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the combination of ideas to form a theory or system.“the synthesis of intellect and emotion in his work”
Your high school English teacher might have already started to teach you the process and skills needed to synthesize sources. You might have been taught to incorporate research into your paragraphs through citations and signal phrases. If you were very lucky, your teacher might have required you to use multiple pieces of evidence to support each point. Your teacher might have started to instruct you in the skill of synthesis.
Synthesis is the process of combining multiple ideas to form a single system of thought. Synthesis is one of the trickiest aspects of research to learn, but it is essential to college-level research.
If you haven’t done much with research before this class, don’t worry. We’re going to cover the skills and information you need to be successful in your future courses.
Synthesis is essential to college-level research-based writing. When we synthesize, we find connections between authors and sources. Synthesis requires more than simply summarizing one source or another. It requires more than simply listing two different sources and what they say. Instead, true synthesis creates something completely new from the combination of sources.
When we synthesize, we are demonstrating how sources speak to one another–how they are related. This means we have to do more than just drop sources into our essay. To achieve synthesis we have to clearly show our reader where sources agree and where they disagree.
Requirements for Synthesis
- Understand each argument or source individually
- Describe each argument or sources
- Make comparisons and connections between arguments or sources
- Explain what these connections mean and what they signify
Step 1: Understand each argument or source individually.
Before you can begin bringing any sources together, you must be sure that you understand each individual source in its entirety.
Synthesis cannot happen if you are only pulling a quote here or there that seems to go with your topic. In order to use a quote or reference in your own essay, you first need to understand what the source is saying as a whole.
Remember: research is a conversation. By quoting from a source, you’re using someone else’s words and ideas to join that conversation.
If you can’t understand the source or don’t feel like reading the whole thing, you shouldn’t use it because you may be misrepresenting the argument. Misrepresentation is a form of academic dishonesty.
Step 2. Describe each argument or source individually.
Once you understand the source as a whole, you need to describe it to your reader. Summarize the source’s main points and describe its audience, context, and purpose so that your reader can understand where the information is from.
Step 3: Make Comparisons and Connections Between Sources
It’s not enough to only list quotes from sources. You need to explain to your reader how these sources speak to one another. Think of it this way:
You and some friends had a conversation about a topic. When you are with another group of friends, you want to describe that earlier conversation. You would explain who said what and the ways that they agreed.
When you synthesize, you are doing more than listing. You are knitting different voices and different ideas together to make something new.
Step 4: Explain What the Connections Mean and Why They’re Important
You’re trying to describe an earlier conversation that other friends might have had. So what? Why does the new group of people need to know about that earlier conversation? Why is any of that important?
When you’re synthesizing sources, you not only describe the connections and points of comparison, but you need to explain why those connections matter to a new situation and a new audience.
Why Is Synthesis Important?
By synthesizing sources, rather than just dropping in a quote here or there, you do more to support your argument.
Synthesis shows that not only have you mastered the individual ideas the sources contain, but that you’ve also mastered higher-order thinking skills about those ideas.
Synthesis is where we move from “here is my report about the facts” (High school level) to “here is my argument about the topic” (college level).
For Further Reading:
