178 CHAPTER 7 | FRom SummARy To SynTHESiS• ^ supporting examples and illustrations,
• ^ counterarguments, and
• ^ our own thoughts.
A worksheet like this one can help you concentrate on similarities and
differences in the texts to determine what the connections among texts mean.
(you can download a template for this worksheet at macmillanhighered
.com/frominquiry3e.) Of course, you can design your own worksheet as
well, tailoring it to your needs and preferences. If you want to take very
detailed notes about your authors and sources, for example, you may want
to have separate columns for each.
Once you start making connections, including points of agreement
and disagreement, you can start identifying counterarguments in the read-
ing — for example, Keller quotes a scholar who cites a national study, the
National Assessment of education Progress, to dampen enthusiasm for
the claims that Thompson and Haven give so much attention to. Identify-
ing counterarguments gives you a sense of what is at issue for each author.
And determining what authors think in relation to one another can help
you realize what is at issue for you. Suppose you are struck by Haven’s
implicit argument that a revolution in literacy is occurring and that insti-
tutions of higher education, not students, need to respond to changes
in the nature of literacy and communication. But you also recognize in
Keller’s analysis that questions persist about studies conducted to assess
the development of students’ growth and development as writers. How
persuasive are the studies conducted at Stanford, Michigan State, and
George Mason? What do we really know? And how can we further test the
claims experts make about electronic media and paradigm shifts? Turning
these ideas and questions over in your mind, you may be able to decide on
a topic you want to explore and develop.■ (^) Formulate the gist of What you’ve read
remember that your gist should bring into focus the relationship among
different ideas in multiple texts. Looking at the information juxtaposed on
the worksheet, you can begin to construct the gist of your synthesis:
• ^ Clive Thompson cites research conducted at Stanford to challenge
prevailing arguments about electronic media’s effects on students’
literacy. Indeed, despite pundits’ complaints, students may be more
literate than in the past.
• ^ Cynthia Haven also analyzes the Stanford study, which indicates that we
may very well be experiencing a revolution in literacy. Students use elec-
tronic media to sustain social networks and create change. As Thompson
also points out, students are writing more than ever before and are more
adept at applying principles of rhetoric than were students in previous
generations. Those in higher education may have to change in order to
respond to students’ uses of electronic media, not the other way around.
07_GRE_5344_Ch7_151_210.indd 178 11/19/14 1:59 PM