You will write a 5-7-page essay synthesizing materials from 5 sources on your individual research topic drawing meaningful thematic connections between 1 course text and 4 credible outside sources.

Our objective in this assignment is to extend our examination of our course theme beyond what has been discussed in our course readings. Ultimately, through the essay, you want to address the question, â€œTaken together, what unique, new insight (thesis) do these three texts offer?â€

Your Researched Synthesis Essay should incorporate 4 relevant and credible outside sources with one course text to support your argument. Your essay must also include material from an interview with a reputable source.

Each Researched Synthesis Paper should include:
â€¢ 1 reading from our course
â€¢ 1 academic source (an article from peer-reviewed academic journal or chapter
from a scholarly book, found using the NSC library research database)
â€¢ 3 reputable articles (secondary sources)
â€¢ Interview material (cite the interview according to MLA guidelines)

As stated above, you are responsible for incorporating research materials from 4 outside sources to build your synthesis essay along with your chosen text. One of these outside sources must be an academic source (scholarly article or chapter from an academic book) while the others can either be substantive magazine or newspaper articles or a chapter from a reputable nonfiction book, or one interview.

Your paper should be thesis-driven. That is to say, it should search for links between materials for the purpose of constructing a thesis or theory about their relationship to each other. Your thesis should be a disputable claim that is proven through your use of specific evidence in the form of MLA-style in-text citations, around which you report (step 1) and interpret (step 2) your material. Furthermore, your thesis should feature prominently in the introduction of your essay and organize the development of your body paragraphs.

Getting Started:
1) How do I choose my topic?
This is a topic you will be spending the next month thinking about and researchingâ€¦you want it to be relevant for you, and meaningful. You want it to make you excited, to drive you to the page to bring this truth out from the light. There is a great deal occurring on the global stage at the moment, and I encourage you to write about the geographies and peoples that matter to you most.
My suggestion if you are struggling to find a topic is to return to your list of â€œHateful Things,â€ patterned after Sei Shonagon. Writing from a space of what makes you mad/confused is a wonderful place to start.

2) Gather, read, and analyze some outside sources for your Source Sheet.

3) Once you have found relevant and credible sources, browse over them. Decide which 4 sources offer the most pertinent information for your topic (or decide if you need to continue researching to find alternate sources if what you have found thus far doesnâ€™t offer enough).

3) Read and annotate each text carefully. Write a quick summary of each source. Highlight passages that speak to your topic. Begin noting interesting thematic connections between the sources.
4) Formulate a thesis. Your thesis is the main idea that you want to present in your synthesis, and it should articulate a clear assertion about the new, un-obvious insight that came out of examining the four texts together.

5) Decide how you will use your source material. How will the information and the ideas in the passages help you fulfill your purpose?

6) Develop an organization plan, according to your thesis. What will become the major sections (subtopics) of your essay? How will you arrange your material? Your essay should be organized by different aspects or subtopics of your larger topic, rather than by source.

7) Draft topic sentences for the body paragraphs. Fill out which sources you will use in which body paragraphs. Carefully document the sources.

You will write a 5-7-page essay synthesizing materials from 5 sourc...