Main Topic : The mountains in Oregon, and the environment, animals, etc. I attac

Main Topic : The mountains in Oregon, and the environment, animals, etc.
I attached the secondary sources below
SYNTHESIS ESSAY PROMPT
For your synthesis essay, you will offer an ecological analysis of an environment/locale of
importance to you and propose an environmental ethics or sets of values, derived from secondary
readings, which you believe should guide human engagement with your chosen place as they
respond to environmental crisis or concerns.
While there are solutions or initiatives that can be taken up to protect and improve the
well-being of local/global ecosystems, vital to such solutions is the collective human will to achieve
them. Collective will can be activated through the values or ethical imperatives human
communities envision, cultivate and share. This then is the objective of this essay: to identify, in
collaboration with a synthesis of your secondary sources, a unique set of values and ethics you
believe could guide humans tending to your place of interest. This essay must be thesis driven and
should be 4-6 pages in MLA style/format. APPROACH AND STRUCTURE:
To do this well, you will want to compose a brief but compelling account of your personal
connection to your chosen place. Then you will offer an ecological sketch of your chosen place,
describing its natural systems and geological formations and what keeps them thriving and sound.
You will also want to describe how humans fit into this environment, how they engage with it or
depend on it. This dependence may be obvious at the local level and/or be at play within larger
regional or global climate concerns. Lastly, you’ll also offer some info/research on how your
chosen place has been affected, threatened or needs to be protected from climate change,
pollution or industrial practices. Describe what solutions have been proposed or should be.
Once you have identified the ecological concerns in your locale, you’ll turn to your
secondary sources to make the case for the environmental ethics or values that should be called
upon to shape human response to your locale and others like it. This means you’ll need to
understand and explain the position or thesis of the pieces you make use of, quoting key passages
and concepts and offering thoughtful analysis and interpretation. You will then creatively apply a
synthesis of the writers’ positions to your locale, describing why those values are needed and how
they can guide preservation, restoration or innovation.
*** You MAY want to do a little research on the writers’ background and work more broadly, but
it’s not required. This element of the research is for you to discern.
POINTS TO REMEMBER:
• A synthesis brings things together, faithfully analyzing what each component offers and
from that work the writer is able to offer a new and vital outlook of their own. It is a
collaborative endeavor with a creative end.
• This is essay has many components and I welcome your creativity in how you compose
and present those components but remember that this essay is relatively short and you
need to keep in mind balance, scale and purpose. Your description of your personal
connection to this place should be impactful but short, not more than a paragraph. Your
ecological sketch needs to be concise and focused. You don’t need in-depth research here,
but research that provides a solid overview of your place and its ecological make-up, threats
and possible solutions. There may be a couple things you focus in on and spend more time
describing but select those things which are most pertinent to the ethics and values you will
discuss.
• The bulk of your paper needs to be spent doing the work of synthesis, describing your
secondary pieces, the values they propose and how they can be applied to your locale and
the environmental issues at play.
• Keep in mind, like any academic essay, you’ll need a carefully composed introduction and
thesis that captures your main stance and idea. In your intro you’ll want to introduce your
locale with a creative hook and then offer a brief single-sentence synopsis of the
environmental concerns of that place. You’ll then introduce your secondary, give a brief
synopsis of their position and from there, state your thesis. You need all these elements,
but use them to forecast your paper as a captivating must-read! WHAT DOES AND DOESN’T NEED CITATION
You DONNOT need to cite any thing that is common knowledge, such as what kind of ecosystem
a place is or what kind of rock formation its sitting on. Details like this that can be googled and
don’t belong to any one scholar or researcher are yours to use.
You MUST cite any hard data, statistics or research findings from any study or research. Any
ideas, conclusions or solutions proposed by an organization or researcher should be cited. Also,
remember paraphrases of others work, and not just direct quotes, need a citation.
REQUIRED SOURCES:
You are your own experience of a place! While we understand that most academic essays require
objectivity, for this essay, your personal investment and care for the place you’ve selected will guide
your inquiry and ethical applications.
For your ecological sketch you will likely cite sources for hard data and statistics using in-text
citations. You may also quote or paraphrase the research or position of a significant data-driven
source, in which can you will likely want to introduce that source using signaling phrases such as
“According to NASA research scientist so-and-so… or According to the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)… Just bear in min, while this essay has a research component, it is not a research
paper. Limit your quotes and use sources in a streamlined, efficient way.
You must select two of the following secondary sources. Remember, this is a synthesis paper, so
your main objective is to consider how the views or ecological values two different writers propose
can be brought in dialogue to help discern and describe a set of ethical principles for how humans
should care for or engage the place you’ve described. Again, remember balance, scale and
purpose. You have 4 to 6 pages to do this task, so once you’ve given the sketch of your place, you
want to give due diligence to your analysis of each piece, your synthesis of how they are in
conversation with one another, and application of values to the ecological concerns of your place.