Synthesis Paper 2 DUE December 9, 2012 by 10 PM Pacific Time (Strictly)
Second Synthesis Paper Instructions
The paper is worth a maximum of 100 points.
This paper is an open-book, take-home essay exam on the study units of the first half of this course. In form and content, the paper should resemble a conventional persuasive essay such as you should have learned to write in ENG101, which is a prerequisite for this course.The paper will be graded on how well you show off your understanding of those study units.
The synthesis paper assignment addresses the first two learning outcomes for this course:
- To show off your increased understanding of being "Western"
- To demonstrate your ability to use a significant number of the vocabulary terms from the study units
The units covered on this paper include
Pagan Rome
Christian Rome
The Church Divided
The Rise of Islam
Early Medieval Europe
The High Middle Ages
Medieval Renaissance
Instructions:
1.) Read all the way to the bottom of this page. Read everything, including the grading rubric.
2.) Pick a question from among the three given at the bottom of this page. Then, think about how you want to answer it. Before you wrote your first synthesis paper, you should have watched the video introduction to the synthesis paper assignments, which explains that a big part of the purpose of this assignment is to force you to reflect on all the material you have studied. Understanding comes from reflection You need to take some time to reflect before you write.
3.) Write the paper.
Start with your name, the course name, and your section number. (You see it every time you log on to the course site in Canvas.)
Move the cursor down two or three lines. Copy and paste the full text of your question into the beginning of your document. All of it.Even the part about the forty vocabulary words. Points off if you forget to include the full text of the question you have chosen. The FULL text, not a paraphrase.
Move the cursor down two or three lines, and write a BRIEF introduction sketching out your main ideas. I'm asking here for your original observations and conclusions. Please don't try to be clever or start with a grabber. Just tell me where the paper is going.
Begin each supporting paragraph with an appropriate topic sentence, and then use specific examples and vocabulary terms from the study guides to support your ideas.
End with a BRIEF summary paragraph that gives the paper appropriate closure.
4.) THEN--and only then--go back and check to see how you have used the red vocabulary terms from the study guides covered by this assignment. The paper must contain at least forty of the red terms, and they must be highlighted so I will know which ones you want me to count. Terms must be used from all of the study units covered by this assignment, but I will count no more than two per sentence. (Huh? Only two per sentence? Why? Because I want you to avoid a sentence such as, "Greece produced many philosophers, including Thales, Empedocles, Democritus, Protagoras, Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato." I would count the first two only. A list of that sort does not show me that you understand those terms.)
5.) Make sure your paper is in the right format [explained below], and then add the word count at the end. The paper must contain between 1000 and 1500 words not including the text of your question. Papers with no word count at the end will be penalized (as the rubric shows). Papers with fewer than 1000 words will not be accepted, and you will fail the course. Papers containing more than 1500 words will be heavily penalized.
6.) Proofread it for spelling and mechanical errors one last time before you upload the paper.
7.) Save the paper in the doc, docx, or rtf format. (More about that below.)
8.) Click on the Submit Assignment button on the right and follow directions to upload your paper to Canvas. Do not send the paper as an attachment to a Canvas message sent to me. Only papers uploaded to Canvas directly after clicking on the Submit Assignment button will be accepted and graded.
When the paper has been graded, you will be able to read my comments inserted into the grading rubric.
NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED, NO DEADLINE EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED.
The Content:
As I stated at the top of this page, you are writing a persuasive essay. Your thesis is your answer(s) to the question you select below. The paper content must support your thesis. Avoid repeating history for background information. Remember: I wrote the study guides; I already know what's in them. I want to know what you think, not what I wrote. For example, if you were writing to answer a question on the causes of the Peloponnesian Wars, you would NOT begin:
Greece is located on a peninsula. The coastline is very rugged, and the Greeks had to depend on ocean-doing ships for trade with other city states. The city-state of Athens was a democracy, and its leader was Pericles. . . etc.
What on earth does any of that have to to with explaining the causes of the Peloponnesian Wars? I know all of that already—I put all that in the content pages. Why are you telling me what I already know? Focus everything you write on responding directly to the question you have chosen to answer. You will be graded on how well your paper sticks to answering that question. To return to the previous example, you SHOULD begin:
The primary causes of the Peloponnesian Wars were the arrogance and paranoia of Athens. The way Pericles looted the Delian treasure without consulting the other states created resentment that led Pericles to believe those states urge Sparta to attack. . . . etc.
No need to explain Pericles or the Delian League. I already know. Just answer the question.
The synthesis paper is NOT a research paper. Do not look at or refer to any sources outside of the units listed above. As I demonstrated in the video intro to the synthesis paper assignment, the information in your paper is limited to whatever you find in the course module content pages—each of which begins with a banner including the name of the unit—and any audio or video materials that are directly linked to those pages. Do not reference information from links that lead to pages outside of the course module content pages. (If you are in doubt about whether or not to reference something, send me a Canvas message and ask before the paper is due. I'll give you a ruling. Better safe than sorry!) Because all the information in your paper will come from my study units, you do not need footnotes, inline citations, end notes, or a list of works cited.
