November 12

All right, are you guys ready? Notebooks out. We're going to be taking some notes today. First off, let's talk about what a synthesis is. A synthesis is combining of separate elements to form a coherent whole. So it's kind of like putting puzzle pieces together to make an entire picture. Synthesis does not mean simply having two or more sources.

Having more than one source is an excellent first step, but real synthesis isn't happening unless a relationship between the sources is apparent. Today we're going to be talking about how to read a text really quickly. and start identifying what those patterns are. And I'm even going to give you some graphic organizers to kind of practice that. So a synthesis essay brings together your ideas with the ideas of other writers and your sources.

Again, you're making connections, you're making relationships. So I would say synthesis is finding connections and finding relationships between texts.

So, process of synthesis writing. So you're going to develop your own original ideas or thesis based on the sources. So basically, I just read the articles and summarize each one separately? No. literature review is not a summary a summary is a recap of the sources you are not doing a summary i don't even need you to tell me like what the texts were about a synthesis is an essay based on multiple sources

Again, it's that funnel idea where you're pouring in a whole bunch of information and you funnel out one idea, right? The relationship between them, how they connect. Okay, again, relationship. It's a relationship. You got to find the things that they have in common. So how to write a synthesis essay. Let's see, Avery, can you read for me at the top, nice and loud?

Considering views from the sources that show both sides of the issue. Keep going. The synthesis essay is similar to the argument question, but is more complex. The type of... thinking you are doing for a synthesis essay is often different from the argument essay whereas argument essays can often be more philosophical philosophical

Synthesis essays are usually about a particular topic or issue. You are often asked to evaluate factors and to consider the implications of decisions. A thinking step beyond the traditional defense. challenge or qualify or take a position task in an argument essay You are required to synthesize information from the sources into your argument either summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting directly from at least three sources.

remember that you that your sources won't make your point they provide supporting information perspectives viewpoints so that you can make your point great so big difference between the argument essay and the synthesis argument essay you'll get to have an opinion But in the synthesis, it's not. You're taking the information that you find, and you're finding that pattern, and then that's what you're focusing on, and it's something that you can prove.

It's a lot more. You can pull in your own personal ideas, your own personal opinions. You can pull in things you've seen on TV or other texts or personal anecdotes, but we're not doing that for the synthesis, okay? Big difference.

All right. Your synthesis will emerge as you complete the following steps. Let's see. Kenna, can you read the three steps, please? Make sure you carefully read the language of the prompt to see what your task or purpose is for this essay. Read and evaluate the sources. You will read what they say writers of the six to eight documents or sources on this issue.

in order to determine what you say on the issue. You will write an essay establishing your position and synthesizing information from at least three different sources to support your discussion. You should always include a discussion of the counter argument with the concession and rebuttal. All right, so real quickly, this is a slide I want you to take some notes on. You don't have to write everything down, but definitely some stuff about read the prompt.

what a resolution is, read and evaluate the sources. Two and three are really important. Especially three where it says you need to write at least three different sources. I would say that you should get it into your head that you need to use four. Use four of the sources. That's going to push your grade up on the AP exam. But three, at least three. And I'll tell you that not all of the...

The things that you're going to get are actually going to be text. Some of them are going to be like a paragraph. Some are going to be a story. Some are going to be a picture or even a graph. Okay. So that's one good thing. We're not going to have to read seven really long texts when we're doing this. Nope, not here. So take some notes on this one. I'll give you a couple minutes. Again, you don't have to write every single thing down.

But the capital letters, definitely important. Did you get them? I did. All right, we're on to the next slide. Read the prompt. So let's see. Ryan, can you read this one? What does the prompt tell you? Be careful to read the entire prompt. They are often more complex than you think and misreading the prompt is a common and dire mistake. Topic. What is the prompt above? What is the prompt about? What issue? Context.

What, if any, useful background information does it give you? Task and purpose. What does it ask you to do in your essay? Are you making a claim of fact? Identify or examine factors, outcomes, implications. A claim of value, evaluate, argue for, slash against, develop a position or an issue. Or a claim of policy, offer a recommendation, develop a position on whether or not something should be changed. No.

Claims of fact, value, and policy often build on each other. Especially with claims of value and policy, you most likely will have to make both in your argument. But it's important to recognize which type of claim the problem is asking you to focus on. Alright, for this one, for sure, write down topic, context, and here, write down claim of fact, claim of value, claim of policy, write those definitions down.

