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Synthesizing Information
For more detailed instructions, see
the Getting Started presentation.
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Synthesizing information
Where can information on a specific topic be obtained?
Fiction and Non-Fiction Books
Internet
Newspapers
Television
Radio
Magazines
Journals.
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When you are reading (or listening) to information it is
important to bear in where the information comes from.
Even if the writing is informative, writers may vary in what
their interpretation of the ‘facts’ are. As a reader it is your
job to read, evaluate and synthesize information in
order to formulate a coherent and accurate account as
you see it. This account may be written or spoken.
READ EVALUATE SYNTHESIZE
Synthesizing information
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Have you ever made anything from different
materials Blue Peter style?
If you have, then you may not find synthesizing
information into a coherent piece of writing too difficult.
It’s all about mixing up your information to create
something new, personal but understandable for readers.
Creating something new
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Look at the map below – could you find your way from
the school to the shop? Write down the directions for
someone who hasn’t access to a map.
School
Shop
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Post Office
Cinema
Written instructions
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What do you already know about New York City?
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Sharing information
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History
Giovanni de Verrazano may have been the first European
to explore the region, and Henry Hudson visited it, but
Dutch settlements truly began the city. In 1624 the town of
New Amsterdam was established on lower Manhattan;
Peter Minuit supposedly bought the island from its Native
American inhabitants for about $24 worth of trinkets. In
1664 the English seized the colony and renamed it; during
the American Revolution they held it from 1776 to 1781.
New York was briefly (1789-90) the U.S. capital and was
state capital until 1797.
Encyclopaedia
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Orientation
New York City consists of five ‘boroughs’ entities that came
together in 1898 to form ‘Greater New York City.’ A series
of island make up the city’s 309-sq-mile land mass.
Manhattan and Staten Island stand alone; Queens and
Brooklyn comprise the western end of Long Island. Only
the Bronx is connected to US mainland.
Served by three major airports, two train terminals and a
massive bus depot, New York City is the most important
transportation hub in the northeast.
Travel guide
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Spend
In New York, as in London, keeping up with the style
dictators is a much more ambiguous gig than it is
elsewhere. Must-visit shops spring up on a weekly basis,
generating instantaneous buzz. Whatever you’re looking for
– a perfect corduroy mini, a hand-cast ceramic sake set, or
bootleg DJ session compilations – you’ll find, provided you
know where to look.
Magazine article
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I live in New York and I was thinking about the lagoon in
Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was
wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and
if it was, where did the ducks go.
Fiction writing offers more quirky and often abstract
information about people and places.
Novel
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Alfieri:
I only cam here when I was twenty-five. In those days, Al
Capone… was learning his trade on these pavements, and
Frankie Yale himself was cut precisely in half by a machine
gun on the corner of union street, two blocks away. Oh
there were many man here who were justly shot by unjust
men. Justice is important here. This is the slum that faces
the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge. This is the
gullet of New York swallowing the tonnage of the world. And
now we are quite civilized, quite American. Now we settle
for half and I like it better. I no longer keep a pistol in my
filing cabinet.
Play
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www.timeoutny.com/cityguide/
Different websites offer different information. The
Time Out site is useful because it provides
regularly updated news on the city.
Under normal circumstances, New York City is easy to
navigate. However, in light of the terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Centre and long-term bridge and
tunnel reconstruction, subway services in lower
Manhattan changes frequently and with short notice,
which, in turn effects the entire system…
Internet
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Try these websites to find out more about the city.
www.nytimes.com
www.nyctourist.com
Have you ever seen a film or television programme
set in New York?
Watch a few to find out even more about NYC!
Manhattan by Woody Allen is particularly famous.
More sources of information
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Now that you have read a little about NYC and
completed some of your own research, it is time to
collate this information you have gathered and transfer
it into a Guide to New York.
The Guide must give a fair amount of information but try to
be entertaining too and add pictures if you can.
Don’t forget to:
use your own words
write in standard English
try to group specific types of information together e.g.
‘Shopping’ could be one section, ‘Getting Around’ another
be concise and selective – only select and use information
which is useful to the reader – not everything you’ve
discovered!
Synthesizing information