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The second essay is to be a synthesis/conversation essay. A synthesis essay synthesizes several articles into a focused, coherent discussion that is thesis-driven. That is, sources are summarized, quoted, and synthesized as well as organized in relation to the essay’s thesis, its main idea, the idea that guides the essay’s conversation. All paragraphs but for the first and last should be TREE-style.
Your essay, which should be in the five- to seven-page range (not including a Works Cited page), is to be based on the various articles we have read and we will read over the next several weeks. Weekly discussions, then, are an opportunity to think with sources and to explore and try out ideas in preparation for this essay, the course’s major project. The essay may be personal, reflecting on your own life experiences and observations in relation to concepts raised by the various articles. The essay my problem-pose–that is, describe a problem raised by some of the articles and then propose how to resolve that problem.
This is not a research course. Engl 201 is. The articles we read for this course are to be the research, if you will, for the essay.
Conversation is/as a Species of Argument
The essay is to engage in a civil or civic conversation. A conversation is a species of argument: conversations involve people discussing something, contributing something from their perspectives and experiences from which all involved—ideally, the public—can benefit or learn. This is how argument functions in academics—as a conversation with many contributors whose aim is to build upon extant knowledge to create new knowledge. Conversation as argument is not how argument works in political or popular culture, unfortunately; in these contexts, the goal too often is to “win” no matter the cost or at whose expense, which also means that some must “lose.” Arguments of this type aren’t often concerned with logos; indeed, if the goal is just to “win,” why bother when appealing to the emotions of an audience (e.g., provoking fear or anger) or just attacking ‘opponents’ to dismiss them will do the job? Such arguments are not civil, do not contribute to civic discourse, and do not usually benefit the common good. This second essay is to be civic, to converse with sources.
Specifics: Evidence
Note this from above: “conversations involve people discussing something, contributing something from their perspectives and experiences.” What, then, will you contribute to the conversation engaged by one of the five articles? Something from your perspective, experiences, and observations–which also includes what you’ve read as that now should inform your perspective. That is, the evidence to support claims is to stem from both your personal experiences and your observations of others’ experiences. So, indeed, your essay will be written from a first-person singular point of view: your “I” represents you. Put another way, write what you know about from experience and observation. Avoid generalizing, avoid abstractions, avoid discussing stuff you may have heard somewhere but have not experienced or observed yourself. Ground the conversation in sources, in the various articles we’ve read and the cultural artifacts you’ve examined in this course.
Be sure that your essay does not only summarize. Think of the essay like a canvas Discussion page: latch onto some main idea or passage from the articles, integrating them into your essay, and then contribute in some way, conversing with the articles. Be sure the essay is thesis-driven. And don’t just drop quotations (or any other data). Synthesize: explain what some quotation or other data means and what it’s contributing to the discussion that it’s embedded in.
Quoting while avoiding Plagiarism
To integrate means to summarize and/or quote. Do this in MLA style. When referring to material from a source such as an article, provide attribution (to whom or what is some idea or words attributed to?) to make evident who/what is being quoted. And recall that when referring to an author initially cite the full name while thereafter use only the last name.
Here are examples of attribution:
According to Jones,
As Jones explains,
Jones insists that
Jones believes
Each of those intends to introduce a summary or a quotation.
Also, follow a quotation with parenthetical citation–e.g., (25). Parenthetical citation, which follows a summary or quotation, identifies the page number on which some idea or words appeared in the article being referred to. (If some article does not include page numbers–perhaps because it’s an online article–the parenthetical citation isn’t included because there’s no page numbers to cite.)
Here’s an example of attribution, quotation, and parenthetical citation.
According to Jones, “The current climate crisis may just be the end of us all” (25).
(For the record, I’m just making up this example.)
Lastly, the sources the essay summarizes, quotes from, and converses with are to be documented on a Works Cited, a separate, final page attached after the essay concludes. See the MLA formatting pdf for how to format a Works Cited. Use the following template for all course sources–articles, cultural artifacts, etc.–located on canvas.
Author last name, Author first name. “Essay or article title.” Course materials, Engl 101, Bellevue College, Winter 2024.
Replace the first two items with the specific data of some source. Also, be sure the above is formatted correctly on your Works Cited–that is, be sure it fits the page as it’s supposed to–and don’t just copy the above to your document because then the font will be faded, not the same as the essay’s font. Any faded font in an essay will be considered a formatting error.
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