them and the issue in greater depth.

A synthesis is not a summary. The main purpose of a synthesis essay is to make insightful connections of the theme (or issue) between the different texts. It is your job to explain these relationships and why they are important.

|Preparing to write your Synthesis Essay |

Step 1:

Choose one theme from the left column. You are required to use all three texts from the right column. Connecting your theme to ALL three texts on the right will be the focus of your essay.

|Theme Options: |Texts: |

|Circle one theme of focus | |

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|Stereotypes |To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee |

|Courage | |

|Racism |“The Scottsboro Boys” by Prime Stage Theatre |

|Poverty | |

|Injustice |“Malala Yousafzai Biography” |

|Why is it important to consider things from others’ point of view… to climb in| |

|their skin and walk around in it? | |

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|Writing The Synthesis Essay |

Step 2:

You will now search for passages/quotes to support the theme you chose at the bottom on page one, one quote from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the two other quotes from the other two texts listed on page one.

Your theme: _________________________________

Step 3:

Step 3:

The following is essentially a RECEIPE, or a FORMULA, for writing a Synthesis Essay. Fill in the blanks, then write sentences for the numbers without blanks. By doing so you are writing your rough draft.

INTRODUCTION

|1-Open with a general UNIQUE statement to introduce your issue/theme and to grab your reader’s attention (DO NOT MENTION |

|TITLES/AUTHORS/SPECIFIC CLAIM YET- maybe issue/theme restated): |

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|2- This theme can be explored in texts such as ___________, __________ and ___________. |

|3-Background information of each text (1 sentence per text): |

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|4- Claim: The theme of _______________ (the one you chose from page 1) is evident in many aspects of life, as is revealed in |

|__________________ __, ______________________ , and ________________. (Put the 3 titles from the first page in the order that you will use |

|them, be sure to use the correct punctuation!) |

**Note that each body paragraph is about ONE text, and the paragraphs and texts should be in the order listed in your claim.

BODY PARAGRAPH #1

|1-( TOPIC SENTENCE) Introduce text title, author and issue/theme to be addressed: The story _______ (blank = title of story) expresses the |

|theme _______________________ by ___________________ __________________________________________________________. |

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|2-Introduction of the upcoming Quote, use a signal phrase (1sentence): |

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|3- Quote (INCLUDE parenthetical citation): |

|4- Reveal the importance/relevance of the theme: |

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|5-Explanation of the quote (Explain why you chose this quote to represent your theme): |

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|6-(CONCLUSION SENTENCE) How this theme is evident in THIS text (similar to sentence #1 of body #1): |

BODY PARAGRAPH #2

|REPEAT Body Paragraph #1 formula for second text: |

|1-( TOPIC SENTENCE) Introduce text title, author and issue/theme to be addressed: The story _______ (blank = title of story) expresses the |

|theme _______________________ by ___________________ __________________________________________________________. |

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|2-Introduction of the upcoming Quote, use a signal phrase (1sentence): |

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|3- Quote (INCLUDE parenthetical citation): |

|4- Reveal the importance/relevance of the theme: |

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|5-Explanation of the quote (Explain why you chose this quote to represent your theme): |

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|6-(CONCLUSION SENTENCE) How this issue/theme is evident in THIS text (similar to sentence #1 of body #2): |

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BODY PARAGRAPH #3

|REPEAT Body Paragraph #1 formula for third text: |

|1-( TOPIC SENTENCE) Introduce text title, author and issue/theme to be addressed: The story _______ (blank = title of story) expresses the |

|theme _______________________ by ___________________ __________________________________________________________. |

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|2-Introduction of the upcoming Quote, use a signal phrase (1sentence): |

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|3- Quote (INCLUDE parenthetical citation): |

|4- Reveal the importance/relevance of the theme: |

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|5-Explanation of the quote (Explain why you chose this quote to represent your theme): |

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|6-(CONCLUSION SENTENCE) How this issue/theme is evident in THIS text (similar to sentence #1 of body #3): |

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CONCLUSION

|1-Restate Claim (invert order/use synonyms from thesaurus/SAME information): |

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|2-Summary Sentence of EACH body paragraph (topic or conclusion sentences perhaps): |

|Body #1 summary- |

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|3-Body #2 summary- |

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|4-Body #3 summary- |

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|5-Conclude with an overall insight about the relevance/importance of the theme in the novel and the other two texts. |

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|6-Through literature, readers are better able to understand (lesson based on theme- NOT “people”). |

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Step 4:

|The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader. |

|Write in third person (no “I”, “we”, “you”, “us”). |

|Do not use contractions, abbreviations, or symbols in your writing to maintain a formal writing style. (This does not include your quotes!) |

|Use effective transitions to create cohesion and connect the relationships between ideas. |

|No, “I think, I believe, in this paragraph, this quote shows…” |

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|The format of your paper… |

|This paper must be typed, double spaced, using a 10 or 12-point traditional font, following the rules of MLA. |

|Include your last name and page number in a header in the top right hand corner (MLA). |

|Include your name, the teacher name, class information (English 9, hour 1), and date in the upper left corner, in that order (MLA). |

|Include an interesting title centered on the page (MLA). |

|Fix anything underlined by Word, in red (spell check!), blue, or brown before printing! |

Step 5:

|Edit your rough drafts in class on the following two days: |

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|You must come to class with a completed draft (hard copy) to participate! |

|Reminder, if your printer is not working, either bring it in on a flashdrive OR email it to me: Donna.Fisher-Sheppard@ |

|We will use the Literary Synthesis Revision Process handouts to revise both of your drafts, as well as other methods to revise. |

Step 6:

|After each revision, go into your saved file, improve it, save it, & print it again. The FINAL typed version is due on: |

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Using Quotations in Formal Writing

Quote structure:

When using quotes, please make sure you include the following:

1. A signal phrase either before or after the quote. There is list of examples below.

2. A quote that is word for word from the text.

3. A citation or reference to where the quote came from such as the author’s last name and page number.

4. An explanation of what the quote means.

Example:

General Zaroff ironically reports, “We do our best to preserve the amenities of civilization here” (Connell 67). Although General Zaroff believes he is civilized, in reality what he is doing is committing murder.

Using signal phrases:

You cannot simply drop a quote into your writing. You need to use a signal phrase to prepare the readers for the quotation. This can come before or after the quotation. The following is a list of example signal phrases:

acknowledge

adds

admits

agrees

argues

asserts

believes

claims

comments

compares

concludes

confirms

contends

declares

denies

disputes

emphasizes

endorses

grants

illustrates

implies

insists

maintains

notes

observes

points out

proposes

reasons

refutes

rejects

reports

responds

says

states

suggests

takes the view

thinks

writes

Citations:

• Source with one author = use the author’s last name and page number (Connell 67)

• Author already mentioned in the sentence = use the page number only (67)

Using quotes inside of quotes:

Sometimes the quote you are using already has dialogue or quotation marks in the text. For the parts of the quote that already have marks, use single quotation marks.

Notes about quotes:

• Do not start or end any paragraph with a quote… although you may start the introduction with a relevant quote.

• All punctuation goes outside the citation unless the quote includes a question mark or an exclamation point.

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Title of Selection #1:

Quote to support theme & page #:

Title of Selection #2:

Quote to support theme & page #:

Title of Selection #3:

Quote to support theme & page #:

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