English 0950
Spring 2006
Essay 3
Background:
In your second paper, instead of relying directly on your own experiences (as you did for your first paper), you examined Barbara Ehrenreich's experience(s) with low-wage work and living. Here, the purpose was for you to look at someone else's experiences and for you to "discover" something that you hadn't noticed initially, that someone else might not have noticed, or that Ehrenreich might have wanted us to see. Essay #2 might have been called a "single-source" essay, since we were working only with Ehrenreich's text (but, of course, we were also using our own perspectives, opinions, feelings, etc. to explain what we saw in her experience). The "single-source" paper is a common "academic writing" assignment.
Your third and last paper is another common "academic writing" assignment. However, this time, instead of working with only one text, we will be working with multiple texts. As we work on this assignment, we will be reading several fictional (imaginative, made-up) perspectives and representations of work -- short stories that use fiction to critically examine work. You will be asked to write about the "similarities," "connections," or "parallels" that you see among the short stories. In essence, what you are being asked to do is "synthesize" the stories.
Definition of Synthesis:
"Synthesis" means "to bring together" or "to combine separate elements to form a coherent whole." Therefore, a synthesis essay is a paper or report that pulls together related ideas. In one sense, a synthesis is similar to a summary in that both papers require careful reading and accurate reporting. However, writing a synthesis is often more difficult than writing a summary because a synthesis requires that you (1) read a number of sources, (2) identify the related ideas, and then (3) explain how and why those ideas are related.
Sometimes several sources on the same topic will discuss very different points yet reach the same conclusion, and your synthesis will need to reflect that. Sometimes related sources will discuss the same points but reach quite different conclusions. Sometimes sources will simply repeat ideas that you have already read in other sources. And sometimes sources will be on the same general topic but will discuss different points and reach different conclusions. In each case, your synthesis needs to reflect what you've discovered in your reading selections.
Writing Assignment:
I want you to carefully and critically and creatively examine the five stories that were assigned from Labor Days. Try to find a "common thread" or several "common threads" that emerge across the views that the fictional pieces offer. Then, write an essay of at least three (3) pages in which you present and discuss the common thread(s) that you find in the stories.
As a way to get started, try to focus on any "lessons" about work and working that these stories might be trying to teach us. Do you see any similarities, connections, or parallels in these lessons? If that approach does not result in any discoveries, then step back and try to focus on any other similarities, connections, or parallels that you see among the stories.
Finally, do not expect to find any main ideas for your synthesis paper that will apply to all five texts, because this is often impossible to do. If you find one, great, but don't force anything. You might find out that the only thing that these five stories have in common is that they are all generally about work and working. The more difficult, but hopefully the more satisfying, part is finding some similarities, connections, or parallels that you (and others) didn't see at first. And, you might find a similarity that only works for two stories or a connection among only three stories. That's fine. What you want to avoid is a paper that simply summaries each story one at a time and then ends with some general comments about the five stories as a whole.
Process:
1.) We have already read each of the five stories and discussed our "first impressions" about possible "lessons" each story might be trying to teach; we have also discussed some of the possible "connections" among the stories.
2.) Thursday 4/13 and Friday 4/14 will be "lecture days" to prepare to write Essay #3.
3.) Monday 4/17 will be an "optional lab day" in T 207. Feel free to come by between 8:00 and 9:50 a.m. to work on drafting your essay and/or to ask me questions about the essay (or about other class-related issues).
4.) Three (3) copies of your complete first draft of Essay #3 -- at least 2 full pages -- are due on Wednesday 4/19 for the in-class peer review.
5.) We will then have one week of individual conferences, one or two days of editing, and an editing session before handing in the final draft and portfolio of Essay #3.
When I Grade Your Paper, I Will Look For: