The topic I have chosen is the one that says is anonymity on social media a problem.
ENGL 101 (101X) Write a synthesis essay on one of the following topics 1. Can Schadenfreude (taking pleasure in other people’s misfortune) be defended as a useful and/or harmless emotion? 2. Has the practice of accommodating people who have comfort animals/support animals gone too far? 3. Should boxing be banned? 4. Is anonymity on social media a problem? 5. Should celebrities advocate for their political or social views? You must employ the MLA system in your essay (for the basics of the MLA system, see The Active Reader, pp. 144-6. We will also consult the library pdf on the MLA system, available through the path Research Help/Citing/MLA Style Handout). Synthesis essay-1,250 words. Due December 2 For this assignment, you must consult and use at least three scholarly sources. Having completed the SearchPath tutorial, you should be able to distinguish between scholarly and non-scholarly sources. However, if you have any doubt as to whether or not a source is scholarly, send me the bibliographical information about the source, and I will tell you. Your sources don’t need to address the topic directly, as long as they deal with relevant subject matter. As I will emphasize in class, this assignment is not a test of your ability to gather and present information about the matter at hand; it does not have the function that a research essay would have in a course where the topic fell within the course’s own content and discipline. See the files on Blackboard about synthesis essays. Your goal is to present your own argument in the context of the views of others. Remember that while many of these topics fall within certain disciplines, you are not writing, for instance, a Sociology research essay or a Psychology research essay or a Cultural Studies research essay or a Philosophy research essay. Rather, you are writing a particular kind of assignment suited to the kind of skills you should strengthen in an Argument and Analysis course. See the other Blackboard documents on the synthesis essay. Getting started on your research For detailed information on how to find books and articles for the synthesis essay, consult the SearchPath tutorial and The Active Reader, pp. 128-33. Because you are not writing within a particular discipline and therefore cannot simply select your article index according to subject matter, consider starting with one of the databases that covers many fields: Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, or MasterFILE Premier. The easiest way to ensure that you find only scholarly works is to limit your search to “peer-reviewed” or “scholarly.” One of the purposes of this assignment is to shift the way a student views an essay’s structure from a preestablished requirement (as in the five-paragraph-essay) to a choice the student makes, based on a judgment as to the kind of structure that best serves their purpose. That is how academic writers view structure, and that is how you should begin to view it in your academic work. So part of the task of this assignment is for you to choose a structure for your essay once you are at the stage (and only when you are at that stage) to think about your purpose (i.e. making a case for your thesis while also reporting on the scholarly conversation). Various structures in a synthesis essay can serve the author’s purpose of presenting an argument that they also place within a scholarly conversation. Each of those structures aims to maintain the basic purpose of any persuasive essay—to make a case for a particular thesis—while also reporting on the scholarly conversation the author is joining. You should keep the basic tools of essay writing—an introduction, a thesis statement, body paragraphs, topic sentences, a conclusion—while adding as you see fit the part that is distinctive to a synthesis essay. Three dangers you want to avoid: 1. Overwhelming your presentation with summary and having no argument of your own to make. 1. Making only pro forma allusions to your sources while basically presenting a persuasive essay that does not bring other voices into it. [Note: in actual practice, students rarely make this mistake.] 