Composition II -- Activities for Week 6-- Feb. 22-26, 1999
Monday:
How could the essay be described as a descriptive synthesis? Here's a brief explanation of the descriptive synthesis:
The first part of this essay name (Describing) is easy to understand. When you describe something, you simply convey information about the subject as accurately as possible. The Summarizing Module allowed you to accurately describe another essay, for example.
The second part of the module name (Synthesizing) may be more difficult to grasp. If you look up the word "synthesize" in The American Heritage Dictionary, you’ll see that the first definition says that synthesize is a verb that means "[t]o combine so as to form a new, complex product." In applying this definition to the next writing assignment, it is best to focus on three crucial words from the definition: combine, new, and complex.
combine
It is impossible simply to combine only one thing. Instead, to combine you must join one
object with one or more other objects. For this next assignment, you will write an essay
that combines information from three different sources.
new
When you synthesize something, you produce something that is new or different from the
original objects. One goal of the next assignment is to write an essay that, while
integrating information from three different sources, provides its own unique perspective
upon the topic that the three original sources addressed. After finishing the essay, a
reader should gain some insight on the topic that would not have been possible by
separately reading the original source material.
complex
As mentioned earlier, the Describing and Synthesizing essay is more than a simple
linking of three different summaries. Instead, you must organize the information from the
original sources in a logical manner that best aids the reader in understanding the
various attributes of the topic you’re describing.
More than likely, you will organize your paper by the major topics of the original essays rather than simply moving from a description of essay 1 to a description essay 2 to a description of essay 3. You must know when to paraphrase and when to quote. Finally, you must smoothly transition from one source to another. A reader should never be confused as to what information is coming from what source.
With the above assignment explanation in mind think of how you would fill in the following. We will discuss each of these points in class.
Wednesday:
Friday: