FINDING FAITH AND DIRECTION IN LIFE THROUGH MYTHS AND FAIRY TALES (specifically authors PopulVuh, Kojiki, Perrault, Grimm, and the book the Little Prince).

Synthesis Essay.

A synthesis is a written discussion that draws on one or more sources. In an academic synthesis, you make explicit the relationships that you have inferred among separate sources, make judgments, draw conclusions and critique individual sources to determine the relationship among them. You should refer to supporting material and examples from class readings, discussions, and research, with proper citations. The essay should not be a summary of the readings but examination of their meanings in systems of belief and reason. You should analyze the claims of authors and their implications. You should also develop an argument, or thesis, based on the synthesis of class readings.

Synthesis Assignment Instructions and Rubric (United States Sources should be used)

Synthesis Essay. A synthesis is a written discussion that draws on one or more sources. In an academic synthesis, you make explicit the relationships that you have inferred among separate sources, make judgments, draw conclusions and critique individual sources to determine the relationship among them. You should refer to supporting material and examples from class readings, discussions, and research, with proper citations. The essay should not be a summary of the readings but examination of their meanings in systems of belief and reason. You should analyze the claims of authors and their implications. You should also develop an argument, or thesis, based on the synthesis of class readings.

Rubric for Synthesis Assignment-Origin Myths

Glossary

The definitions that follow were developed to clarify terms and concepts used in this rubric only.

• Content Development: The ways in which the text explores and represents its topic in relation to its audience and purpose.

• Context of and purpose for writing: The context of writing is the situation surrounding a text: who is reading it? who is writing it? Under what circumstances will the text be shared or circulated? What social or political factors might affect how the text is composed or interpreted? The purpose for writing is the writer's intended effect on an audience. Writers might want to persuade or inform; they might want to report or summarize information; they might want to work through complexity or confusion; they might want to argue with other writers, or connect with other writers; they might want to convey urgency or amuse; they might write for themselves or for an assignment or to remember.

• Disciplinary conventions: Formal and informal rules that constitute what is seen generally as appropriate within different academic fields, e.g. introductory strategies, use of passive voice or first person point of view, expectations for thesis or hypothesis, expectations for kinds of evidence and support that are appropriate to the task at hand, use of primary and secondary sources to provide evidence and support arguments and to document critical perspectives on the topic. Writers will incorporate sources according to disciplinary and genre conventions, according to the writer's purpose for the text. Through increasingly sophisticated use of sources, writers develop an ability to differentiate between their own ideas and the ideas of others, credit and build upon work already accomplished in the field or issue they are addressing, and provide meaningful examples to readers.

• Evidence: Source material that is used to extend, in purposeful ways, writers' ideas in a text.

• Genre conventions: Formal and informal rules for particular kinds of texts and/or media that guide formatting, organization, and stylistic choices, e.g. lab reports, academic papers, poetry, webpages, or personal essays.

• Sources: Texts (written, oral, behavioral, visual, or other) that writers draw on as they work for a variety of purposes -- to extend, argue with, develop, define, or shape their ideas, for example.

Glossary

The definitions that follow were developed to clarify terms and concepts used in this rubric only.

• Content Development: The ways in which the text explores and represents its topic in relation to its audience and purpose.

• Context of and purpose for writing: The context of writing is the situation surrounding a text: who is reading it? who is writing it? Under what circumstances will the text be shared or circulated? What social or political factors might affect how the text is composed or interpreted? The purpose for writing is the writer's intended effect on an audience. Writers might want to persuade or inform; they might want to report or summarize information; they might want to work through complexity or confusion; they might want to argue with other writers, or connect with other writers; they might want to convey urgency or amuse; they might write for themselves or for an assignment or to remember.

• Disciplinary conventions: Formal and informal rules that constitute what is seen generally as appropriate within different academic fields, e.g. introductory strategies, use of passive voice or first person point of view, expectations for thesis or hypothesis, expectations for kinds of evidence and support that are appropriate to the task at hand, use of primary and secondary sources to provide evidence and support arguments and to document critical perspectives on the topic. Writers will incorporate sources according to disciplinary and genre conventions, according to the writer's purpose for the text. Through increasingly sophisticated use of sources, writers develop an ability to differentiate between their own ideas and the ideas of others, credit and build upon work already accomplished in the field or issue they are addressing, and provide meaningful examples to readers.

• Evidence: Source material that is used to extend, in purposeful ways, writers' ideas in a text.

• Genre conventions: Formal and informal rules for particular kinds of texts and/or media that guide formatting, organization, and stylistic choices, e.g. lab reports, academic papers, poetry, webpages, or personal essays.

• Sources: Texts (written, oral, behavioral, visual, or other) that writers draw on as they work for a variety of purposes -- to extend, argue with, develop, define, or shape their ideas, for example.