Sample Writer
Scott Stankey
English 0950
31 Mar. 2008

Synthesis Essay / Draft 1

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[Put the first body paragraph here.]

Another idea or reason for going to college that I noticed in two different writers was the idea of going to college to learn how much we don't know. For example, in Samuel H. Scudder's essay, "Take This Fish and Look at It," his professor asks him, "Do you see it yet?" Scudder replies, "No . . . I am certain I do not, but I see how little I saw before." The professor then remarks, "That is next best" (68). In addition, Jacob Neusner, in his essay, "Grading Your Professors," makes this statement just before his conclusion paragraph: "And this brings me back to the earlier emphasis upon scholarship as the recognition of ignorance, the awareness not of what we know but of how we know and what we do not know" (189). Until I read these two essays, I had never thought of going to college to find out how much I don't know. I always thought of going to college to learn more, to gain more understanding about things, etc. Maybe it is just a matter of perspective or of changing my thinking; maybe it is the same thing, but just expressed differently. In going to college to learn more, the implication is that there is a lot I don't already know. But, I'm not sure everyone recognizes or realizes how much they don't know as they are learning new things. I didn't, until I read these essays. Maybe by realizing how much we don't know, we are being humble, we are admitting we are not as great as we thought we were in high school. Maybe this humbleness is important for our education. [I don't think I've completed this thought yet.]

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[Put the conclusion here.]

[Put the Works Cited here.]