Is it going to help today when you're doing your assignment? If you can't see, please move up so you can see the board. Would it be better if I turned the light off? Yeah, do you want to grab the light for me, Adrian? Thank you. I'll give you just a couple minutes to work on this. So I think we kind of...

learned about this when we were reading one of the other prompts, I think the Cesar Chavez prompt, because it asked us very specifically. It gave us information about who the author was. It gave us some context about what was happening.

And it gives us the prompt. Always make sure you read the prompt because a lot of the times there is so much information in the prompt which really guides you in the direction of where you're supposed to be going. So it's super important that you read that prompt. And when I say read the prompt, I'm talking about the little directions at the top. I'm not talking necessarily about the entire piece. When you're done just put your pencil down so I know you're done

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and move on, but I'm going to make this all available, so if you need to go back and take some more notes, it'll be in the CWI synthesis section. It'll be one of the resources. All right, next part.

What is your position on the issue? So recognize the complexity. Many students receive lower scores on the synthesis essay because they overlook the complexity of the prompt and take a simple position. An essay that cites three sources supporting only one view will not score above a four. Why? Well because it's an important goal of research and synthesis is to recognize the complexity and show an awareness of multiple views.

This does not mean that you cannot take a definite stand on an issue. It does mean that you should establish ethos, your credibility as a writer by conceding to the other views. When you concede to another view, what's another word for that? A counter-argument. A careful consideration of information given in the prompt can move you beyond the trap of being superficially one-sided thinking. So that means it's really important that you acknowledge the other side. Cleaner? No, not right now.

It's really important that you acknowledge the other side of this viewpoint. and look at all sides that's going to score you higher so don't just pick a position and stick to that make sure you have a counter argument so i would write counter argument and put stars next to it okay and again how many resources does it say that you should use at least

Three. So how many should you use? Four. Factors. What factors should be evaluated before selecting the best position? Well, remember that in the synthesis, even if factors and evaluations are not directly mentioned, you are expected to consider them in your discussion of the issue. So consider your tentative position. Now that you've identified some of the complexities in your analysis of the prompt, formulate a tentative position on the issue.

your guess of what you might argue after reading the prompt, but before reading the resources, right? Whoa, just lost my PowerPoint. Here we go.

All right. So now we're at read the resources. All right. In the interest of time, you may need to scan the sources quickly to choose the ones which will be most useful to you. That's what we're going to practice today. It is important, however, that you understand the complete argument made in your selected sources so that you won't misrepresent. a source by taking the quotations out of context what does that mean taking it out of context yeah

Misconstrained something. So that's like using your punctuation to make it say what you want it to say. Don't do that. You've got to stick to exactly what they're saying. So number one, annotate is your read, making notes in the margin four. We've got one, two, three, four specific things. Haley, could you read those for us? Nice and loud.

Okay, stop there for a second. So what does that mean, that we should consider where it comes from if it's a magazine, journal, website, newspaper? Does this work imply a particular interest or position? Yeah, I could show some bias if it's from if we're talking about how farmers are not very good for the environment and we're looking at a pharmaceutical company.

What kind of interest do you think a pharmaceutical company would have in that? Farmers are bad for the environment. Stretching here. What do you guys think? What? It could be money, right? Or it could be, I know that was kind of a stretch. It could be maybe they're dumping something into the ground, right? The point is, make sure that you're understanding if there's a bias involved in the articles that you're reading. And again, read the context, the prompts at the top.

A lot of the times it'll give you some background information at the top of the prompt. Make sure you're looking at that. Okay, Haley, go on. where should you look for a major argument and claim in a piece near the introduction right should be right up near the top And if it's set up like a normal argument, like we're supposed to set everything up, we should be able to identify even our topic sentences, right?

First sentence in every paragraph. Check that out and see if it gives you some ideas of what the argument is. And then also, I would flip down to the conclusion because the conclusion does what? Restates what your argument is. So make sure that you're checking down there too. All right, Haley, next one. Evidence. Evidence. Underline relevant statistics, results, or examples. Good. And then quotes.

