This Synthesis Exercise is designed to show that you understand the ideas behind synthesis and how to compose typical synthesis arguments using outside sources.

For each set of questions, you will be given a specific synthesis writing situation and information from the Wal-Mart articles in the WARAC. You then need to compose a paragraph that not only answers the writing situation, but also uses the information that you’ve been given to support that claim.

Since the information being used here is all from the WARAC, there is no Works Cited or Reference page necessary, but you WILL need to use proper in-text citation form. The instructions for each writing situation will indicate whether you should use APA or MLA in-text citation form.

Remember that a typical synthesis essay paragraph/argument will include three main points somewhere in the paragraph/argument: a thesis, supporting evidence from outside sources, and an explanation/analysis of how and why the evidence really does support the thesis.

1. You have the following information from page 51 of Sarah Anderson’s article “Wal-Mart’s War on Main Street.”:
   “Wal-Mart channels resources out of a community – studies have shown that a dollar spent on a local business has four or five times the economic spin-off of a dollar spent at a Wal-Mart, since a large share of Wal-Mart’s profit returns to its Arkansas headquarters or is pumped into national advertising campaigns.”
   
   Write a paragraph explaining how or why dollars spent at Wal-Mart do not have the same economic impact as dollars spent at a local store using this information from Sarah Anderson.
   
   You can quote or paraphrase Anderson’s information, but if you quote it, do not just quote the whole thing – selectively quote the part that supports your point.
   
   Remember that whether you paraphrase or quote, you also have to explain/analyze the information in terms of what it means. Don’t just assume that the reader will respond to the information the way you expect them to without your explanation of what you think it proves or means. (also remember that you don’t want to phrase it as “this evidence proves that UFO’s are real.” Simply drop the “this evidence proves” and make the direct statement.)
   
   The In-text citation for answer #1 should be done in MLA style.
   
   
2. Review information from the Hoover’s Handbook that begins on page 54. Specifically look at the information in the “Overview” section that talks about the size of Wal-mart’s operations.
   
   Write a paragraph in which you use the information in the overview section to show exactly how big and dominant Wal-mart is. You can quote this information, but most people will find greater success paraphrasing and using the specific numbers while putting the information in their own words.
   
   Normally, a writer would be expected to use this information to show how Wal-mart’s size is impressive. For this assignment, I want you to do the opposite. Use this information as proof in an paragraph/argument arguing that Wal-mart is TOO big. Thus, you will need to make sure that you don’t just cite the information. The explanation/analysis that you give to the information will be key to how well the thesis is communicated.
   
   The in-text citation for answer #2 should be done in APA style, using the first word of the title as your alphabetical pointer.
   
   
3. You have the following information from page 50 of “Eight Ways to Stop the Store,” by Albert Norman:
   “One theme the Wal-Mart culture has a hard time responding to is the loss of small-town quality of life. You can’t buy rural life style on any Wal-Mart shelf – once you lose it, Wal-Mart can’t sell it back to you.”
   
   You also have the following example from page 52 of Jo-Ann Johnston’s “Who’s Really the Villain?”:
   “[Sturbridge, MA] draws 60 percent of its general business from tourism-related trade, says local Wal-Mart opponent Carol Goodwin. ‘We market history,’ she says. The town and its re-creation of an early American village are the state’s second largest tourist attraction. A big cookie-cutter mart off the freeway could obscure this town of eight thousand’s special appeal, she says.”
   
   Write a paragraph explaining why some people oppose Wal-Mart due to the loss of “small-town life” using information from both Norman and Johnston. (Hint: you probably want to present Norman as the claim and Johnston as the specific example that helps support the claim). You can quote or paraphrase, but you shouldn’t quote both (writers should limit their quotations to one per paragraph if at all possible). Be sure to explain what the example shows or proves about the thesis – don’t assume that the reader sees the connections that you see.
   
   This true synthesis paragraph should be cited using MLA in-text citations.
   
   
4. You have the following information from page 53 of Johnston’s essay “Who’s Really the Villain?” quoting Wal-Mart’s President and CEO David Glass saying:
   “You read stories about how towns don’t want Wal-Mart, but in many cases that’s a very few people getting a lot of publicity. And I may have on my desk a petition signed by fifteen thousand people saying, ‘Please come, ignore the one hundred people who are trying to block the store’…Any community that didn’t want a Wal-Mart store – all they’ve got to do is not shop there. And I guarantee a store, even if it’s [just] built, won’t be there long.”
   
   You also have Bob Ortega’s essay, “Ban the Bargains” describing the types of people who typically oppose a Wal-Mart store.
   
   Write a paragraph explaining what type of people typically oppose the building of a new Wal-Mart store using Glass’ quote from Johnston and examples/information from Ortega’s article. Be sure to both USE and CITE both sources in your paragraph.
   
   This true synthesis paragraph/argument should be cited using APA in-text citations. Because the David Glass information is a quote inside Johnston’s article, you should use the phrase “as cited in Johnston” inside the parentheses, not just the name Johnston.
   
   
5. Take any two pieces of information from any two DIFFERENT sources that you plan to use for your research paper and write a synthesis paragraph/argument using both sources to argue a single point.
   
   The in-text citations for this paragraph/argument can be in either MLA or APA, as long as you choose only one and use it consistently. I do NOT need to see the Works Cited or References page for the sources, just the in-text citations, since you are only showing me the one paragraph/argument, not the whole essay.