BA2 AND

MORE RESEARCH
Week 3

A few housekeeping things

If you have not logged into Raider Writer yet, then please do so.
If you did not complete BA1 or take my opportunity to redo BA1, then you must
learn from your 0 or 50.
Carefully read assignment instructions.
Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to complete an assignment.
Show up. Speak up. Keep up.

Participation/Reading Quiz
Please take out a separate sheet of paper and write your name at the top.
Please legibly answers the following questions:
1. How does John Simon, author of Why Good English Is Good For You,
believe that English should be spoken?
2. What is the name of the girl that Douglas McGray, author Lost in
America, talks about in the beginning of his article?
3. Do John Simon and Robert MacNeil, author of Do You Speak American?,
agree about how English should be spoken? Why or Why not?
4. Douglas McGray believes that the American education system needs to
include more of what into its curriculum?
5. According to Robert MacNeil, is there one correct way to speak
American? Why or why not?

Discussion of articles
What is the main idea of Do You Speak American? by Robert MacNeil?
What is the main idea of Why Good English Is Good For You by John Simon?
What is the main idea of Lost in America by Douglas McGray?
What overall idea/theme do all three articles share?

Similarities of Articles

Differences between Articles

Brief Assignment 2: Synthesizing Sources

Purpose:To demonstrate your ability to synthesize source material.
Description:This assignment will help you prepare for your initial draft of the literature review. To complete this
assignment, you will need to write a thesis-driven synthesis of three articles. In other words you will want to identify
a common theme or idea that you see running through all of the articles and focus on how each article develops or
contributes to the theme. We have selected the following articles from your textbook for this assignment:
Do You Speak American?" Robert MacNeil 306
"Why Good English is Good for You" John Simon 332
"Lost in America" Douglas McGray 351
Read each article through once so that you understand its scope and the authors argument.
As you begin to read through each article again, note common themes and ideas. What are the things these authors
agree and disagree about? (Hint: You may find it helpful to use an organizational tool such as a Venn diagram.)
Create a working thesis statement based on one common theme or idea that runs through all three articles (a
statement that will tie all three articles together in some way). There will be several possible common themes or
ideas for you to choose from. Pick the one that you can develop in the most detail.
Then, write an essay which summarizes and synthesizes these articles. In other words, describe the common
theme, explain how each author develops the common theme, and then explain how each article relates to the
others. What are their similarities and differences? Why are these similarities and differences important to the
theme which you are examining?
Length: 400 - 600 words Format: MLA style for internal citations and works cited.

Format of BA2
Introduction (including working thesis statement)
Body Paragraph 1
Body Paragraph 2
Conclusion
Use MLA for in-text citations and works cited.
Must be between 400-600 words.

Working Thesis Statement

Characteristics of good working thesis statement for synthesis:
1. It identifies a common theme that you are going to write about.
2. It identifies HOW or WHY the authors are using that theme.
3. Beyond stating the similarities and/or differences, it argues what larger idea the
reader can arrive at by looking at both texts. Its not enough to simply say, Both
author A and B discuss ______. WHY do they discuss this theme/idea? WHY is it
important?

Examples of thesis statements

Good

When these essays are examined

together, we find that both show that
on the way to discovering oneself,
there should be a focus on not only
ourselves and our actions, but also a
focus on understanding how our
actions can greatly impact peoples
lives.

Poor
While the backgrounds of these two
authors differ significantly, both
discuss these two opposing types of
education; Freire defines the concepts
and Anyon illustrates them with her
research.
HOW?
WHY?

Student examples from

textbook
Example 1

Example 2

Although they each address

a different scope of society,
the authors agree that
progress within their
respective area leads to
progress for society as a
whole (page 609).

Dewey, Steele, and

Emerson each question and
challenge their audiences to
a new perspective of unity
both within ones self and
within their respective
communities (610).

Effective Synthesis
Characteristics of effective synthesis in body paragraphs:
1. Begins with a topic sentence that informs readers of the topic of the paragraph.
Do not use quotes to do this. This needs to be in your own words.
2. Includes information from more than one source.
3. Clearly indicates which material comes from which source using lead in phrases
and in-text citations.
4. Shows the similarities or differences between the different sources in ways that
make the paper as informative as possible.

