Objective Synthesis Table Assignment

Due September 14, 2004
Bring 4 Copies to Class

Synthesis is an important conceptual and writing skill. Sometimes we synthesize material to develop our own point or perspective on an issue (purposive synthesis); other times, we use synthesis to capture how readings come together, but without trying to bring our own perspective in (objective synthesis).

An objective synthesis paper is one in which you explore the key points and ideas on an issue. An objective synthesis is OBJECTIVE because it does not contain your opinion or argument. Instead, you’re working to bring together (to synthesize) what other authors think/say/write about those key points and ideas. Think of the Objective Synthesis as your overview of an issue, including a review of what key authors (our texts) have written about that issue.

There are several steps to building an Objective Synthesis.
1) Locate and key sources on a particular issue (we’ve started this already)
2) For each source, try to identify the key points and ideas
3) Locate common elements across the sources. These become the key themes in an Objective Synthesis
4) Figure out how the different sources “relate” on those common elements
5) Write an essay that is organized around the common themes, making sure to acknowledge and work with the source texts as they speak to each theme.

We’ve done 1), and have done some important work on 2). We’ll continue this, move to 3) and 4) over the next week, and then get to the first draft of our Objective Synthesis Paper on 9/21.

The Assignment - Due 9/14/02

Your assignment is to identify 4 (or more) key points or ideas that at least 2 of our 3 readings have in common (Omi and Winant, Gladwell, Nagel). What are some of the key points or “themes” in race and ethnicity that we can see across the readings?

*Give each point a name or label – in other words, identify the theme.
*Write a sentence (or two) that describes the theme.
*Locate the key passage(s) in each text that you think speak to that theme. In other words, quote.
*Put this information into a table that has the authors as the columns and the themes as the rows.
*For each theme, write 2-4 sentences that explain the theme, and the relationship(s) you see between these passages. This work is not unlike the "Reading Questions 3" assignment.

Your Table Should Look Something Like This

You supply the labels for the themes, and the content that goes in the cells of the table. I suggest using MSWord's Table feature to help you keep things lined up. (Table > Insert Table...)