English 101-0930 Fall 2019

Synthesis Assignment

Topic Sentence due March 7th in class

Proposal due March 14th in class

First Draft due March 21st in class

Final Draft due April 4th by 11:59pm

750-900 words

This is the second of our three essays this semester. For this essay, you need to compare and contrast two sources related to one of the following questions:

1. Are we in a race against the machine? What impact have technology and our environment had on our sense of reality and self?
2. What does gender have to do with it? How has our understanding of gender changed over time?

Some essays you can read in relation to these questions are:

For Question 1:

Google, Democracy and the Truth about Internet Search by Carole Cadwalladr p. 480

Does Texting Affect Writing by Michaela Cullington p. 462

How I Learned to Love Snapchat by Jenna Wortham p. 474

Go Ahead: Waste Time on the Internet by Kenneth Goldsmith p. 500

Does a Protest’s Size Matter by Zeynep Tufekci p. 525

For Question 2:

Teaching Men to Be Emotionally Honest by Andrew Reiner p. 589

From He to She in First Grade by Laurie Frankel p. 583

What About Gender Roles in Same Sex Relationships by Stephen Mays p. 596

Artificial Intelligence’s White Guy Problem by Kate Crawford p. 599

Which writer on your chosen topic do you agree with most? Does the commonly accepted view of the truth about said matter align with your own sense of what is true about it?

For this essay, I want you to think about the following:

1. Choose a clear stance. Introduce it in your opening paragraph.
2. For the body of your essay, choose at least three supporting ideas. Find evidence to illustrate your ideas.
3. In your conclusion, give your readers something to take away, something that you may have learned in your research, perhaps a further question that you could ask about the topic in future exploration.

Use at least three MLA format in text citations, and include a list of Works Cited. 

Rubric

A – The essay has a clear stance, stays focused, and has a beginning, middle and conclusion. It contains three in text citations using MLA format and a list of Works Cited.

B – The essay is mostly clear and focused. It contains at least two in text citations.

C – The essay is somewhat clear and focused. It contains at least one in text citation.

D – The essay is mostly confusing. It contains no reference to the selected work.

F – There is no essay.