Synthesis Essay Source stack with icing on top

What is it? O Develop and support a stance on an issue using provided sources. O You must take a side and provide reasoning and evidence for your position, relying on the sources to support your stance.

Step One: Read the prompt- 5 minutes O Background information O May be unfamiliar issue, so the prompt will give you background information that introduces the prompt and the different viewpoints. O Issue means question/conflict. You must show an awareness of the different viewpoints in your essay. O Writing Task O Make sure that you know exactly what the prompt is asking you to do. O Argumentation with additional thinking challenge like evaluate or consider the different factors. O Come up with a tentative thesis at this point.

Step Two: Read the sources-10 minutes O Read and annotate using shorthand O Positive or negative? O Main stance/purpose? O Gist statements help O All of the sources are valid. O You MUST synthesize information from at least three sources. O You MUST cite these sources in your paper. O Read the entire source. You must show that you understand the argument. O You may use your own evidence in the paper, but what’s more impressive is demonstrating an understanding of the sources and using them to support a position.

As you read O Identify the claim, reasons and grounds for each O Use shorthand!

Pause O What are your questions? O What seems easy? Difficult?

Step Three: Planning your essay-8 minutes O Revise your thesis statement O Plan your body paragraphs with topic sentences that support your position O Where does each source fit in? O Where could you include two sources to support the same point? O Where could you contrast two sources to show differing views? O Answer the “So What?” question for your conclusion

Step Four: Write your essay- 32 minutes O Introduce your issue in an interesting way. O Issue, importance, stance O Follow your plan! O Use transitional devices and the language of concession. O Provide a context for and cite your textual evidence. O Include original insights O Write a strong conclusion

Introduction O Issue O Importance O Background O Other solutions O Historical context O Etc. O Claim

Body Paragraphs- Super Structure 1. Topic Sentence- Reasons/Factors/Subtopics 2. Explain or illustrate point 3. Introduce source/evidence 4. Embed quotation from source a. Explain idea/importance 5. Explain how it connects to your argument (underlying assumption) again (Sentences 6-9) 10. Conclusion Sentence- Importance of idea

Embedding O Choose a quotation your group wants to use O Now, choose up to 8 words from that quotation. O Embed those words in your own sentence. O Seamless syntactically and content-wise O If necessary, break it up, use brackets or ellipses, and paraphrase some meaning.

Conclusion O So What? O Reiteration of main points O Lasting importance

Examples from the CB O ic/repository/ap12_english_language_q1.p df ic/repository/ap12_english_language_q1.p df O AP Rubric O Scoring Examples O Questions?