Illustrate the complexity of the topic and a question or contradict a claim made in a previous source. So make sure that you're looking for claims and counterclaims as you're going through this. All right, go on. Note. So don't draw your own conclusions when you have visuals. All right.

uh so just write down annotating make sure you're writing down look at source information look at arguments and claims make sure you're looking at the positions in the paper like where are those claims located evidence Statistics, numbers, results, examples, those are all really powerful. And quotes, you're looking for counterclaims and claims. Give me just a second to take some notes on that one.

Let's keep going. So number two, it says distinguish viewpoints and group sources together. Elizabeth, can you read for me, please? Some may even just add background to assert your ethos on the topic in the introduction. Once you choose which views will become joker points in the university's group's essay, you should then select the best evidence from the source group that supports the team. Okay, good. Right, so distinguished viewpoints and group sources together. You can just write that down.

Sean, are you taking notes? Yes. All right. Next one. So now we're to write the essay. First and most important thing is writing a thesis statement. Now that you have considered the sources, refer back to the tentative position that you wrote after analyzing your prompt. Do you have specific reasons to support the position that you took? Will you revise or add a qualification to this position? Or will you change to a completely different view? Always keep your purpose in mind. Write that down.

Thinking about what kind of claim the prompt is asking you to make. Below are three possible formats that you might use to write a thesis statement. I would like you to write these three things down. So it's positions, which makes a qualification. While some people say cats are amazing animals, and then you go into your position, actually dogs are most amazing because they're fluffy.

A position which takes a stand and offers supporting points. Clarification of my position because in order to so that. supporting reasons, and the position which argues the importance of considering certain factors, implications before making a particular decision. So right off the bat, which one sounds like probably the best one to take? Qualifications, supporting points, or certain factors and implications? Which one do you think would be the strongest thesis?

Yeah, probably the last one. Right, so write these templates down in your book. I'll give you a few minutes to write them down. Make sure you put your pencils down so I know you're done. Let me give you about one more minute.

So structuring your essay. While the AP exam does not have any prescribed form for his essay, here are some recommended ways to structure your synthesis essay. So obviously you've got your introduction. Possible strategies include using a relevant personal anecdote. I would stay away from that a little bit in this one. Addressing the counter argument and making a concession and rebuttal.

especially when it's not addressed in the body paragraph, or providing a claim about the significance of the issue or topic. So the importance of why you're even talking about this. Body paragraphs, this is like, wow, does this seem kind of familiar? Okay, body paragraphs. Your body paragraph structure will be determined by your purpose, by what kind of overall claim you're being asked to make in the essay prompt. So claim in fact. You may...

You may not have an entire paragraph or counter-argument here because you are simply presenting a holistic view of the most important factors, outcomes, or implications. In this case, it makes sense to include an argument for other possibilities or counter-argument. in the introduction or conclusion. Structure them by factors, outcomes, or implications. Be sure to also point out the relationships to each other that they may represent contrasting views. Then go into claim of value.

Structure your body paragraph by different supporting points for your argument, making sure to also include an entire paragraph that addresses the counterargument and includes a concession and a rebuttal. Then you go into claim of policy. structure body paragraphs by different supporting points for your argument making sure you also include an entire paragraph that addresses a counter argument and includes

a concession and a rebuttal. Then you've got your conclusion where you reiterate your significance of the topic issue, possibly looking into the future. So take a couple minutes. You might even want to just take a picture of the slide. Yeah Yeah Yeah, unless you do it up in the top in your introduction. Yep. And remember, you get extra points for making sure that you're talking about that counterargument. That's going to drive it up.

Drive your points up. And if there's any of these slides that you'd like me to actually print for you, just let me know and I'll print them out for you. Like this is a long slide. You don't have to write the whole thing down. Take a picture. I think this would be a really powerful one to take a picture of. This is the slide structuring your essay, number two. It's amazing.

Well, it said you can do it. You could do your concession and rebuttal up in their introduction, or you could be writing about it in every single one of the paragraphs. So here's the thing. I mean, this is a timed write. The crazy thing is they're not going to look at your spelling. They're not going to look at your punctuation. They're looking at the merit of your argument. They don't even look at how you do your citing. It's like source A, source B, source C because you don't have time.

