advance Writing Research paper

WRTG 391 Writing Assignment #3 Synthesis Essay (sometimes called a Literature Review) Writing Assignment #3 will be a synthesis essay , a format that is sometimes referred to as a literature review . Organization: Your synthesis essay should be organized in the following manner: • Introduction: Write one or two paragraphs in wh ich you introduce the reader to your topic. • Body -- the categories into which you are dividing the literature: Divide your sources into a few categories. A suggestion is that you divide them into three to five categories . • Conclusion: Summarize what the literature says on your topic. Approach:

This semester, you have critique d an author’s analysis in the critique essay and have critically evaluated several articles in the annotated bibliography. In this assignment you will synthesize the ideas of several authors in a synthesis essay, or literature review .

For your annotated bibliography, you selected a topic based on your interests and, possibly, your major. You constructed a list of 12 references and summarized and critically analyzed them in 150- 200 words each.

Through this process, you may have seen patterns in the scholarly literature in the topic on which you conducted research. For example, consider the following examples: • You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found that there are varying opinions on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth. • You may have researched stud ies in psychology and found that counseling strategies for victims of domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories. • You may have researched graphic communication s and discovered that the integration of graphics in business report writing has evolved from the 1970s to the present because of advancements in technology. • You may have researched articles on gerontol ogy and found studies that answered three basic questions on how older adults respond to training for physical performance. In the synthesis essay, you will focus your research efforts in a particular area, perhaps as a response to what you found while writi ng the annotated bibliography. You will then conduct more research and synthesize your findings in this synthesis essay. Please note that the annotated bibliography was the beginning, not the end, of your research. You might decide to disregard several of the articles you analyzed in the critical annotated bibliography because they don’t speak to the specific area on which you have decided to write your synthesis essay. You might select one article that you analyzed in the critical annotated bibliography, look up the articles cited in that article, and “snowball” your research in that way. In other words, this process is a recursive one. You might find reasons to hone in on and narrow your topic even further after you have written the annotated bibliography.

How to organize the synthesis essay: When you have focused on your topic, determine how you will divide the literature. In other words, consider the following examples we described above:

You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found that there are varying opinions on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth. You might divide the paper as follows:

Introduction Body • Category 1: “A” view on respond ing to criminal behavior. • Category 2: “B” view on responding to criminal behavior. • Category 3: “C” view on responding to criminal behavior. • Category 4: “D” view on respond ing to criminal behavior.

Conclusion You may have researched studies in psychology and found that counseling strategies for victims of domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories. You might divide the paper as follows:

Introduction Body • Category 1: “A” counseling strate gy for victims of child abuse • Category 2: “B” counseling strate gy for victims of child abuse • Category 3: “C” counseling strate gy for victims of child abuse • Category 4: “D” counseling strate gy for victims of child abuse Conclusion You may have researched graphic communications an d discovered that the integration of graphics in business report writing has evol ved from the 1970s to the present because of advancements in technology. You might divide the paper as follows: Introduction Body • Category 1: graphics in busin ess report writing in the 1970s • Category 2: graphics in busin ess report writing in the 1980s • Category 3: graphics in busin ess report writing in the 1990s • Category 4: graphics in business re port writing from 2000 to the present Conclusion You may have researched articles on gerontolog y and found studies that answered three basic questions on how older adults respond to training for physical performance.

You might divide the paper as follows:

Introduction Body • Question 1 • Question 2 • Question 3 Conclusion Approach and Requirements Your synthesis essay, or literature review, should be 1500-2000 words, including your “references” pages at the end of the review. In addition, your synthesis essay should include at least 10 scholarly sources in the “references” section. As stated above, this means that you may decide not to use all 12 sources that you summarized in your annotated bibliography. You are free to use all 12 of them. However, it is possible that your experience in writing summaries of the 12 sources led you to conclude that a few of them will not be as helpful to your topic as you had originally thought. You may decide not to include such sources in the synthesis essay. This is totally up to you. Moreover, you might find other sources that you would like to include in your synthesis essay that were not included in your annotated bibliography. You may use such sources in your synthesis essay as well.