the perfect cocktail (C)

Before I begin this post I should probably preface that I do not drink...excessively (nah seriously I don't drink).

Despite that, it's hard to think of any better analogy for the synthesis unit than the act of creating the perfect mix of the array of documents given to you. One has to pick the right spirit or several spirits to be a sufficient base to be mixed with other ingredients like fruit juice, lemonade, or cream. The flavors have to speak to each other, working together to create the ideal beverage.

Luckily with this unit, I had a bit of a head start with our DBQ section in my APUSH exam. The premise was essentially the same: use the given documents to forward your stance on the prompt given to you. However while history tended to have an emphasis on the historical relevance of the documents given, AP Lang focused more on their implications. I was able to understand this quite quickly, scoring a 9 on the Mock Exam. I remember hearing Ms. McMahon jokingly say that she was "scared to teach me how to do a synthesis lest my score suffers". Although I was able to do well in this section, I always had the same panic response when seeing the amount of information I would have to sift through. 

AP Lang definitely helped me in getting used to these thick packets of information ranging from memorial ethics to the value of libraries. It can be intimidating to be faced with a torrent of information on a subject that had never even crossed your mind before. Our first technical synthesis was our "Defining Masculinity" prompt and here's an excerpt from that essay:

Hence, if this traditional idea of what makes a man doesn’t actually exist and is actually harming men, then what truly makes a man? Perhaps a good way to visualize this is to use the common Taoist symbol and principle, Yin and Yang. Yin is the feminine. It is the moon, the darkness and the passive. Yang is the masculine. It is the sun, the bright and the active. Once again, people misinterpret “the feminine” to mean “the female” and “the masculine” to mean “the male”. In reality if that was the true nature of things, then balance could not exist in one person. What we strive for as people is balance. Masculinity and femininity are simply parts of a person in which we all find our own equilibrium to thrive. No man exists who is purely yang in the same sense as no woman exists who is purely yin. To affirm this, recall what the cowboy represents in society and consider the words of Ehrlich who, in another part of her essay About Men, states, “If a rancher or a cowboy has been thought of as a “man’s man” - laconic, hard-drinking, inscrutable - there’s almost no place in which the balancing act between male and female, manliness and femininity, can be more natural, If he’s gruff, handsome, and physically fit on the outside, he’s androgynous at the core”. The strength used to herd cattle is the same as the strength used to nurture calves. In fact, the maternal role a cowboy assumes and the compassion he has for his animals is a large part of his role. However, all that is drawn by the media is the masculine side of the robustness they exude. This is a direct result of society’s assignment of masculine as strong and feminine as weak. Thus, men (and women) simply chase a mirage which only leaves them unsatisfied. As an oversimplification which takes no account on the intricacies of humans, the true nature of a cowboy contradicts these all of these ideas. The fact that this symbol of masculinity could also be seen as a symbol of femininity should be in no way a paradox. It is simply balance.

While this was well-written, that essay took me a whole day to myself to write. Perhaps the hardest thing to master when tackling a synthesis is time management. It is in your best interest to not focus so much on the information that the documents give, but rather what common themes they portray. After all, the documents can speak for themselves.

So grab your ingredients and pour a drink.