Synthesis Essay.

The Short story is Joyce Carol, Where are you going, where have you been?

Purpose
Doing research requires synthesizing sources to form your own ideas, that is, using the "they say" to develop your "I say." In the Argumentative Essay, you have already made an argument about a text. Now you will use one source to help you strengthen and advance your original argument. This assignment will prepare you for the Research Paper, where multiple sources are synthesized.

Audience
You will be writing for me and your peers. Assume that none has read the source you chose.

Tasks
Find ONE credible scholarly or popular source on the text and/or your topic. For example, if your Argumentative Essay is about the different conceptions of the afterlife in Tennyson’s "Ulysses," the source could discuss 1) the topic of afterlife in the poem; 2) other topics in the poem; or 3) the concept of afterlife in Greek mythology.
For scholarly sources, see Lindell Library’s research guides to finding books and articles and literary criticism. The quality of your argument is determined by the quality of your sources, and scholarly sources are generally of higher quality because they are peer reviewed.
For popular sources (e.g. newspaper/magazine articles, blog posts), pay attention to authors’ credentials. Journalists, critics, and scholars usually produce higher quality writings. Some reputable websites include Literary Hub, New York Time Book Review, The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and Oxford University Press’s blog.
Use the source to help you revise, complicate, and develop your original argument. You should focus on developing the "I say" part, especially by engaging with what you disagree with the source.
Use textual evidence in the forms of summary, paraphrase, and quotation to support your evaluation. Do MLA style in-text citation. Frame the quotations properly with context and significance (cf. Quotation Exercise).
Use the present tense ("literary present") to discuss fictional events and the ways in which writers express themselves in their works. Resource
Include a meaningful title.
Structure
Introduction:
Introduce both the text and the source. Summarize the contents of their writings.