For this essay, you will write a synthesis essay where you explore and explain the relationship between several sources without comparing & contrasting. A synthesis is a blending of voices: you discuss an idea or issue using multiple sources to support either your point of view or the point of view of one of the sources, using the other sources to show agreement or disagreement with that source’s claims. For this essay, you must use at least three (3) of the readings multiple times in your essay. You may use additional outside sources, but they are not required. Your goal is to use multiple sources per paragraph, showing connections between their ideas and your own, using They Say/I Say style templates to integrate sources.
For this unit, we will read and discuss the following essays:
“Why We Binge-Watch Stuff We Hate” by Brittaney Levine Beckmann (SOL, pp. 436–438)
“Creating the Myth” by Linda Seger (SOL, 463–471)
“Music is Supposed to Unify Us. Is the Streaming Revolution Fragmenting Us Instead?” (SOL, pp 553–535)
“The Narrative Experiment That is the Marvel Cinematic Universe” by Maya Phillips (SOL, pp. 472–476)
“Why the West Loves Sci-Fi and Fantasy: A Cultural Explanation” by Christine Folch (SOL, pp. 459–462)
Write an essay that explores an issue or idea that arises in one of the readings or across the readings, repeatedly referencing and synthesizing the other readings you decide to include as part of your discussion. In order to do this, you must first find common threads between the readings (they exist, I promise!) and map out the relationships between them. We will do this in the Source Matrix exercise.
Your goals in this essay are to demonstrate you can select, organize, and sequence material from multiple sources and synthesize that material in an essay using a point-by-point essay structure instead of an author-by-author essay structure. You will need to summarize, quote, and paraphrase all the sources you use in your paper and use MLA-style in-text citations. You will also need to create a correctly formatted Works Cited entry.
Audience
Assume you are writing for an academic audience that is unfamiliar with the topic you are writing about. This will force you to both accurately introduce your topic and develop your thesis with adequate claims and supporting evidence.
Style & Format
5–7 pages (no less than 5, no more than 7), double spaced, in MLA format, plus a Works Cited page. Papers without in-text citations and a Works Cited will receive an F (you must have both to avoid the F). A Works Cited page does not count in your page total.
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