Synthesis involves putting sources into conversation with one another in order to recognize various perspectives on a topic and understand it more deeply. In academic writing, this understanding of the “conversation” becomes the content of the synthesis paper. When you synthesize, you are a leader of a discussion that you have initiated. You are introducing the voices and ideas of others, so you should be flexible and fair to your sources. You should avoid personal attack as well as other logical fallacies in your comments on the information borrowed from your source materials.

In writing a synthesis essay, you are essentially staging a conversation. It can be helpful to think of yourself as a late-night talk show host. You are in charge of choosing your sources, putting them in order, introducing the sources to the reader, and drawing out the most poignant quotes and information from each of your sources—but your voice is always the guiding voice throughout the essay. You are the host. It’s your show.

Thinking of yourself as the host of a talk show can also help you choose the best structure for your synthesis essay.

Will you be the talk show host who introduces guests to the audience one by one, dialoguing with guests one at a time? Or will you be the talk show host who introduces guests to the audience but then introduces them each other, engaging multiple guests in dialogue and positioning your guests so that they talk to each other?

Figures 1-2: How will you interact with your sources? Are you a Jimmy or a James?

Conversations That Move Back and Forth: The Comparison/Contrast Structure

An organizational schema that works well, especially when sources are divided, is the Comparison/Contrast structure. The authors of “Writing a Synthesis Essay” characterize the Comparison/Contrast synthesis essay as having the following components:

• Summaries of each source, showing their similarities and differences
• Movement from point-to-point, back and forth between items being compared
• Blocks of discussion topics, in which one item is discussed before moving on to the next

In this case, when thinking about how to structure your Synthesis Essay, you might imagine yourself as a debate moderator, the host of a roundtable discussion, or the emcee at a dinner event introducing the guests and speakers and guiding the conversation at the table. In all of these examples, the conversation moves back and forth.

Figures 3-8: What conversation format do you prefer—discussion, debate, dialogue, or … dinner?

Sequential Order: Problem-Solution, Climactic, Chronological

Another option is to structure your Synthesis Essay so that your sources appear in sequential order, organizing your sources as though they were participants in a parade with you hosting the broadcast, introducing each participant, and providing the commentary.

Figures 9-11: Everyone loves a parade!

There are two organizational schemas identified by the authors of “Writing a Synthesis Essay” that naturally lend themselves to a sequential structure. The first is the Problem/Solution structure in which you explain the problem in the introduction and then review solutions as the essay progresses. Another is the Climactic structure in which you proceed through your sources based on the quality of argument and persuasive appeal of each source, concluding with your strongest sources.

A third sequential organizational strategy, the Chronological structure, may also work well if your sources are not in dialogue with each other because they were not published at the same time or because they address different subtleties of your topic. For instance, you may be writing a Synthesis Essay in which you argue for music’s positive healing effect on the mind with sources from 1984, 1992, 2004, and 2020. One of those sources may be an early argument for music’s mental health benefits and provide a sense of the mindset when the field of music therapy was newly emerging, another source may present an overview of the many mental benefits of music, another may argue for the mental health benefits for those who have dementia, another may look at the mental health benefits of music for stressed college students, and yet another may be about the positive effects of music on children’s brain development. In this case, the sources amplify or add to the conversation rather than attempting to counter the argument, so organizing the sources sequentially may make the most sense.

Choosing the best structure for your Synthesis Essay will depend on your topic, your argument, your sources, and even—to a certain extent—your personality as the host of the conversation.

Additional Structural Suggestions

Make sure that your parade starts strong with a solid introductory paragraph. Your introduction should contain a concise statement that sums up the focus of your synthesis. Be sure to provide any necessary contextual information about the general topic of the paper. Introduce your sources, providing the full name of the author. Sometimes you may also want to provide pertinent background information about the authors and the titles of the texts.

The body of your essay should be organized according to the components of your argument. Be sure that each paragraph begins with a sentence that informs readers of the topic of the paragraph. Each paragraph should include information from more than one source, and you should clearly indicate which material comes from which source by using narrative in-text citations, signal phrases, and in-text parenthetical citations.

Continue Reading: 17.4 Using Sources in Synthesis