Right? You've got three essays in two hours. That's what? How much is that? 40 minutes of an essay? That means you have to have all of your writing and everything done within 40 minutes. You've got to move. Your hands are going to hurt that day. Okay? So it's really important that you, I mean, they're basically going to grade your rough draft. If you think about it. Okay?

you gotta get moving on things all right next one uh so now we're going to be talking about reading the prompt So obviously failure to read the prompt will cost you seriously. If the prompt is asking to evaluate, then evaluate. If it's asking to evaluate both X and also evaluate Y, then you have to do both. So step two, how can I use you?

When you get a synthesis prompt, begin reading the sources, especially the little boxes at the top, the prompt, okay, the background, the context. Examine them for biases. For instance, the New York Times. skews things slightly left-wing and an upper middle class to wealthy East Coast readership, often college educated. That demographic absolutely informs their editorial biases.

their art of choice of article and their overall expectation of their audience's values so then ask how can i use you in other words read actively asking yourself how You can use a particular prompt to support or work against a particular side of an argument. So this one talks about make a T-chart and fill it in as you're working. You could do that right on the side of your essay at the top. Do you want me to give you a second or take some notes on this one? I think the questions are pretty...

be powerful. How can I use you? All right, next one. Step three, make a T-chart and fill it in. As you read, make a T-chart in which you label sources and briefly list the data that you will use, placing it on the side. of the chart or uh of the or the other uh for example using the 2014 prompt about whether college is worth it your t chart might look like this college is not worth it college is worth it source a

Better to fix things like freedom. B, well-rounded learning teaches. So that means you're just making, everybody knows the T-chart is, right? Like this. Like one. I think over here, one on this side. So for example, when we were talking about the American Dream things, what were some of the things that they listed that the American Dream is defined as? Like having equal education, freedom. What else? Hard work. Success. Or on the opposite side.

Some people say an American dream is unrealistic. It's a myth. It takes a lot of luck. It's unachievable, right? So we're making charts, right? And then what you do is you would, next to each one of those, you'd write... source A, source B, source C, which source kind of says that. And then if you have multiple sources saying the same thing, would that be kind of a strong argument? Yeah. Great.

T-charts. Step four, cluster and label. As you read, you'll notice certain sources are talking to each other. Maybe both are about college debt while another pair is about being mind-opening. value expanding virtues of higher education circle them maybe you'll also notice the source x is about overwhelming college debt

Well, Source Q says that the debt isn't actually that bad. Federal grants and scholarships, especially to people from lower-income families, can offset cost tuition for a substantial number of students. Circle them, too. indicating with a double slash that these two sources disagree. That's really powerful. Why is that really powerful to talk about sources that disagree with each other?

What are you supposed to be writing in that APSA? Counter arguments. So if you can quickly identify two sources that are totally against each other, that's going to help you build a counter argument, right? So double slashes for notes means they're opposites. So you'll notice that you have a number of clusters, two or three sources, which are all talking about the same basic subject or idea. Did you find that when you were reading the American Dream essay? Okay.

Maybe all three are about college debt and two think it's a horrible and one thinks it's not so bad. Label them. You can call them something like debt at the top, right? Step five. Realize now that you have an outline. You now have an outline. Let's say that you see a clump in which A and B agree with each other and C and D agree with each other, but not with A and B. Your paragraphs could be organized something like this.

Sorry, my formatting got a little screwed up, obviously. That's not very helpful, is it? Sorry. You can kind of see though that it's... saying, like, although source A says this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but nevertheless, this one says this instead. Right? It's just counterclaims and counterarguments.

Alright, so step six. Write your thesis and make it match your topics and evidence. When you're writing your thesis, your thesis should accurately predict major topic sentence that you're writing about and also evidence you're using. You should have keywords that match or are similar.

or are related across all three elements of your paragraph for instance if you have a source that states unicorns are made of chocolate chocolate rainbows, then the phrase chocolate rainbows or colorful yet also chocolatey arch of refracted light should appear in my topic sentence and also in my thesis. So your basic thesis statement will need to acknowledge both sides of the argument. What did I just say?

The pro as well as the con. When you do that, you'll be accomplishing the crucial task of the complexity that the AP graders are looking for. You also have to ensure that you are covering your bases. by having a sufficiently diverse group of sources to argue your point. Your basic thesis statement template should look something like this. Because reason, nevertheless, why. And then you've got your reasons.