1. Treating your sources as evidence rather than as voices that give the reader the context of the conversation you are entering. You can use a scholar’s point to bolster your own without representing it as pure evidence; you can affirm your agreement with the scholar’s point, explain how it helps you make your case, and, when necessary or appropriate, offer further reasoning to expand on it. Is there a way to use my structure to help me avoid these dangers? [with any structure, start with an introduction and thesis statement] (a)One way is to present the debate, or the various positions or solutions or findings offered by others, early in your essay (i.e. right after the introduction), leaving the rest of the essay to your own case. However, if this is done mechanically, the reader will fail to see the connection between the two parts of your essay. This method is good for avoiding #2 and #3. (b)Another option is to present the views of others only as they pertain to particular points you wish to make, as in a traditional argument. This method is useful for avoiding #1, but makes #3 a greater danger. If you select this method, avoid using your three articles as mere sources that offer support for certain points. Explicitly introduce them as other voices in your own presentation. (c) A less common structure is to present your argument in its entirety and then place it within the conversation you have overheard. This is good for avoiding #1 and #3, but runs the risk of #2. If you choose this structure, be particularly specific about how you believe what you have just presented relates to the scholarly conversation you are now reporting on for the reader. If you want a default structure, it is probably best to go with (a), reporting on the conversation after the introduction and then presenting your argument. If (b) is done well, however, it can be highly effective and makes for a particularly coherent essay. If (c) is done well, it can lead the student to be particularly clear on how their own case fits into the already ongoing scholarly conversation. . Exercise on the differences between some high school English classes and university The Synthesis Essay I recommend that you not waste your time researching beyond the requirements of the assignment. The important thing is what you do in your actual essay with the pieces you find and the relationship you establish between their arguments and yours. WHAT IS A SYNTHESIS ESSAY? A synthesis essay brings together the views of others into a coherent argument whose main purpose is to make a case (as in a persuasive essay) for the particular position on the matter advanced by the writer (in this case you, the student). As Christine L. Alfono puts it, “The task then is to incorporate discussion of multiple perspectives (including positions you might find through research) in a way that reveals the complexity of the issue but ultimately advances your own, final stance on the matter at hand.” In your essay, present the people that hold those views as outside voices you are introducing into your argument in order to tell the reader about the academic conversation. Don’t treat them merely as “sources” that have been absorbed into your own argument. Will the three works I find necessarily take contrary positions to one another? No. It largely depends on the topic you select and the material you find and decide to use. You can still write an effective synthesis essay even if there is no fundamental disagreement among your three sources. Your sources will undoubtedly emphasize different features of the matter at hand even if there is no explicit disagreement. Why is there scarcely any material in The Active Reader on the synthesis essay? A synthesis essay is a particular kind of research essay. Therefore, the material covered in The Active Reader (and in the Search path tutorial) related to research essays is relevant to the synthesis essay. From the textbook and the tutorial, you have learnt how to find your three sources. However, your goal is not to master the subject matter contained in your topic, but to present a coherent argument that is your own but brings in and synthesizes the careful reading you have done of at least three contributions to the conversation. Exercise on the differences between some high school English classes and university DON’T GATHER AS MUCH MATERIAL AS YOU CAN SO THAT YOU CAN BECOME AN EXPERT ON THE TOPIC TREAT THE SCHOLARS PRIMARILY AS SOURCES OF INFORMATION OR AS EVIDENCE (You can do this occasionally, but it is not the principal purpose to which you should put the articles.) WRITE AN EXPOSITORY ESSAY WHOSE PRIMARY GOAL IS TO EXPLAIN THE TOPIC TO YOUR HYPOTHETICAL AUDIENCE DO THINK ABOUT AND PRESENT WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE THESES OR ARGUMENTS OF YOUR THREE SOURCES TREAT THE THREE SCHOLARS AS VOICES THAT ARE PART OF AN ACADEMIC CONVERSATION THAT YOU ARE NOW JOIINING FRAME YOUR ARGUMENT AS A CONTRIBUTION TO AN ACADEMIC CONVERSATION RELATED TO YOUR TOPIC FILL THE READER IN ABOUT THAT ACADEMIC CONVERSATION PLACE YOUR OWN ARGUMENT WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THAT CONVERSATION EXPLICITLY DESCRIBE HOW YOUR THESIS OR A POINT RELATES TO THE THESIS OR TO A POINT OF A SCHOLAR ADDUCE EVIDENCE ONLY AS PART OF REASONING. DON’T SEEK OUT FACTS TO HELP YOU MAKE YOUR CASE. IT’S NOT THAT KIND OF ESSAY. KEEP YOUR OWN VOICE DOMINANT, AS IN ANY OTHER ESSAY (AND PART OF DOING THAT IS NAMING THE SCHOLARS IN YOUR OWN SENTENCES, NOT JUST BURYING THEM WITHIN THE PARENTHESES)