ENGL 1302: Sept. 8, 2013

1. ENGL 1302: Sept. 8, 2013 Understanding Text and Synthesizing Sources

2. Logistics • Raider Writer • Books • BA 1 • Syllabus • Course blog updated

3. Review of Rhetoric • Define it • What are ethos, pathos, logos? • Are ethos, pathos, and logos rhetorical devices? • What are some types of rhetorical devices? • Why is audience important in rhetoric? • Is everything rhetorical? • What is polemic?

4. The Process… (it’s iterative) • 1) Choose topic • 2) Do background research to narrow topic • 3) Begin collecting and annotating sources • 4s) Synthesize (not summarize) sources to discuss common themes/the state of the discussion concerning your topic – this is the Lit Review (1st major paper, will have 2 drafts) – should be as objective as possible • 5) …then comes your argument – build on lit. review to make an argument based on the available literature (this is not an opinion piece, meaning your claims should all be based on cited evidence)

5. The Literature Review: Step 1 • Picking a topic • Not too broad, not too cliché, should be interested in it, timely/relevant • Would “Syria” be an acceptable topic? • What about “America considering war with Syria”? • This is also an iterative process, meaning it’s NOT chronological • Let’s talk topics – ideas and feedback from class/me

6. The Literature Review: Step 2 • Doing research • What kind of sources are acceptable? • What is a scholarly source? • What about Wikipedia? • What about newspapers, magazines? • What about blogs? • The TTU library • Online (http://library.ttu.edu/) • Personal librarians (http://library.ttu.edu/personal_librarians/) • Google scholar (http://scholar.google.com/)

7. Annotating Sources • See example

8. Synthesizing Sources • Common themes from source annotations • A “weaving together” of information/data/quotes/paraphrases concerning a theme common to all your sources • How is this different that summary? • Should paragraphs be organized by articles or by themes? • What would a thesis statement look like in a literature review? • Should you be thinking about your argument paper while doing your lit. review?

9. Example Lit Review • Mine, from last year • Read through it, note how I incorporate source material • Direct quotes versus paraphrase, vary them • Stay focused, don’t go off on unnecessary tangents • Make suggestions about where the information might go next–whereisthere a whole in the literature? • Note where the sources come from? Whatkind of sources? • Free write: Questions youmight have about writing a lit review(will use yourresponses to address in class nextweek), how might I makethis lit reviewclearer? More relevant to myreader?

10. BA 2 – Due Friday @ 11:45pm • Description: This assignment will help you prepare for your initial draft of the literature review. To complete this assignment, you will need to write a thesis-driven synthesis of three articles. In other words you will want to identify a common theme or idea that you see running through all of the articles and focus on how each article develops or contributes to the theme. • Sven Birkerts: "Into the Electronic Millennium" pp. 226-233- Stephen Budiansky: "Lost in Translation" pp. 238-244- Tina Rosenberg: "Everyone Speaks Text Message" pp. 267-271 • Create a working thesis statement based on one common theme or idea that runs through all three articles (a statement that will tie all three articles together in some way). There will be several possible common themes or ideas for you to choose from. Pick the one that you can develop in the most detail.  • Then, write an essay which summarizes and synthesizes these articles. In other words, describe the common theme, explain how each author develops the common theme, and then explain how each article relates to the others. What are their similarities and differences? Why are these similarities and differences important to the theme which you are examining? • Length: 400 - 600 words Format: MLA style for internal citations and works cited.