What’s an Argument Synthesis?
As you recall, a synthesis is a written discussion that draws on two or more sources and demonstrates the connections among those sources. More specifically, an argument synthesis is built on the ideas that you select from your sources; fits the purpose, occasion, subject, and audience of your essay; relates to an argumentative thesis that you develop; contains well-chosen textual support (quotes, summaries, and paraphrases); and includes a Works Cited page. Your synthesis will be evaluated on how well you develop, state, and maintain an argumentative thesis synthesizing the works of other writers, how clearly you establish your main points of synthesis that support your thesis, how accurately you summarize the original texts (as needed), how you integrate your source material into the essay, how you organize, develop, and present your essay, and, most importantly, how well you maintain the focus on the ideas presented in the sources.
The Assignment
This assignment emerges out of the research that you conducted in support of your Argument Prospectus and thus will use the materials that you found through that research. The Prospectus was your attempt to demonstrate a plan for making an argument; this assignment is now your opportunity to make that essay.
For this essay, you must integrate and use at least six of the articles you identified in your Prospectus, though there is no upper limit to the number that you use. Of course, these sources must be credible, legitimate, high-quality sources for college writing, such as journal articles. As with any synthesis, the argument synthesis is driven by connections between sources, but this time with a clearly argumentative purpose and thesis.