We studied and critiqued a sample student synthesis essay from the text .Matthew did well in recognizing the essay's thesis and in commenting on how the evidence adduced did not support the thesis. We examined the weakness of the evidence as well as the writer's tendency to simply reiterate the thesis of the sources rather than building a new argument from the sources. Next,I discussed the meaning and role of denotation and connotation in writing an argument. We studied an essay in the text to identify the writer's use of connotation.