English Composition Synthesizing Sources

Synthesizing Sources ● Synthesis is a piece of writing that integrates a combination of information from various sources. ● Synthesizing sources deals with choosing the correct and most helpful pieces of evidence and fusing them into your argument. ● It’s important to be able to know which sources to choose when having to support a claim When coming up with which sources to use… ● Use sources that directly support, expand on, reflect on, defend, or explain, your argument ● Avoid pulling from sources that simply reexplain a topic; rather, choosing a source that explains a statistic, a fact, or a study would help with providing specific information instead of explaining an idea that could be done without using those sources Synthesizing Sources (continued) Writing a Synthesis ● When synthesizing source material, try to discover connections among topics, such as themes, within the different material ○ This may not always be clear cut! ○ The theme may be underlying, so think more broadly and generally instead of looking for a specific common characteristic, as that being the shared factor is uncommon. ○ Here are some questions you should ask yourself when writing a synthesis and trying to discover connections between source materials, relationships between variables, processes or ideas involved in the text, etc: ■ How are these materials similar? ■ How are these materials different? ■ What stances do these source materials take on issue x? ■ What observations can I draw from these materials? ■ What are the styles and tones of the passages in these sources? ■ What key words or phrases do these sources identify, define, and reflect on? ■ How do the sources organize and structure their main idea(s)? ● The topic of the main idea as well as finding the main idea is discussed later in this guide! ■ What is the theme of this text? ● Ask yourself this question for every piece of text you may come across. Then, at the end, it will be easier to identify a common theme. ■ What details do these sources provide? ■ What does the author want me to understand from each material? Synthesizing Sources (continued) Developing Your Points: ● This process takes quite a bit of time because it enables you to analyze the source materials, identify connections between them, and represent those connections in points or claims ○ Use your sources as support in this process! Keep track of repeated ideas, words, phrases, or sentences. ● Be fair and avoid bias ● Document and properly cite sources ○ Failure to doing this is plagiarism Two Types of Synthesis ● The two primary types of synthesis are the explanatory synthesis and the argumentative synthesis. ● The boundaries regarding the definition of each synthesis is not always clear-cut, meaning there’s considerable room for overlap. ● This depends on the purpose of your analysis, however, and your synthesis may choose to incorporate one or both of the synthesis types. Let’s look into what these synthesis types are: ● Explanatory Synthesis - - Identifies, defines, and explains concepts to enable readers to.. - Clearly see connections between ideas - Understand and reflect on ideas This synthesis type is mainly used to inform and mostly provides facts and establishes relationships throughout a text - Focuses more on presenting facts and figures and establishing credibility and understanding between reader and writer as opposed to persuading - Writers are able to help their readers better understand a topic by dividing a subject into its parts to make presentation and delivery effective - Explains similarities and differences between similar texts - Does not express bias, personal views, and/or judgement - Emphasizes delivery and audience’s understanding - This is ensured through explanations of objects, places, events, ideas, phenomenon, processes, etc. Two Types of Synthesis (continued) ● Argumentative Synthesis - Persuades readers to accept and view an issue from a certain perspective - Allows for writers to present their own point of view - - These claims are presented in an organized and logical way May convince readers to take a position on a highly debated, controversial topic - Often appeals to logos to support claims - Although this synthesis type is centered on presentation of writers’ individual perspectives on an issue, proper justification is necessary - Thesis is debatable - If writers are working with the same source materials, this synthesis type allows for more creativity in terms of the direction of research and writing - Theses could support or oppose each other