Synthesis Activity

Rank these paragraphs.

2.     Discuss the reasons for the way you rank them. While analyzing, look at how synthesis is done at both paragraph and sentence levels.

3. Post your ranking and reasons as a comment to this post. 

a.     Much of the literature agrees that capital punishment is not a crime deterrent. According to Judy Pennington in an interview with Helen Prejean, crime rates in New Orleans went up in the eight weeks following executions. Jimmy Dunne notes that crime rates often go up in the first two or three months following an execution. “Death and the American” argues that America’s crime rate as a whole has increased drastically since the re-instatement of the death penalty in the 1960s. This article notes that 700 crimes are committed for every 100,000 Americans. Helen Prejean cites Ellis in her book to note that in 1980, 500,000 people were behind bars and in 1990 that figure rose to 1.1 million.

b.     The literature on capital punishment suggests that it fails as a deterrent in two key ways. First, much of the literature suggests that capital punishment does not lower the crime rate. Helen Prejean, in Deadman Walking, clearly notes that capital punishment does little to lower the crime rate. Prejean argues that the “evidence that executions do not deter crime is conclusive […] the U.S. murder rate is no higher in states that do not have the death penalty than those who do” (110). Prejean’s point is reiterated from a historical perspective in “Death and the American.” Here, the author notes that despite the social and economic upheavals that occurred from the 1930s to the 1960s, the crime rate barely changed (2). However, after the reinstatement of the death penalty in the 1960s, the author notes that “crime rates soared” (2). Steven Hawkins points out that law enforcement officials also agree that the death penalty has failed to stop crime. He explains that a 1995 Peter D. Hart Research Associates survey found that police chiefs believe the death penalty to be “the least effective way of reducing crime” (1).

c.     One of the prominent issues that has surfaced is the idea of Emergency Contraceptives, especially when it comes to females that are the unfortunate victims of rape. Often times when women are admitted into the Emergency Room in a Catholic hospital they are left with a physician that is allowed to personally interpret whether they should be allowed to have a form of Emergency Contraceptive. The research study presented in Second Chance Denied states that, “Only 5% of the emergency rooms provide EC on request. An additional 23% of Catholic Emergency Rooms provide EC to rape victims only” and continues to say, “with good luck, a woman who had been raped might be seen by an attending physician who would provide EC, but there were no guarantees.” (Page 5) How do they get to decide who is deserving of appropriate medical treatment, and why is the fate of the woman left for them to decide? These are some of the same questions that researchers were asking in their study since “(our) Nations medical authorities have established EC as a standard and appropriate medical care.” (Second Chance Denied, Page 8).

d.     Walter Pauk, director of a center for student study skills at Cornell University, believes that the ability to concentrate is an invaluable asset to the college students.  Pauk states that “will power alone can't induce concentration.  Students may be breaking concentration whenever they remind themselves that they must use will power to concentrate.”  Noted philosopher and psychologist William James also talks about concentration when he advocates continued concentration in the face of mental fatigue. "The fatigue gets worse up to a certain critical point, when gradually or suddenly it passes away, and we are fresher than before.  We have evidently tapped a new level of energy."