Synthesis Assignment Instructions and Rubric 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. Making your own Myth-to be posted on your Tumblr blog The purpose of this collaborative writing exercise is to create an origin myth story of your own imagination. Using the examples from the origin myths in the DBR 200 iBook-create your own origin myth! What was there before the beginning of time? Of space? What does the universe look like in your imagination? Is there a “Creator” in your story? Or multiple “entities” that act like creators or instigators or accidents of nature? What do these “beings” or entities look like? How do they act? Are you telling the story from the perspective of ancient, primitive imaginations? Or is this story a translation or recital of the “original story” told by the “creators” or “first beings or entities?” What about the origins of humankind? How will you describe those events? What sort of relationship do those creatures have with the world or universe? Step One-Try to address some of the issues I’ve raised above in your group discussions. Begin to sketch in some of the details you might like to include as a kind of framework or outline to your story. Step Two-Continue to try to collect images or sounds that might be included in a multimedia representation of the story. You should immediately consider the restrictions/limitations to the kind of media that you can post on Tumblr. That will affect your choice of materials and how they are presented. Step Three-Create the First draft version of the myth and use it to expand/contract depending on how the group wants the version to be received or understood/listened or viewed by your readers. You might even post it up and ask for feedback from “followers” on your Tumblr blogs. Step Four-Post your final version on Tumblr. Each student in the group should post the same/group’s version of the origin story. I will reblog the final versions to everyone. The final version should have a short section at the bottom of the work acknowledging sources, such as the origin myths included in the iBook, in the form of footnotes that detail how a particular figure from one of the origin myths inspired your version, etc. Rubric for Synthesis Assignment-Origin Myths Glossary The definitions that follow were developed to clarify terms a.

1. Synthesis Assignment Instructions and Rubric
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.
Making your own Myth-to be posted on your Tumblr blog
The purpose of this collaborative writing exercise is to create an
origin myth story of your own imagination. Using the examples
from the origin myths in the DBR 200 iBook-create your own
origin myth! What was there before the beginning of time? Of
space? What does the universe look like in your imagination? Is
there a “Creator” in your story? Or multiple “entities” that act
like creators or instigators or accidents of nature? What do
these “beings” or entities look like? How do they act? Are you
telling the story from the perspective of ancient, primitive
imaginations? Or is this story a translation or recital of the
“original story” told by the “creators” or “first beings or
entities?” What about the origins of humankind? How will you
describe those events? What sort of relationship do those
creatures have with the world or universe?
Step One-Try to address some of the issues I’ve raised above in

2. your group discussions. Begin to sketch in some of the details
you might like to include as a kind of framework or outline to
your story.
Step Two-Continue to try to collect images or sounds that might
be included in a multimedia representation of the story. You
should immediately consider the restrictions/limitations to the
kind of media that you can post on Tumblr. That will affect
your choice of materials and how they are presented.
Step Three-Create the First draft version of the myth and use it
to expand/contract depending on how the group wants the
version to be received or understood/listened or viewed by your
readers. You might even post it up and ask for feedback from
“followers” on your Tumblr blogs.
Step Four-Post your final version on Tumblr. Each student in
the group should post the same/group’s version of the origin
story. I will reblog the final versions to everyone. The final
version should have a short section at the bottom of the work
acknowledging sources, such as the origin myths included in the
iBook, in the form of footnotes that detail how a particular
figure from one of the origin myths inspired your version, etc.
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?

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.