Synthesis Essay

List of Readings: “The Banking Concept of Education”, Freire; “Talk on Education”, Robinson; “Freewriting”, Elbow; “Multiple Intelligences”, Gardner; “How to Mark a Book,” Adler; “The Maker’s Eye”, Murray.

Essay Assignment:

In this essay you will be making a claim regarding your ideas on education. This claim will be derived from a synthesis of ideas drawn from at least two of the readings from this quarter and from your collective discussions. One of these texts must be Freire. Feel free to draw from ideas introduced in your first two essays.

On the path to developing a claim, you will, among other things, be analyzing and/or comparing the ideas of some of the authors you have read this quarter.

Some questions you might ask to get started: What are the writer’s ideas on learning or creativity? What are some of the claims made regarding power, poverty, transformation and society? Where do they agree, and where do they disagree? How have your classmates’ views on education informed your own or enhanced your understanding of the readings?

These are just ideas to get you started. (Be sure to read Ideas for the Synthesis Essay.)

Introduction: Use an engaging method to introduce the general topic and provide background for your thesis. Include a complex, multi-layered thesis statement.

Thesis: Your thesis will be created from your own ideas about some specific aspect of education that we have been learning about all quarter. You will, of course, use a careful analysis of the authors’ and classmates’ ideas and arguments. You may write about the ways these ideas have informed your own. You may compare and contrast the differences and similarities of several works.

When introducing any texts you are discussing, give the authors’ full names, their main ideas about learning/education and the titles of their essays. Any use of source material needs to be cited properly.

Body Paragraphs:

Do not completely summarize all the ideas in any essay.You do need to summarize the main points you are analyzing and illustrate your claims with material from the texts.

Ideas: Analyze the author’s ideas on education. Do the writers’ ideas inform each other? In what ways? Do the writer’s arguments support your own ideas? Can you present evidence or reasoning that disputes any of the writer’s arguments? Give examples. Be sure to use specific evidence from the texts to support each of your claims.

Conclusion: End your paper by referring back in some way to your introductory ideas and thesis (main claim).

(Be sure to properly introduce, integrate and cite all source material. See MLA Guidelines, Rules for Writers, Chapters 53-57.)

Your final, revised and corrected essay should be between 5-7 pages.

(Please do not write more than 7 pages.)