ENGL&101Jewell – SYNTHESIS ESSAY
Zero draft due Friday May 30 – Rough draft due Monday June 2 - Final draft due Wednesday June 4
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. The purpose of a synthesis essay is to give students practice finding a meaningful
relationship between two or more texts; to help students understand how to trace and analyze a specific theme,
point, technique, strategy, or stylistic element in more than one text; and, to help students arrive at a more complex
or new understanding of the topic, the texts, and how these relate to a larger context. In this class, we have focused
on education and learning, and that will be the larger context you are engaging.
For your 3-4 page synthesis essay, please choose one of the following prompts:
1) In Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average” and Maya Angelou’s “Graduation,” the authors talk about expectations:
how expectations are set by educators/administrators, how they are communicated, and how they affect students.
Compare and contrast the ways the two essays address the topic, considering both similarities and differences, to
make your own claim about expectations and education.
2) Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Frederick Douglass’ “Learning to Read and Write” each recount the
experience of an African American male gaining literacy, though in very different historical periods and under very
different circumstances. What are the similarities and differences between the experiences? What do these
similarities and differences say about each society’s view on literacy, education, race, and class?
3) All of the readings we have done this quarter have touched on education or learning in some way (though, of
course, “The Ways We Lie” was a bit of a stretch). Develop your own idea about education and learning that draws
on ideas contained in two or more texts. This prompt allows the greatest flexibility, but also demands more from
you as a writer; if you choose this direction, please email me your texts and working thesis before getting too far in
your rough draft.
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?”
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 by patterns
you see in the material you are analyzing.
3-4 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