Assignment Overview
This written assignment is a follow-up to your intensive study of both Reading One and Reading Two. In this paper, you will build upon your Rhetorical Summaries about both articles by synthesizing them together. This synthesis discussion will result in an original idea or question which arises from the comparison and integration of the rhetoric and content of the two articles. The new thinking you generate about the post-millennial generation resulting from your reading the two articles will be your fresh, individual contribution to the larger global academic conversation about this topic and can potentially start a new line of academic inquiry and research. Let your voice be heard!
Paper Requirements
For this assignment, you will write 4 paragraphs of about 150-175 words each so that your final paper is about 600-700 words long. You may go over a little, but the point of this paper is to keep your ideas brief. You CANNOT go under 600 words.
As source material for this synthesis paper, you will use both the Reading One and Reading Two articles, and the rhetorical summaries you have completed on these texts.
Reading One: Reading One iGen What You Should Know about Post-Millenial Students.pdf
Reading Two: SeemillerCoreyG_2019_19SocietalConcerns_GenerationZACenturyIn.pdf
Paper structure:
PARAGRAPH ONE: Introduce the each general topic of Reading One and Reading Two, the big idea or subject that they share about the post-millennial generation. You should narrow the big ideas in the articles down to one specific focus from the two readings. They can be different from each other, but only look at ONE take-away big idea. You want to clearly define the rhetorical situation in EACH article: the field(s) that this topic belongs to (like technology, economics etc), the audience (who might be interested in reading about/studying this topic), and the purpose (the author’s reason for writing it and why the audience might be interested in the text). Think about this paragraph as an overview in which you present the message/audience/purpose of the rhetorical triangle for both articles.
PARAGRAPH TWO: Present what the Reading One (“i-Gen: What You Should Know About Post-Millennial Students” by Beck & Wright) had to say about the post-millennial generation. What claim or questions does the article raise about this topic, and how do the authors address that claim or those questions? Somewhere in the paragraph, present one KEY (i.e. important/vital/pivotal) quote from the text to show what the authors are saying about this topic. Think of this as a condensed version of the claim. You should introduce the quote with the authors names and a verb, followed by the an MLA in-text parenthetical page number citation. Example: Kelley and Smith argued that “quote” (2). Then fully explain the quote (use at least as many words explaining the quote as the words in the quote).
PARAGRAPH THREE: Present Reading Two, the chapter from “Gen Z: A Century in the Making” by Seemiller and Grace, and how it relates to the first reading. You should approach this paragraph as adding to the information in the previous paragraphs. This is where you begin to use your synthesis skills (putting pieces together). Use transition words, especially words of comparison (similarity and conflict in link below), to show how this second article relates to the first. (See this helpful link to transition words: https://msu.edu/user/jdowell/135/transw.html#anchor1696929 (Links to an external site.)). Focus on how the claim and evidence/information in this article (Reading Two) extends the understanding of the claim from Reading One about the post-millennial generation, raises a question about it, or focuses on one aspect of it. Somewhere in the paragraph, you will present one KEY quote from the Reading Two to show what it adds to this academic conversation on this topic. Think of this quote as a condensed version of the claim of Reading Two.
PARAGRAPH FOUR: This is where you will present the insights, or “so what,” regarding the synthesis of information from the two texts. Begin this paragraph with a few sentences showing the new key findings from bringing the two articles together. That is, what was specifically learned by bringing the articles together in conversation with each other? How does each article shed light on or relate to the content of the other? Then, move to the new* “thing” that can be concluded due to the synthesis of these ideas and, ultimately, present any new, third concept that is discovered or a question/direction for future research due to a “gap” in the understanding about this topic you found between the two articles. That is, when you bring these articles together, what is a new idea which is still unknown about the topic? Where can future research go? What do you think is interesting about this unknown direction?
*The new thing you find out is what is NEW TO YOU! Don’t worry about whether or not the idea is really new — if it’s new to YOU then it is new.
SKILLS TO WORK ON:
– Discussing articles by focusing on a narrow portion of the article
– Bringing two articles into conversation
– Incorporating quotes into the text
– Drawing conclusions
– Presenting a research question
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
– Minimum of 600 words (about 200 words/paragraph)
– MLA page formatting (including proper citations)
– Mostly clear of grammatical/mechanical errors
– Clearly presents the focused topic in the intro
– Presents your two readings
– One quote in paragraph 2 and one in paragraph 3
– Presents a research question/concept in the end
Grading Rubric:
Learning Reflection Journal:
Think over the process you went through to write the Basic Synthesis Paper. Use the four types of reflection listed below to explain your process:
Critical Reflection: What writing skills did you gain by writing the Basic Synthesis paper? How do these writing skills differ from those you learned in writing the Rhetorical Summaries and the Rhetorical Analysis?
Consequential Reflection: How did writing this assignment further your thinking about how writing happens in college? What impact has learning the synthesis process in academic writing had on your success in writing for other college courses this semester? In what future courses could you possibly apply the rhetorical synthesis approach you learned by writing this paper?
Collaborative Reflection: How did learning from the professor’s assignment description and the Synthesis PowerPoint prepare you to write the synthesis assignment? Did the ideas from PowerPoint help to clarify your understanding of the synthesis assignment and complete it?
4Cs Reflection: How did you demonstrate Care, Consideration, Confidence, and Competence by completing your paper and turning it in on time? In which of these principles were you the strongest and why? Which of these principles was the most difficult for you, and how will you work to improve with that principle?
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