So here's an example. Although many consider chocolate unicorns to be mythological because there is no evidence of their having existed, nevertheless chocolate unicorns do exist because Santa says so. Hot Topic has a poster of a chocolate unicorn in the poster display area. And finally, chocolate unicorns have appeared to people in their dreams. It's a pretty awesome thesis, huh? Does it make you hungry?

Note, in this particular timed right, it wants you to do your weakest point last. Why do you think, don't read this, why would it want you to do your weakest one last? In case you run out of time, okay? Whichever your reason is your weakest, put it last. This is purely strategic. If you run out of time, go back to your thesis, cross out the reason, and then write a conclusion.

You will not get penalized for crossing things out in your essay. Again, they are not looking at how beautiful it is and how your perfect grammar and perfect spelling. They don't care. It is the content of your argument. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Like a idea that you've taken out of the sources is different necessarily than. Exactly what they were looking for. I'm sorry, restate that question. Like if you pull out an argument that is different than what they're looking for. They're not going to be.

They're not going to judge you on what your argument is. It's whether or not you can prove your argument. Okay? So even if it's completely left-wing or right-wing, it doesn't matter. It's can you prove it. Is this what these articles are stating? That's the other thing, though. Make sure you're not writing an argument. Make sure that you're writing a synthesis. You're pulling out what these guys are saying. Okay? Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, we're going to flip it and do it this way. Because if you are writing, that's how we would normally write an essay. In English class, that's how we have taught you how to write an essay forever. But in your AP exam, you've got to have a little bit of strategy. It is 40 minutes, right? So we got to do it fast. We got to do it with the strongest one first. Yeah. Yep.

So another note, this thesis can certainly be criticized as being mechanical and formulaic, which it is. I totally agree. That said, having mechanical formula is also sometimes necessary in writing a non-formulatic piece. In short, it's the place to begin. You've got to get these texts read. You've got to have them noted out how you're going to separate them. And you've got to have a thesis. That's going to take the longest.

Once you get gone after the thesis, it's going to come pretty quickly. But this is going to take the majority of time. So what we're going to do right now is we're going to stop with the notes. We're stopping here. And this is what you're going to be doing today with a partner. So let me get you your partner. If your partner is not here today, you may partner with somebody else, but once your partner is back, they are your partner. All right.

So I have team to peer. I went through, I was bored. I went through and found like some really weird animal names. If you want to know what they are, you can go look them up. Jessica and Isaac. Team Okapi, Avery and Carlita. She's not here today, so you can join with somebody else today. Let's see. Team Tamarin, Paige and Sean. Team Lemur, Lauren and Sandra. I'm like, somebody grab it. Team Armadillo, McKenna and Courtney, which she's not here today.

Maybe you and Avery could meet up today. Team Wombat. Jet and Haley. Aren't these awesome names? I don't know how to say this one. Team Proboscis Monkey. Ryan and Destiny. It's a weird one, I know. Team Ocelot. We have Joanna and Adrian. She's not here today. So maybe wait and see who you can partner up with. Team Platypus. Curtis and Alizé. Team Mongoose.

is going to be Ryan and William, who your partner is going to be working with you. You can start working on your stuff, but I want you to work with him. Team Whale Shark. It's going to be Madison and Julian. And then I've got Team Sloth, which is Jonathan and Liliana. Everybody else is in a team? Did I skip you guys? How did I do that? Oh, you two are partners.

No, no, no. I have you guys all in groups. Oh, they're right here. I'm sorry. I missed one. Give me one second. No, not right now. Kaylee and Alina as Team Fennec. And I missed, who did I miss? Elizabeth. Oh, we must have an uneven number. Adrian, who's your partner? Joanna. Who? Joanna, do you want to just be with that group for now?

All right, I'm going to throw you Elizabeth because we have an uneven number. All right, everybody has a partner, right? Raise your hand if your partner is not here today. All right, you two can work together for now. No, because they're both missed all this. So I don't want them to be all of that by themselves. All right. Here is from, this is actually a prompt from.

I think 2011. So I'm going to give you guys copies of these. These are for you to write on. Write your name on the top, please. Yes, please. Thank you. And if I can get each. team to sit at a set of desks that would be fantastic so one team at a table or one team at a set of desks Yeah. And all right, and you guys have people that are gone today, so I'm going to give you an extra one. Can you just put these in your colors?

