Q OVERVIEW For general context, synthesis is a process by which you put two or more things in conversation with one another in order to find or develop a new idea. As such, this is the part of the Unit 2 Assignment where you will be drawing explicit connections between your primary text and the two researched sources, relying on your close reading and analysis of each. HELPFUL RESOURCE • Paraphrasing (Links to an external site.) (what it is, how to do it, and how to NOT plagiarize in the process) QUESTIONS/DIRECTIONS Organize your responses in the same way the questions are organized. 1. What is the title of your primary text? PART A: 1. What is the title and author of your first researched source? 2. Quote a specific passage from or describe a particular aspect of your primary text. Explain what's happening or why it is a noteworthy passage from or aspect of the text. 3. Identify a specific (and relevant) passage or claim from your first researched source. Quote it here and explain what it means in your own words. 4. Briefly describe the connection between the two passages you've written about above--how do you see what you wrote for #3 relating to #2 in a meaningful way? PART B: Here, you are doing the same as above but now with new passages from both texts. 1. Quote a different specific passage from or describe a particular aspect of your primary text. Explain what's happening or why it is a noteworthy passage from or aspect of the text. 2. Identify a different specific (and relevant) passage or claim from your first researched source. Quote it here and explain what it means in your own words. 3. Briefly describe the connection between the two passages you've just written about--how do you see what you wrote for Part B #2 relating to Part B #1 in a meaningful way? PART C: Now, you will do the same with your second researched source. 1. What is the title and author of your second researched source? 2. Quote a specific passage from or describe a particular aspect of your primary text. (To help you engage with more of the primary text, you should choose something different here than what you chose above.) Explain what's happening or why it is a noteworthy passage from or aspect of the text. 3. Identify a specific (and relevant) passage or claim from your second researched source. Quote it here and explain what it means in your own words. 4. Briefly describe the connection between the two passages you've just written about--how do you see what you wrote for Part C #3 relating to Part C #2 in a meaningful way? PART D: Again, you are doing much the same as above but now with new passages from your primary text and second researched source. 1. Quote a different specific passage from or describe a particular aspect of your primary text. Explain what's happening or why it is a noteworthy passage from or aspect of the text. 2. Identify a different specific (and relevant) passage or claim from your second researched source. Quote it here and explain what it means in your own words. 3. Briefly describe the connection between the two passages you've just written about--how do you see what you wrote for Part D #2 relating to Part D #1 in a meaningful way? EXAMPLES The following examples are based on the poem "Marks" (Links to an external site.) by Linda Pastan (this is the primary text). PART A: 1. What is the title and author of your first researched source? Hannah Goodall, “Media’s Influence on Gender Stereotypes” 2. Quote a specific passage from or describe a particular aspect of your primary text. Explain what's happening or why it is a noteworthy passage from or aspect of the text. How the son and daughter both grade their mother, following in their father’s example but also inevitably uncritically following in their father’s example because this behavior (these expectations for women and their role as a wife and mother) is so prominent in media portrayals of families. 3. Identify a specific (and relevant) passage or claim from your first researched source. Quote it here and explain what it means in your own words. Passage: From Hannah Goodall, author of “Media’s Influence on Gender Stereotypes”: “We live in a society that is not only saturated with media but also with stereotypes that are cultivated through the media that we consume. As we mature in age, outside influences affect how we perceive the world around us and help to shape our understanding about peoples and places. The media can be one of those influences” (160). My explanation: This affirms the well-established point that media is everywhere and is one of the biggest influences on people regarding stereotypes (outside of the family and of the home). 4. Briefly describe the connection between the two passages you've just written about--how do you see what you wrote for Part A #3 relating to Part A #2 in a meaningful way? Because I want to talk about how the children in this poem are inevitably shaped by outside influences--not just by the father’s behavior--this passage from my source can help emphasize how prevalent the media is in our lives. Without reinforcement from within and outside of the house, the children may not have “graded” their mother the way they do in the poem. The influence of the media--subconsciously normalizing things for people--I would argue blinds the children from really seeing what they’re doing and its consequences. PART C: (on the second researched source) 1. What is the title and author of your second researched source? Ekundayo B. Babatunde and Babatunde E. Durowaiye, “The Conception of ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’ as Background to Inequities Faced by Women” 2. Quote a specific passage from or describe a particular aspect of your primary text. (To help you engage with more of the primary text, you should choose something different here than what you chose above.) Explain what's happening or why it is a noteworthy passage from or aspect of the text. The husband grades his wife on her ironing, cooking, and sexual performance. [NOTE: this is an incomplete response, as it doesn't include an explanation of why this is noteworthy.] 3. Identify a specific (and relevant) passage or claim from your second researched source. Quote it here and explain what it means in your own words. Passage: From Ekundayo B. Babatunde and Babatunde E. Durowaiye’s “The Conception of ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’ as Background to Inequities Faced by Women”: “In terms of division of labor between men and women or social relations within the societal structure, the biological explanations often rely on physiology, psychology and medicine to argue that the differences between men’s and women’s reproductive systems and capacities mean that women are biologically suited to bearing and raising children and to engaging in household chores, while men are biologically suited to working and providing material support for their families "(67). My explanation: This describes how simply being born a woman brings with it (or used to) a set of pre-determined expectations--and these expectations largely pertain to the domestic realm. 4. Briefly describe the connection between the two passages you've just written about--how do you see what you wrote for Part C #3 relating to Part C #2 in a meaningful way? The source passage works really well with the details of how the wife is graded. It’s not like her husband grades her for her professional success--she’s graded for the most stereotypical “female jobs.” It’s not as though women are biologically better at cleaning or cooking, but historically, the sex that one is born in to determines the gender roles they must fill, and it’s her fulfillment of the female role that the wife is being graded on. PreviousNext