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Meah Gall
Lucia Elden
ENG 111
3 December 2015
The Struggle of Synthesis
In my work as an artist I use synthesis on a daily basis. I collaborate ideas from other
artists, taking pieces of different concepts and my own ideas together to create something that is
unique. I synthesize materials of different mediums (photographs, paint, clay, charcoal, and
fabrics) into each project. Writing is a very different story. I find it difficult to express myself
through the ideas of others. Transforming my more creative in the clouds mentality into
something academic is a challenge. High school students enrolled in dual enrollment courses,
such as myself, go from one set of expectations to another. A place where my daydreamer
attitude is not a hard to change into something of value, as opposed to the difficult transition of
the idea of synthesis writing. During high school English courses the expectation is to write
research, argumentative, and persuasive papers. High school curriculum focuses on the ability to
research a topic, find reliable sources, and have something to say about the topic. The idea of
problematizing, and comparing and contrasting, is a new concept. Reading academic essays
written by highly regarded authors and tying the ideas together create synthesis, can be
especially problematic to students who lack experience with academic writing and reading.
When it comes to trying to develop those skills, there are time constraints such as part-time jobs,
sports, clubs, and other extracurricular activities can create a barrier, time that should be spent
reading, analyzing, and writing academically is lost to work, sleep, spending time with family, or
all of the above. Students who have a strong sense of who they are may have strong voices that

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are difficult to either bring into or take out of academic writing. By putting in the time and effort,
no matter how challenging it may be is beneficial. Using a strong voice is important in getting
the message that they as students are trying to send.
Students who lack experience problematizing may resonate with professor of adult
education at Columbia University, and author of Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice
Jack Mezirow, when he states that we have a strong tendency to reject ideas that fail to fit our
preconceptions, labeling those ideas as unworthy of consideration--aberrations, nonsense,
irrelevant, weird, or mistaken (268). Mezirow refers to this as a frame of reference. Some
students may find the idea of moving away from this frame difficult, especially as high school
students involved in dual enrollment courses. Adult learners have a different frame, the goal of
learning is generally the same although Mezirow says that adult learners themselves view
learning to think as autonomous, responsible persons as an important educational objective
(271), while adolescent learners such as high school students may learn to think hypothetically,
and become critically reflective of what they read, see, and hear (271). This is what Mezirow
refers to as a foundation however in adult education: such as colleges
[Colleges] build on this foundation in order to assist the learner to understand new subject
content, but, in the process of doing so, to become more aware and critical in assessing
assumptions--both of those of others and those governing ones own beliefs, values,
judgments, and feelings (272).
During the time of adolescent learning the foundation is not fully complete, so building on
can be a difficulty for students still working on the foundation. To become an adult learner
time has to be spent reading and reflecting back on the articles students have read. The time it

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takes to build onto the foundation can be immense. Synthesis takes time, and time is not
always plentiful.
Time constraints such as other homework, a full class load, jobs, professional portfolios
needed to graduate high school, portfolios needed for college admissions, college visits to find a
good fit, can hinder the amount of time that proper reflection and synthesis and require.
Mezirows idea of a frame of reference comes back into play here. There is only so much that a
person can do when they have one frame of reference, in order to gain different outlooks
Mezirow says that the way people transformations in frames of reference take place through
critical reflection and transformation of a habit of mind or they may result from an accretion of
transformations in points of view (270). When a person is trying to change who they are and
how they think can take years, and even then it is possible to fall back into old ways or habits of
mind as Mezirow calls it. While it is possible to move forward it is easier to stay behind, Which
is what a young mother named Lucia could have done in Politics of Remediation written by
Mike Rose, he says this:
I began to think about how many pieces had to fall into place each day in order for her to
be a student: the baby couldnt wake up sick, no colic or rashes, the cousin or a neighbor
had to be available to watch him, the three buses she took from East L.A. had to be on
time-no accidents or breakdowns or strikes- for travel alone took up almost three hours of
her school day (16).
For Lucia it would have been much easier to stay in her dead end job and not go to school, it
would be easier to give up and stay home with her baby, but she chooses to stay in school and
move forward. While this exact situation is not the case for most high school dual enrolled
students, there are many factors that go into being a full time student. It is possible for students to

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have jobs outside of school that take up their evenings when most students do their homework.
This forms a barrier that other students may not have. Social activist, and author of Fences of
Enclosure, Windows of Possibility Naomi Klein describes fences that may not be seen. She
claims a virtual fence goes up around schools in Zambia when an education user fee is
introduced on the advice of World Bank, putting classes out of reach for millions of people
(454). Barriers such as these can be a challenge to move past, extracurricular activities help
create these type of barriers and cause stress in a students daily life. High school students have
been taught that extracurriculars help shape them into a well rounded student. While the idea of
extracurriculars is wonderful, the execution of spending the time doing both extracurriculars and
having a full class load creates a barrier between personal life and school life. Wrestling with the
ideas of time and experience, there is the idea that there is already a frame of reference that
comes into the classroom with the student, who might have some strong opinions of their own.
For strong minded students, who learned at home that the best way to be is true to
themselves, it can be a major challenge not to lose their own voices in the midst of using other
sources. In academic writing sources are a requirement, but there still needs to be room for
personal voice, In Barry Alfords article Freirean Voices, Student Choices Alford says anyone
who has been at it for long has read more than a fair share of sterile essays that presume to
compare, contrast, or provide a pro-con analysis and are linked only by their singular lack of
creative or critical thought. This can be a problem for a lot of students, perhaps they are afraid
to take a risk in their creative mindset, writing what they believe the instructor wants to read.
Which is where Marita found herself while speaking to Mike Rose, Rose tells us that Marita
grew up cautious and reticent (2) when she should have asked questions and spoke with her
instructor about her confusion on her assignment, she instead found herself [at] the little library

