ENGL&102Jewell – SYNTHESIS ESSAY
Rough draft due Tuesday February 19 – Final draft due Friday February 22
Your job in a synthesis essay is to find the places where ideas from multiple sources overlap, and then describe
their relationship to one another. For your 4-6 page synthesis essay, please choose one of the following prompts:
1) The lens essay uses one text to shed light on another in order to show readers something they would not have
been able to see if they had examined the texts in isolation. For this assignment, you will use Rushkoff’s Program of
Be Programmed as a lens to focus discussion on Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story. You may also incorporate
ideas from other class readings.
Your aim is to synthesize your understanding of the claims, arguments, and thinking in Rushkoff’s work with your
interpretation of themes in Shteyngart’s book in order to create an argument you could not have made through
close reading of Shteyngart alone. You seek to inform your readers, to encourage them to understand and apply
ideas common to both books in new ways. In order to be successful at this assignment, you will have to narrow
down and select threads from both Rushkoff and Shteyngart book, and make specific references to each text,
including inferences about each author’s purpose. This essay must be thesis-driven; the thesis a) constructs an
argument about the relationship between the two texts and b) answers the question, “So what?” or, “Why
do/should we care?”
2) Identify an idea, concept, or theme that two or more of the texts we have read for class have in common (for this
prompt, you must use either the Rushkoff or Shteyngart book, though you may use both). Sample themes you
might consider: privacy, personal and public identity, globalization/delocalization, consumer culture, individual
and group agency, futurism and speculative fiction, intellectual property (and this list just scratches the surface).
With each of these themes, you‘ll need to identify a more specific question to focus your synthesis of the texts. You
may include your own reaction to these texts in the form of your own agreements, disagreements, or mixed
feelings, and you are certainly allowed to use your own experience or draw on your own awareness of social issues
as a way into discovering the complexity of the driving forces behind these texts, but the body of your paper should
focus primarily on analyzing quotes or examples, extending themes, and seeking out points of connection.
It will be impossible to create the kind of conversation this assignment demands if you treat sources separately or
produce one body paragraph about each source. This is not a research paper; your goal is to tell a story or present
a theory about the relationships these sources have to each other. Your body paragraphs will have to be organized
by ideas and treat sources in some combination with each other. Your organization will be determined patterns
you see in the material you are analyzing.
4-6 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman, 1” margins. Please include your name, the date, and your class
section in the upper left hand corner of the first page. All essays should include a title and must use MLA citations
of referenced work.
Grading Rubric
Process (rough drafts, peer review, proper format)
Interesting, non-obvious, and arguable thesis that addresses source texts
Reflects critical reading of multiple texts from different perspectives
Develops meaningful connections between texts (beyond simple compare/contrast)
Thoughtful analysis and effective argument
Well-organized (by idea, not source) with clear transitions between important ideas
Proper use of MLA citation and good grammar/punctuation/spelling
TOTAL
10 pts
10 pts
10 pts
20 pts
25 pts
15 pts
10 pts
100 pts