Example of Effective Synthesis

In the past, opponents of immigration raised economic objections or
questions about large-scale immigration to the United States. Today,
however, experts tell us that opposition to immigration is expressed
almost exclusively in economic terms. For example, Dan Lacy found that
research of immigration attitudes shows that some Americans fear of
losing their jobs to immigrants is the main reason for opposition to
immigration today (41). Similarly, Thomas Muller points out the wide
spread concern among Americans that the new immigrants use welfare
and other public-aid programs to such an extent that they are a financial
burden on government and, therefore, a financial burden on taxpayers
(125). Both authors show us why it is easy to see that most objections to
immigration stem from economic concerns, especially those related to job
security.

Effective or ineffective?
Beginning in the 1950s, Dr. Donald Super, Dr. Martin
Katz, and other psychologists began to study how
values, or more specifically how work values, might
be involved in career choices. The results of this
research have shown that values are indeed a factor
in career decision-making, and they are also related
to levels of later job satisfaction. A persons wellbeing and self-esteem are highest when that person
live according to his or her values.

Effective or ineffective?
Some experts have suggested that general knowledge, apart from
technical skills and direct knowledge learn in the college major, have a
powerful impact on employment success after college. For example,
Bridges argues that of the total jobs available, 75 percent require
general skills and critical thinking from a good liberal arts education,
while 25 percent of jobs require specific technical skills (194). Similarly,
Gardner found that, while technical skills might be very helpful in
obtaining a job offer, general knowledge skills may contribute more to a
college graduates long-term employment success (98). Both
researchers demonstrate that it is important for college students to
choose a major that will challenge them to think critically as opposed to
a major that provides specific technical skills.

Effective or ineffective?
Researchers have studied gender differences in ratings of
physical attractiveness. For example, in Schumaker,Krejci,
Small and Sargents study of loneliness in obese individuals,
researchers found that the connection between body size and
loneliness is more apparent in women than in men (29).
Contrary to this, Reis and his colleagues found that men tend
to rate females beauty of greater consequence than females,
at least as the amount of socialization is concerned (82). This
reveals that the effects of physical attractiveness differ
between the genders.

Effective or ineffective?
Critics of Wal-Mart and similar stores are concerned that these large retail
chains have created less options for the consumers. Albert Norman claims
that Wal-Mart represents "... an unwanted shove into urbanization, with all
the negatives that threaten small town folks" (209). This urbanization
appears to be connected, in the minds of Wal-Mart critics, to "mindless
consumerism, paved landscapes and homogenization of community
identity" (Ortega 204). In other words, instead of a centrally located
downtown shopping area with thirty different stores all locally owned, there
are now only a handful of bigger stores located on the edge of town in
malls and giant concrete shoeboxes, all of them owned by or franchised
from huge out-of-town corporations. As both authors suggest, smaller
stores cannot compete with the low prices of larger retail chains, so many
of them go out of business.

Effective or ineffective?
Garfield argues that students should place more importance
on finding a college major that suits their strengths, interests,
values, and goals (99). Samson agrees, stating that students
are more likely to be successful after college when they pursue
a college major that compliments every strong part of them
(200). Furthermore, 95% of employers surveyed stated that
they place more importance on a college graduates ability to
think critically over the title of their college major (Watts
350). Clearly, these researchers show the importance of
finding a college major that best suits the student.

Any questions?

Before you leave (stay in your seats

please)
Read the following by February 15:
Chapter 5, pages 101-116, in First-Year Writing
Chapters 10-12, pages 190-231, in The St. Martins Handbook
Chapter 19, pages 292-299, in The St. Martins Handbook

Email ME (judy.drazan@ttu.edu) your literature review/researched-argument topic

by Sunday evening (no later than 5 p.m.) Find two scholarly articles that you could
use to write about your topic (bring name of author/title to class on Monday,
February 15).
Turn in your BA2 by Friday, February 12 on Raider Writer by 11:59:59 p.m.