RESEARCH SYNTHESIS

RESEARCH SYNTHESIS Topic Writers such as Don Tapscott, in Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation (1998) have claimed that multitasking produces effective young learners. Does the material provided below endorse this claim? Your task in this assignment is to write a clear, methodical and coherent essay using research that has already been done. lt is not to conduct your own research, or to produce some “truth” independent of this research. As you plan and draft your essay you may use only the material provided below. You will be assessed on your ability to analyse and synthesise research, as well as the style and structure of your essay. The content of your essay will be assessed only to the extent that it fairly represents the information in the articles provided. Your two previous assignments concentrated on sentence and paragraph formation, the basics of essay structure and the demands of formal academic writing. Here you build on those skills to incorporate research material into a formal argument, as discussed in lectures and workshops. To begin, analyse the question and be certain you understand its terms. Then read the eight extracts below and decide how you will frame your answer. Your essay should draw from the material provided to address all aspects of the question, either by paraphrase, by summary, or by direct quotation. You will not have room to use all of the material - intelligent selectivity is part of the task. Before you begin to plan your essay, read all the source material thoroughly. Use a good dictionary or Google to look up words or ideas that you do not understand, not for further research, but for clarification. Only then select the points that will help your argument. You should use at least four sources, but may include more. You may not gather material from elsewhere. You will be marked down if you do. Should you express an opinion, make sure that it is supported by evidence from one or more of the sources. Tell your reader why you think as you do, based on the evidence. Do not rely on one or two sources. The task is to present a full and balanced overview of the material, not to cherry-pick. Think strategically about how you