Definition and Synthesis

• Format: Typed, double-spaced, submitted as a word-processing document.
  12 point, text-weight font, 1-inch margins.
• Length: 1200 – 1500 words (approx. 5-6 pages)
• Value: This project will be graded out of 100 possible points, and will be worth 20% of the grade for the course.

 Overview:

In Unit 1, you focused on reading the published writing of other writers critically in order to begin developing your own “invitations” into topics that interest you. You used textual analysis to break down the context, voice, thesis, and other elements of existing written texts. You also used invention strategies to begin exploring specific issues that interested you as you read and reflected. Finally, you exercised your critical literacy skills in order to evaluate the content and context of sources.

In Unit 2, you have been studying ways to define the context for the issue you are writing about in order to help audiences understand why the issue is relevant to their interests. You also have been learning about synthesis: a rhetorical tool for connecting sources and ideas that may initially seem to be unrelated.

For this Unit 2 Assignment, you will practice both definition and synthesis by writing an essay that helps an audience understand the context for your topic and the ways that other people are already invested in the topic.

Assignment:

Write an essay that defines the topic of your research for this course and synthesizes different perspectives on the issue from sources you have read critically. 

Your Definition and Synthesis Essay should

• Clearly define the topic of your essay and the specific issue (or issues) you will address
• Clarify your position: what exactly are you wanting to say about the issue? Why is it relevant? What is at stake, and for whom?
• Connect (synthesize) differing perspectives on this topic and set of issues, and explain how existing perspectives portray the issue in overlapping or contradictory ways
• Revise your research question and research proposal in response to the new sources you have found and the new connections you have made.
• Lecture Link: https://youtu.be/4qFETKDrK4E

Objectives:

In this project, you will

• Define the context for the issue you are writing about for this course, framing the significance, relevance, and urgency of the issue for one or more audiences
• Synthesize existing research perspectives on the topic, making connections between sources and analyzing why these connections are important
• Develop a position on the issue you have chosen to write about, a specific perspective, evaluation, or judgment that you can support with evidence and argument

 Grading:

This project will be graded out of 100 possible points, and will be worth 20% of the grade for the course. See rubric below for criteria and scoring.

3

Revision

The chosen education topic was inspired by the fact that issues and concerns arises when students realizes that they are not pursuing their career of interest after finishing their four-year college after high school transition due t poor decision making. The proposed intervention is that student should join a two-year community college, technical and trade schools. The topic is relevant to most of the young people that feel that their choice of career is not well-thought. The best process that most student audience should consider in choosing their four-year career course is through joining two-year technical/trade course that would help in decision making. I would narrow down the analysis of the influence of both students and parents on the choice of a career path and the reasons that led to the decisions including the demand for the skills in the job market.

The issue of validating the information about the different transformation after high school requires collection of data from views of multiple audiences to understand what looks more relevant. The project lacks the literature that supports the idea that joining a two-year community or technical school would result to choosing the best career that is within student’s passion and interests. The opportunity of taking short-term causes is of benefit to students because they would have additional skills to their four-year career course that increases their chances of acquiring jobs in the competitive job market. The information in the project requires additional literature to ascertain the argument but I consider the topic as knowledgeable and would have an impact in the society changing the perception about education. Parents should give students opportunity to join the two-year college and make their decision about their four-year college course.

Research Question Proposal

The necessity of a four-year college has been of great concern in recent years due to various issues surrounding its application, popularity and expenses. It is my view that a two-year community college, technical and trade schools are better than a four-year college since the transition from high school should involve critical skills training. The community colleges have always provided indispensable learning material for young adults who can then apply this in the decision-making process of determining the best career path. There has been criticism over students who choose trade school after high school instead of the prestigious four-year college degree. Many people view trade school as sub-par learning institutions fit for people with little mental capacity to grasp challenging concepts. The authors considered have influenced my research on accounts of how people who chose trade schools due to high job demand in the skilled workers’ field face social reproval.

My project shall conduct a critical analysis of available data on the issue of bias in the field of higher learning. I shall add new insight by undertaking a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data provided online and through social interactions. The other technique I shall apply is a structured literature review which shall involve analysis of a peer-reviewed study that has researched the issue at hand. The data I shall collect and the discussion I shall provide shall inform readers of problems they may not have discovered in the field of decision-making for higher learning. There are two groups involved in decision-making for higher education, these are the parents and students. Many parents and guardians have advised their children to delve into a field that has high workforce demand. For this reason, there have been many interviews and research documents developed to study the nature of decision-making in the aspect of community college of a degree-related college.

The mandate of my project shall be to support the decision of transitioning from high school education to two-year college programs then to a four-year college degree. This project shall provide critical information processing techniques and their application in the lives of high school leavers and parents. My project shall develop a proposal that information processing is a necessary procedure that extends standard decision-making capacity. The published writings we read in class have improved my mental capacity in that I am now able to devise tactics to acquire proper research. I was able to synthesis class readings into this proposal since I read articles and used them to support my thesis. My project shall broaden the thesis I have proposed by applying the techniques of quantitative, and qualitative analysis and structured literature review of various published articles about community colleges and four-year colleges.