Synthesis Paper

1. Synthesis Paper Images of Femininity and Masculinity in Popular Culture

2. Uses of Comparison and Contrast • Writers use comparison and contrast to describe, explain, and argue. • Comparisons add depth to descriptive writing and leave the reader with rich, memorable images. • Writers may use comparison and contrast simply to explore interesting point of similarity between two subjects or to demonstrate that grounds for comparison actually exist.

3. Rhetorical Purpose for Comparison-and-Contrast Essays • As a college writer, you will occasionally be asked to compare your own experience with information from reading sources, but more typically you will be required to compare and contrast the views expressed in various texts. • You could easily construct an essay from this list by using a block presentational pattern, allocating the small block to similarities and a large one to differences. The resulting essay would be rather flat because it would simply catalog the similarities and differences.

4. Rhetorical Purpose for Comparison-and-Contrast Essays • There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this goal, but when it is the only end in mind, it is easy to fall into the trap of doing too much summarizing and too little discussion of similarities and differences. • It is recommended that you take the process a step further. After you identify similarities and differences, step back and ask yourself what they represent, reveal, or demonstrate. Reflect on the list, select from it, shape it, or expand it.

5. Elaborating to Uncover Comparison and Contrasts • Identify points where one source author (1) agrees or disagrees with the other author (2) say something relevant about the topic that the other author has neglected to say, (3) qualifies ideas stated by the other author, and (4) extends a proposition made by the other author. • Validate one author’s assertion with information provided by the other author. • Make judgments about the relevance of one author’s view in relation to the other’s view.

6. Avoiding Plagiarism • To avoid plagiarism, you must do more than cite and document your sources. You must set off direct quotations with quotation marks and entirely reword and document material you paraphrase or summarize. • When paraphrasing or summarizing, be sure the vocabulary and the sentence structure are significantly different from the original. It is not enough to change the words but keep the same sentence structure and order of ideas.

7. Example of Paraphrasing • Original: The current constitutional debate over heavy metal rock and gangsta rap music is not just about the explicit language but also advocacy, an act of incitement to violence. • Inadequate paraphrase: Today’s constitutional debate about gangsta rap and heavy metal rock is not just about obscene language but also advocacy and incitement of acts of violence. • Adequate paraphrase: Rap and heavy metal lyrics that contain obscenities and appear to promote violence have generated a constitutional debate over popular music.

8. Guidelines for Rewording Source Material • As a rule of thumb, do not repeat more than three consecutive words from the original without putting them in quotation marks. You may occasionally need to repeat a three-word phrase, but whenever possible, substitute synonyms for the original words. • Change, as best you can, the original order in which concepts are presented. • Remember that entirely rewording the material you obtain from a source does not make it yours. You must still cite the source so that the reader knows exactly where the information came from. Failing to document a paraphrase or summary is considered plagiarism.

9. Direct Quoting • When you draw on sources, make an effort to summarize or paraphrase rather than quote directly. As a general rule, repeat sources word for word [or verbatim] only when there is an obvious rhetorical advantage to quoting, for example, when rewording the original will weaken your argument or prevent you from including particularly elegant language. • When you quote excessively, you relinquish rhetorical control and give it to the source author. You can also end up with a series of strung-together quotations in an essay that seems purposeless and disjointed.

10. When to Use Direct Quoting • To retain the meaning and authenticity of the original source. • To lend support to an analysis or evaluation. • To capture exact language that supports your point. • To employ a stylistic device. • To capture language that is unusual, well crafted, striking, or memorable.

11. Example of Direct Quoting Although Grant makes some good points about the significance of the sexual revolution for many women’s lives, one flaw in her argument lies in her overly general and sweeping definition of “women.” The women Grant refers to are for the most part white and middle-class. A case in point is her statement that prior to the 1960s, women who had jobs were “sexless, repressed – spinsters whom, by implication, no man wanted or loved” (2). Perhaps this was true for the privileged classes, but many poor women did work and also had children and husbands who valued them.

12. Altering Quotations • There will be times when you wish to alter a direct quotation by omitting or inserting words. These changes are permissible as long as you follow conventions that alert your audience to what you are doing. • Omitting example: According to Moffatt, “As it is elsewhere in American middle-class culture, friendliness is the central code of etiquette in student culture … whose systematic breach almost always generates anger and even outrage in students” (52-53). • Inserting example: At the end of the story, when we hear Sylvia boasting that “nobody [is] gonna beat me at nuthin,” we know that she does not need our sympathy; she simply deserves our praise (Smith 156).

13. Documenting Quotations • Enclose short quotations (up to four typed lines) in double quotation marks. • Set longer quotations apart from you text by indenting them ten spaces. Example: At the end of his article, Cooper reminds us that physician-assisted suicide may affect not only the individuals who choose this option but the rest of society as well: A sense of this deep privacy drives the right-to-die movement in America today. And yet to step outside the rights framework is to ask how institutionalizing assisted suicide will affect not only those who die, but those who live on; not only individuals, but society. The fact is, our deaths are both solo journeys toward an ultimate mystery and strands in the tapestries of each other’s lives, which side of this reality will we emphasize? (14) Cooper is right that most deaths have a strong impact on those who are left behind. In this sense, we have a responsibility to consider others when we make choices about our own deaths.

14. Acknowledging Source as well as Original Author • When you use a direct quotation that appears in a reading source, you must acknowledge both the person who originally said or wrote the words and the author of the source in which you found the quotation. Example: • Sentence from Leo’s Article: “We have to start worrying about what we are putting into the minds of our young,” says Grossman. • Documentation in Student Essay: According to David Grossman, a retired army officer and psychologist, “We have to start worrying about what we are putting intothe minds of our young” (qtd. in Leo).

15. Quote within a Quote • If the sentence contains quotation marks, substitute single quotation marks for the double quotation marks that appear in the original. Then enclose the entire block you are quoting within double quotation marks. • Sentence from Leo’s Article: One ad for Sony game says: “Get in touch with your gun-toting, testosterone-pumping, cold-blooded murdering side.” • Documentation in Student Essay: According to Leo, “One ad for a Sonygame says: ‘Get in touch with your gun-toting, testosterone-pumping, cold-blooded murdering side’” (14).