Above all, do not quote ANYTHING. Paraphrase or summarize only. Do not copy and paste any material from the course module content pages or anywhere else. Your paper will be automatically submitted to Turnitin.doc for evaluation of originality, and before you may submit the paper, you will be asked to certify that the paper contains only content written by you. Any significant uses of material that is copied from the course module content pages or from any source outside the course module content pages will be considered plagiarism, and you will fail the course.
Yes, you read that correctly: You will fail the course.
Recycling Papers Not Allowed!If you are repeating this course for any reason, please be aware that I will not allow you to resubmit a synthesis paper that you submitted when you took the course previously—regardless of the grade you earned on that paper. You must write a completely new paper on a new topic. The credit you earn for taking this course must reflect the work that you do while you are taking this course, not the work that you did previously.
The Format:
Double space the paper with 1 1/4" margins. Use a 12-point Times New Roman or Arial for the font. (Those are all options provided by Google Docs, Word, OpenOffice, etc.) If I have to reformat your paper before I can grade it, you will lose points.
Use an appropriately formal tone (in other words, do not use the words "I," "me," "my," "we," "you," "yours," etc.) Your intended audience for this paper is your instructor. Your job throughout is to tell me what you think, not what I already know.
Your paper may contain images if you like, but they are not required and will produce no extra credit. What counts is what you write and how well you write it.
Synthesis papers may be created using the word processing software of your choice, including OpenOffice and Google Docs, but the paper must be saved in Word's DOC or DOCX formats or in the generic RTF ("rich text format") format. Google Docs, OpenOffice, Microsoft Works, and virtually all full-function word processors can save documents in one or more of these formats. Canvas will not permit you upload papers in other formats, such as wps, odt, pdf, zip, etc. Call the HelpCenter (480-461-7217) if you need help saving your document in a format Canvas will accept.
IF YOU EXPERIENCE DIFFICULTY UPLOADING THE PAPER, SAVE IT IN A DIFFERENT FORMAT AND TRYAGAIN.
PLAGIARISM WARNING!One more time: This paper is to be entirely your own work. If it isn't, you will fail the course.
You must not reference any material other than the course module content pages in the course modules listed above, and the paper is to contain no quotations of any kind from the content pages or anywhere else.
When you upload your paper, it will be submitted to Turnitin.com for analysis. Shortly after uploading your paper, you should be able to see Turnitin's 'unoriginality" rating for your paper. Keep in mind that few or no papers ever receive a 100% originality rating, and even an "unoriginality" rating as high as 12% is probably not significant. However, if Turnitin.com awards your paper an "unoriginality" rating higher than 12%, I will investigate, and if Turnitin.com reports a significant use of copied text from a source other than my course pages or the videos specifically linked to those pages, you will fail the course.
The Questions:
Choose one of the following questions and BLOCK COPY THE ENTIRE QUESTION AND PASTE IT INTO THE TOP OF YOUR PAPER:
Question #1: When the Roman Empire pulled up stakes and moved east, the Catholic Church stepped into the leadership void that was left behind. It’s not for nothing that we call it the “Roman Catholic Church.” Aside from the fact that the Church initially modeled its organizational structure on that of the Empire (thanks to Ignatius), in what other ways did the Catholic Church resemble the Roman Empire? Describe at least four other ways in which the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church resembled each other. Illustrate with specific examples from the history of the Empire and the Church, and keep in mind that you must cover the entire time span represented by all the study units listed above and you need to talk about art and architecture as well as politics and religion. Include at least forty RED names and vocabulary terms from all of the study units listed above and be sure to highlight the terms in some way.
[Question #1 contains 159 words. Including that question, your paper must contain at least 1159 words to be accepted.]
Question #2: The following seven works of two-dimensional art are in very different styles and all tell us very different things about the ideas and values of the people of their time. All seven works depict human beings in different ways. Some are fairly realistic, and others are very stylized. Some figures have actual personalities, and some figures lack any individuality. What do the depictions of human beings in these works tell you about the people who made them? (1) The Flagellation Scene from the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii, (2) the Good Shepherd fresco from the Catacombs of Callixtus, (3) the mosaic Christ Pantocrator from the Hagia Sophia, (5) the Bayeux tapestry (particularly the depiction of Harold in section one of the High Middle Ages unit), (6) the calendar page “February” from the Très Riches Heures, and (7) Cimabue’s Santa Trinita Madonna. Connect each of these works to the people and events of the period in which it was created.Include at least forty RED names and vocabulary terms from all of the study units listed above and be sure to highlight the terms in some way.
[Question #2 contains 186 words. Including that question, your paper must contain at least 1186 words to be accepted.]
Question #3: Although this course is about ideas and values in the humanities, we have to acknowledge when certain technological innovations create big changes that affect those ideas and values. Explain how the following technological innovations had profound effects on the people of the periods covered by the study units listed at the top of this page: (1) the arch, (2) the pendentive, (3) paper, (4) the stirrup, (5) the flying buttress, and (6) oil paints. Instead of describing things that were made possible by these innovations, connect each innovation to specific events that might not have occurred at all or would not have occurred in the same way.Include at least forty RED names and vocabulary terms from all of the study units listed above and be sure to highlight the terms in some way.
[Question #3 contains 134 words. Including that question, your paper must contain at least 1134 words to be accepted.]