And Adrian, you guys are missing one tonight, right? So that one's your extra one from your partner. All right, open up your folders real quick. In your folder. a couple of graphic organizers. Okay, each of you should have one of these. It says... synthesis essay annotation worksheet see this right here two pages looks like this there should be one in there for each of you if you have three in your group i will give you an extra i gotta give you guys all extra

Yeah, put your names on the top please. Okay, here's one. Here's the next one for you guys. minute time you okay don't open your text yet grab your text you have your text in front of you all right first things first what I'm going to have you do don't fill out anything right now you're just gonna go through these texts so first things first you need to read the first page has the prompt on there okay

What I need you to do on the prompt is underline, highlight anything that tells you what you need to be looking for and what you're supposed to be writing about. Have your notes open so you can kind of go back and look at if this is factor or what this is. What I'm going to have you do after that is I'm going to have you go through these. And I would say on this front page is where you're going to do your T-chart. Okay, on the prompt, a T-chart. Really quickly.

first thing you're going to do is look through these and read the titles up here and the italics real quick look through every single one of them get familiar with your sources real fast okay then next you're going to go back and you're going to start looking at these again you're looking for the major claims of the argument you've got you're only going to have like 10 minutes to do all this okay

So what I need to do is I need you to look for where you know a claim would be in an argument, usually at the front, usually the first sentence of a paragraph. Look at your conclusions.

make some notes up here um what i would do is i would say if this is about unicorns i'd write unicorn is it for unicorns or against unicorns plus or negative is there anything else in there oh this one talks about chocolate and chocolate companies right chocolate companies is are they talking pro or con with those put that up here this is just a real quick reference so that we can come back and do our t chart we can kind of start making some patterns okay

All right, I'm going to give you 10 minutes to read and make your T-chart. That's it. I do not want you talking to your partner yet, okay? So your job is to go through here. Annotate these. Start that T-chart. If you have extra time, then go back and start reading these. Okay? So let me set a timer up on the board. Don't start yet. Back to everybody, flip it over so you don't start yet. Okay, on your mark. Y'all ready?

Wait for these guys in the back of your seats. Make sure they're flipped over. Don't flip over yet. You should see the words. Okay, you've got ten minutes. I'm going to set it up on the board so you can see it. again really quick tell me what are you supposed to have done yep so go through annotate guys don't be a psycho highlighter don't be a psycho underliner don't be a psycho note taker okay

You don't have time to go through and annotate like we go through and annotate things in the past. You don't have time. Remember, on the AV test, all of your tests, you have 15 minutes to really go through, and then you have to start writing. Okay, be quick. You guys ready? All right, on your mark, be set, go. Prompt first. Make sure you mark up that prompt. And use your notes. Make sure you watch some time.

down for a second how did that feel how many of you feel horrible after that okay how many of you feel super rushed okay so here's the thing if they're giving you about 15 minutes That's about how long you're going to have for this because you're going to have to spend at least five minutes on the rhetorical analysis piece, which was like the moments of being in the Cesar Chavez piece. Okay.

So that is literally what it's going to feel like. Okay? So we're going to do a few of these to kind of get you going. So, but what I'd like you to do now is I would like you and your partner, first off, talk about the things that you picked up in the different articles, like what you put on your T-chart, the notes that you made, the things that you underlined, the things that you circled.

And I want you to start talking about where you're going in this direction. And including that means go back to the prompt and make sure you're looking at the prompt. Doesn't the prompt say identify and examine? Right? Identify the key factors. The really great thing I was looking at this when I was back there is I looked at the first page, source A. Man, and it broke down every single factor in bold lettering, right? So I didn't even read that one. I skipped it.

And I went to the second and the third one and started reading those. And then I went back and I made little check marks next to the ones that they talked about. I think this B says how they talk about if it travels too far, it loses nutritional value. it doesn't taste as good so then i went back to the first one and i put source b next to it tastes better right anybody else do that okay so make sure that you're making those connections talk to your partner

What I need from you before you leave, and let's see, what time do transfer kids leave? Tonight? 53? Okay, before you leave today, I would really like you to try to have a thesis. I know the transfer kids have to leave early, but what I'd like if you don't have a thesis before you come to class and class just have a thesis. One sentence. That's not going to kill you. Have a thesis. Ready to go. Talk. Take notes, write down what your partner says. Thank you.