> Writing forces you I agree entirely with you except for the word "forces." Writing can cause synthesis. It should. It should be graded to encourage that...

> Writing forces you I agree entirely with you except for the word "forces." Writing can cause synthesis. It should. It should be graded to encourage that... ...but all of that is a whole lot of work for everyone involved: student and teacher alike. And that kind of synthesis is in no way unique to essays! All of the other mediums I mention can make synthesis more readily apparent then paragraphs of (often very low quality) prose. A clever meme lampooning the "mere merchant" status of the Medici family could demonstrate a level of understanding that would take paragraphs of prose to convey.