EN 101--Instructor: DeFurio
Informative Synthesis: Essay #4
Length: 1,300 words
Weight: 15%
Due Date: via Turnitin by 9pm on Sunday, November 6
Format: Follow all MLA guidelines in the tab found in your Hacker handbook (double
spaced, Times New Roman or Arial font, page numbers, heading, parenthetical citation)
Assignment: In the fourth unit, we have considered how artificial intelligence mimics or
perhaps challenges human consciousness. As a class, we have discussed style on a sentence
level and practiced how to avoid passive verbs, ponderous nouns, and strings of
prepositional phrases. We have practiced using bargain words and determined when to leave
things unsaid. To conjoin these skills and considerations, please combine information from three
or more sources to support to support your thesis. Identify the primary claims of the
articles/videos/radio segments and write a thesis statement that synthesizes the information
compiled from disparate sources. As Wilhoit states, your thesis should be informative and
not argumentative; in other words, it should not evaluate the evidence or arguments
provided in the source material (that will happen in your argumentative synthesis essay #5)
but, instead, it should simply convey information. Let Wilhoit’s Chapter 9 “Informative
Synthesis” guide your writing.
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Essential Questions:
 What sources will I synthesize to support my thesis?
 How can I best convey the information offered by my sources?
Writing Skills:
 Annotation
 Quotation
 Summary vs. Paraphrase
 MLA citation/Parenthetical
Citation
 How to avoid Plagiarism
 Introductory Paragraph
 Thesis Statement
 Body Paragraph
 The Basics of Outlining
 The Proper Use of Commas
 Style on the Sentence Level
Purpose: This kind of essay should be very familiar to you. Most traditional research reports are
“informative syntheses”. Unlike a critique or rhetorical analysis, you are not evaluating information
or making an independent argument. Your synthesis should be a formal and methodical presentation
of evidence that supports a thesis statement. The thesis statement should indicate the topic of your
essay and give a roadmap of the evidence/arguments you will explore. Allow Chapter 9 in the
Wilhoit and the writing skills learned in the first two units to guide you.
Author and Audience: Assume that you are speaking to an audience that is NOT familiar with the
source material included in your paper. Make sure that you write adequate summaries, paraphrases,
and quotation to fairly represent your sources.
Grading:
MLA Formatting: 5%
 Name, date, class, title on first page and page numbers
 Paragraph indentation and margins
 Works cited (see Hacker MLA-4)
Quotation, Summary, and Paraphrase: 10%
 (Wilhoit Ch. 2): Does parenthetical citation follow the MLA format?
 If used, are paraphrases of the film thorough, accurate, fair, objective? Do they avoid
plagiarism? (Wilhoit Ch. 3)
 Is your summary of the film comprehensive, accurate, neutral, and independent? (Wilhoit
Ch. 4)
Strength of Argument: 20% (see Hacker)
 Does the essay have a strong opening paragraph and thesis statement?
 Do the selected quotations/citations provide strong evidence for the essay’s claim?
 Does the essay have a strong conclusion that summarizes the argument and, perhaps, alludes
to further considerations?
 Is the essay’s argument rhetorically persuasive so that it ultimately compels the reader into
agreement?
Organization of argument: 20% (see Hacker)
 Do paragraph transitions work to support the argument and guide the reader smoothly
through rhetorical changes?
 Do paragraphs have opening/topic sentences that summarize everything contained therein?
 Is the essay organized so as to provide a structured argument that best supports the thesis?
Informative Synthesis: 20% (see Wilhoit Ch. 9)
 Does the essay offer the reader a comprehensive account of your source texts?
 Have you avoided editorializing?
 Does/do the thesis statement and topic sentences provide a structure for your presentation
of evidence?
Style: 25% (see the Line by Line handout and the draft checklist)
 Did you avoid passive verbs in favor of active verbs?
 Did you avoid strings of prepositional phrases?
 Did you avoid ponderous nouns?
 Did you use bargain nouns?
 Did you leave unnecessary phrases unsaid? (ex. I believe that…/ When I read this, I
thought that…)