Unit 5

Tutorial 3
Synthesis
Learning objectives
• Produce written reflective and evaluative texts by analysing ideas, evaluating alternative views, making
criterion-based judgments, and searching for well-informed answers to self-generated questions (writing)
• Resources and process written information to operate successfully at tertiary education setting (info
literacy)
• Demonstrate an awareness of academic conventions with spoken and written academic texts

At the end of this tutorial you will be able to:

• Synthesize information from a range of texts
• Write academic paragraphs using synthesized information

During this lesson

You will:
• Read a number of extracts from academic texts
• Write a response to an essay question using synthesized information as support
 Synthesis
Synthesis is process whereby you use the information from a range of written texts in order to
formulate a response to an academic question. It can be both written and spoken. The end product
is made from inferring relationships among essays, journals, articles and lectures. Instead of using
one source and paraphrasing it in your writing, you will use more than one, and interpret the
information in relation to your topic, creating something new. There are two main steps in synthesis:
Review
The first step requires you to describe, summarise and analyse key points in the literature. Do this
separately for each source. Respond to the source by noting what the author is saying. Do you
agree or disagree? Are there problems with the ideas? Can you make suggestions? By putting the
information into point form in your own words it will make it harder to plagiarise, as well as easier to
compare with other sources.
Synthesise
Use the notes you have made to compare and contrast, critically evaluate, interpret and draw
conclusions in order to reply to the question. Connect the sources by linking similarities and being
aware of differences. Does one support another? Does one add information to another? It is
important to discover relationships between sources, identifying major themes and concepts as well
as any gaps in information or disagreements. Look for links and analyse them in order to construct
a new thesis.
This will eventually explore what has been published, but more importantly your conclusions on
how the different sources have answered the essay question.
 Paragraph construction:
Main idea/topic sentence

Evidence This highlights what is important for your essay. Be aware of shared issues
among the articles.

Evidence

Analysis (synthesis) Describe how it is relevant.

Summary
  
Paragraph construction:

Do Avoid

Work out your own theory first. All of the research you use should Writing a series of summaries. This may well present the same idea multiple
support this. times. This should provide evidence for your work.

When writing, begin each paragraph with a clear topic sentence, and Overloading the reader with too many facts and opinions. It is your job to interpret
use facts, quotes and paraphrases to develop and support your main them.
ideas.

Clearly cite your sources in your writing, and explain why this is Do not begin a paragraph with facts or quotations. Start with your own topic
important. sentence and then move from the general to the specific by using material to
exemplify your thesis.
One way to create your synthesis is to read a range of articles, and make note of all those which
support the argument (thesis), and all those which oppose it. You can create a table like the one
below, or you can simply make notes in your book. Once you have done this preliminary
reading, you can begin to compile all the sources which agree with each other or add to the
work of another. It can also be helpful to correlate with those which do not agree, as these can
be used as counter-arguments. This then leads to constructing the synthesised paragraph.
 :_ Texting has a negative impact on teens’ grammar. Discuss.
Cite source Position Annotations

Source 1 For  

Against

Neutral

Source 2 For  

Against

Neutral

Source 3 For  

Against

Neutral
 Language

Argument Explanation Emphasis

Affirms Adds Alleges
Argues Reveals Warns
Confirms States Advises
Contends Mentions Admits
Denies Finds Complains
Disagrees Verifies Holds
Believes Predicts
Concedes Proposes
Insists Acknowledges
Rejects Speculates
Responds Suggests
Emphasises
Referencing

When you write down your ideas it is important to reference the material to clearly show
that it is the work of other people, thus avoiding plagiarism. In Foundation Studies this is
done in the APA 6th style, although different faculties use different styles.
Source 1: Kemp (2014) rejects the idea that texting necessarily leads to poor grammar
and spelling.
Source 2: Escano (2014) finds that common use of texting slang may not be harmful to
grammar.
These articles would also have to be listed in the bibliography.
After this lesson
Finish the synthesis for your first presentation point.
Prepare for your presentation consultation.

Review
 
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