Position Synthesis Paper

Purpose

The Position Synthesis challenges you to move beyond summarizing

and annotating the sources on your issue. Instead, you will be
blending sources that take positions on your issue based on
similarities and differences in the ideas they present and the way they
answer your research question. The only issues off limits for this
assignment are abortion same-sex marriage. You must also choose an
issue and a research question that is timely and relevantit is under
discussion within the last two years.

Your purpose for this paper is to synthesize research on your issue for
an audience unfamiliar with the issue and your sources (primarily our
class members). You will help this audience understand the
conversation taking place on your issue and become aware of the key
evidence that supports the various positions you have identified in the
conversation. A reader of your synthesis should gain some good
background on the issue, a sense of its timeliness and complexity, and
a sense of the variety of views you have researched, as well as the
position you take (your "I say") and your reasons for doing so.
Read pp. 192-95 (The Literature Review) to help you have a sense of
what a synthesis is and the moves it uses.
Content and Structure
Introduction.
For your introduction you can focus on creating a sense of kairos, the
timeliness of your issue, by providing context, or you may use one of
the they say methods as presented in They Say, I Say, Chapter 1.
This intro may borrow heavily from the intro to your annotated
bibliography.
Body.
A synthesis does the following:
pulls from many sources to create a sense of the key
ideas/positions as opposed to presenting separate summaries;

integrates (groups together) your various sources based on

similarities/differences and organizes based on the ideas within
various positions, not on the individual sources;
discusses the positions and their evidence in your own voice,
providing either author names and signal verbs or intext/parenthetical citations;
quotes sparingly to present key ideas, introducing quotes by
framing them as we have learned to do in our book.
refutes and agrees, partially or fully, with the positions you
present (either as you present them or all together in the I say
section of your paper).

As you work on organizing your paper, try to present ideas within

positions in a way that builds to your own position. For example, you
might begin with an idea that could serve as a they say and then
present your other ideas/positions as a variety of responses to the
"they say." OR you might begin with an idea/position you consider
very straightforward, and present other ideas and positions as
increasingly complex perspectives on the issue. These are just
suggestions. Your task is to think about organization as a rhetorical
strategy for showing us the variety and complexity in what your
sources say about the issue (as well as the evidence that supports
them or is lacking) in an order that you think best demonstrates their
complexity and variety.
Conclusion: You should conclude by using a so what/who cares move.
Criteria

You carefully follow the assignment as presented here.

You work on connecting the ideas, both from sentence to
sentence, and from paragraph to paragraph with transitions
(Chapter 8). You use metacommentary (Chapter 10) to help your
readers follow your presentation of various positions.
You use Chapters 2 and 3 to do the following: to briefly
summarize; to identify who is talking by using attributive tags;
to use rhetorically accurate verbs that introduce paraphrases or
quotations; and to quote effectively. You use Chapter 5 to make
sure we know, at all times, who is talking. You use moves from
Chapter 4 as needed to respond to the positions you present.
You use Chapter 6 to respond appropriately to naysayers, and
Chapter 7 to stress why the topic is important and/or who
should care.
You edit carefully, especially to avoid fragments, comma splices,
and run-ons and to use commas correctly.
You proofread carefully.

Format: MLA
Length: 5 full pages