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by her house [looking] in the encyclopedia (2). Then found out later that she should not have
incorporated stretches of old encyclopedia prose in her paper and had quoted only some of it
while the rest her paper it was unsure if she had lifted directly or paraphrased the rest, but it was
formal and dated and sprinkled with high cultural references (3). On the opposite side of the
spectrum students who have a strong voice may find it hard to bring other authors into their
papers and force the author to say what the student wants them to say. Alford later says that
generative topics come from the students experiences and are in their own words, as
general and emotional as they can be. Topical themes move the subject matter into the
public domain, using news accounts and a more public style. Academic themes move the
topic toward some standard of critical analysis (280).
Humans in general spend the most time speaking and writing to each other in an informal way,
what Alford calls generative, it is easiest to relate to generative topics, on the other hand
academic themes are less used on a daily basis. The knowledge of using academic themes
sits beautifully on the shelf untouched, until it must be taken down and dusted off. The idea that
Alford has is that student voices should have public, unscripted involvement with other
students, the instructor, and texts before we ask them to go behind closed doors and grapple with
the solitary process of writing about it (280). Is an important concept. The idea is to connect
sources and quotes together to bring across the line of thinking of the original authors. Voicing
those ideas out loud with a group can help students to move into a mindset of what Alford voices
as [the] gesture at the heart of David Bartholomaes (1985) notion of students reinventing the
context of their discourse (280). Some students have a hard time letting their voice be heard, if
the student believes they even have a voice. Alford makes a move towards this idea by stating
[that] students talking to each other plays an essential role in the way they develop ideas and

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create rhetorical strategies that they can hone and develop in their writing (280). Alfords goal is
to bring students ideas to the forefront of their minds so that they can better express their line of
thinking through writing. Mike Rose addresses this while speaking to a student named James he
I go to class. I read the book. I write the paper. Cant you see. Im not a C-. Dont tell me Im a
C- (20). What James did not see was that reading the book and writing the paper was not
enough. James needed to demonstrate that he could think for himself and not just regurgitate
information. On the other hand there are also students have so much voice that they do not want
to taint it with authors who do not fully understand what the student is trying to say. Perhaps if
the student spoke with the authors they would be in synthesis, but taking what is already written
and trying to create a synthetic idea. It is possible for students to feelings and ideas of their own
that arent meant to fit into a neat little box. Those are the right brained students, the ones that are
forced into a box but do not quite fit. These students break the box and that either frustrates or
excites teachers. This is an autonomous thinker, Mezirow states that thinking as an
autonomous and responsible agent is essential for full citizenship in democracy and for moral
decision making in situations of rapid change (270). The world we live in is a constant stream
of new information and constant changes in technology. Being autonomous is important if
there is to be any kind of advancement. In order to be an active member of society autonomy is a
must. Without autonomy society has many unthinking people who will go with the flow of
whatever the autonomous thinkers say, good or bad, because they do not know any better. In the
classroom the free-thinking, autonomous thinkers are either well liked by teachers for the
controversy of that students mind, or the disliked because the student doesnt quite fit the mold
the teacher is trying to create. Students who are not natural leaders leave high school with the
exit outcome of a perfectly unthinking mind. Those who make it out alive go into college shining

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little stars who professors and instructors adore because they bring something new to the table
that the perfectly boxed and wrapped students do not: ideas.
Students and teachers have to have a dialogue. The idea of synthesis is a challenge,
though if both the teacher and the student are willing to work on it it is possible to overcome the
challenges and barriers between the students self and the students education. High school
students tend to enjoy the sound of their own voices, anyone who is willing to listen can get a
teenager to talk. Teenagers have talents stockpiled, these talents have to be developed,
development happens when there is a challenge that must be overcome. When any artist sat
down and began to paint a portrait for the first time, the canvas probably looked nothing like they
hoped it would. But through practice of the areas where the artist is had trouble, they are happy
to have the horrible first painting. It gave them a starting point and a challenge to overcome.
Challenges help students grow, growth happens when students take a talent and push through the
hard part. The challenge of synthesis is a challenge that brings you out on top when you get to
the other side. Autonomous thinkers can find a way to use their voices to be heard and use
synthesis. When time is scarce time must be made, to give a student the barrier that is just
difficult enough to move that it provides growth when they overcome it. A lack of experience is
the perfect reason to become familiar with a new way of thinking. The only way to move
forward in life is through challenges, and just like how rules are meant to be broken, challenges
are meant to be overcame.

Works Cited
Alford, Barry. "Freirean Voices, Student Choices." Exploring Relationships: Globalization and
Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 279-80. Print.

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Klein, Naomi. "Fences of Enclosure, Windows of Possibility." Exploring Relationships:
Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 454-58. Print.
Mezirow, Jack. "Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice." Exploring Relationships:
Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 268-74. Print.
Rose, Mike. "The Politics of Remediation." Conversations in Context: Identity, Knowledge, and
College Writing. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College, 1998. 32-48. Print.