E
JERICHO
HIGH
SCHOOL
NAME
__________________________
PERIOD ___________
DATE
___________
MRS. FISCHER
ENGLISH II
SYNTHESIS ESSAY
Synthesis Paper
ESSAY TOPIC: How does the violence of war / terrorism affect individuals in society?
Your Task: Carefully read each of the three texts provided. Then, using evidence from all three texts, write a
well-developed paper regarding how the violence of war and/or terrorism affects society.
Clearly establish your claim about how the violence of war and/or terrorism affects society in your thesis
statement. Your thesis statement will serve as the argument that you will support throughout the duration of
your paper. The rest of your paper will synthesize information from your three central sources. Use specific
and relevant evidence (details and direct quotations) from the three sources to develop and support your
argument. In your conclusion, synthesize [blend] the information from the body paragraphs and clearly
address the essay topic.
Do not simply summarize each source. Explain and analyze them.
GUIDELINES:
Be sure to:
 Establish your claim regarding how the violence of war and/or terrorism affects society
 Use specific, relevant, and sufficient evidence from all three sources to develop your argument.
 Identify each source that referenced using in-text citations.
 Organize your ideas in a cohesive and coherent manner.
 Maintain a formal style of writing.
 Follow the conventions of standard written English.
 Express your ideas clearly by using precise, succinct language.
 Retain your focus on the thesis / topic throughout the entire paper.
Sources:
Source 1 – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer
Parenthetical Citation:
(Foer ___) or (Source 1 ____)
Source 2 – “Our 9/11: Growing Up In the Aftermath”
Radio Rookies, WNYC & NPR
(Radio Rookies) or {Source 2)
Source 3 – “Getting Here From There”
The New York Times
N. R. Kleinfield
Note: The blank line is for the inclusion of the page #.
Note: No page #s necessary, but do make sure the
paragraph indicates who is speaking.
(Kleinfield) or (Source 3)
Note: No page #s necessary.
Optional additional sources may be used. For instance, you may use one of the linked sources from the
article. You must properly cite any of these additional sources.
OUTLINING THE PAPER:
Introduction Paragraph:
 Introduce the idea of the how the violence of war and/or terrorism affects society. [Note: Don’t
write “and/or” in your paper. Decide whether you will focus on the violence of war or the violence of
terrorism, but avoid the slash in formal writing.]

Introduce the central three sources that will be referred to throughout the essay. This
introduction should provide the reader with an idea of how you will link / connect / synthesize
the different sources.

End with a thesis statement that poses your central argument about the topic of
discrimination. You will prove the truth of this statement throughout the rest of your paper.
Thesis Checklist:
Yes No




 Does your thesis pose an argument that you can prove in this essay? [The answer should be yes.]
 Does your thesis state an obvious fact (such as “war is bad”) that few people would argue against?
[The answer should be no.]
 Can you connect all three sources while focusing on your thesis argument? [The answer should be
yes.]
 Can you prove your thesis true in a 3 – 4 page paper? [The answer should be yes.]
Body Paragraphs

It doesn’t matter in which order you address the various sources. A good synthesis paper will
blend the sources together, moving seamlessly from one source to the next while making
insightful connections between the various sources.

Each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that establishes the main point of the
paragraph. For instance in a paragraph discussing how violence changes the conversation in
society, I might start a paragraph with a topic sentence like this: In the days before September
11, 2001 the news media was singularly focused on the case of the missing Washington intern
Chandra Levy, but the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center, Chandra Levy and
the related sensational journalism halted as the nation and the world honed in on this new
terror crisis. The rest of the paragraph would be dedicated to how extreme acts of violence
and war change the conversation and focus of life. There are various ways that I could
support this paragraph by integrating information from any of the three central sources.
[Note: I do not want to see this particular paragraph in your essay. Find your own topic and
your own topic sentence.]

Each body paragraph should focus on specific evidence (details or quotations) from the
sources. This evidence must always relate back to the essay topic and should support your
thesis argument. In general, all body paragraphs will contain at least one piece of textual
evidence and some body paragraphs may contain up to three pieces of textual evidence.

All textual evidence must be introduced to the reader (tell the
reader what to pay attention to) and followed up with
explanation and analysis (quote sandwich). Never start or end a
paragraph with a quote. Note: If you don’t have anything
particular to say about a quote, then that quote doesn’t belong
in your paper. If the quote is extremely obvious, don’t include
it. You must have something of your own to add to each
quote—analysis that will help support your thesis and make
your paper informative and substantial.

When quoting, remember the following guidelines for using parenthetical citations:
If quoting from a source without page numbers, do as follows:
“The concept of taking the law into one's own hands to punish a criminal
almost certainly predates recorded history” (Source #4).
or
“The concept of taking the law into one's own hands to punish a criminal
almost certainly predates recorded history” (“Lynching in America”).
If quoting from the novel, include the author and the page number. Remember, the
end punctuation goes after the parentheses not inside the quotation.
“The full meaning of the night’s events hit me and I began crying” (Lee 156).
If quoting a line of dialogue from the novel, the quotation marks turn into apostrophe
marks.
In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout says, “ ‘I thought Mr. Cunningham was a friend of
ours. You told me a long time ago he was’ “ (Lee 157).

Each body paragraph should conclude with a closing sentence that captures the essence of
the paragraph and makes an explicit connection back to the topic and thesis.

There is no set number of body paragraphs for this paper. You will need to outline your main
points and logically figure out how many body paragraphs are needed per source in order to
fully prove and support your thesis statement.
Conclusion Paragraph
 Restate your thesis statement and central argument relating to the paper topic.
 Write one sentence for each main point discussed in your paper.
 Write a few sentences synthesizing all three sources—in other words, showing the
connection between the texts.
 Conclude with a meaningful thought about how the violence of war and/or terrorism affects
individuals in society.
Other Tips
You may choose to shorten a quotation in order to make it more effectively work in your paper.
You may shorten a quotation by using an ellipses (like this ….). The number of dots matters.
Four dots means that you took out more than one sentence; three dots means you removed
part of a sentence. The editorial brackets [ ] indicate that you, the writer, not the original
author inserted the ellipses. You can also use an editorial bracket to include a word or two to
clarify a quote, for instance: “I mean calling her [Jane] long distance” (Salinger 63).