For this assignment, you will select your own topic and find three related texts about it.
Your sources need to be from the following types of sources:
Academic Journals
Textbooks
- Books
- Newspapers
- Magazines
- Professional/trade publications (official newsletters or magazines for a specific field)
- Government documents
- Note: You are not limited to these specific sources! However, you are not permitted to use cable news sources such as CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC or blogs, personal or business-related.
Related Components:
Instructions
Use this handout to organize your draft: ENC 1102 Synthesis Notes Worksheet.docxDownload ENC 1102 Synthesis Notes Worksheet.docx
Here is a suggested organizational approach for your essay:
PARAGRAPH ONE (Introduction): Introduce your three articles and the specific topic of study from them.
You should begin by assuming that your audience has not necessarily read your three articles, so introduce each article fully, using the complete title and author's names and provide a brief content summary about the main concepts of each text. You don't need to identify any rhetorical elements here because your focus is on what the authors say rather than their rhetorical approach in writing each article.
In addition to your brief article overviews, you also want to clearly define the field(s) that these articles belong to (like psychology or exercise science), who might be interested in reading about or studying these texts, and why they are interested. You are presenting the basic rhetorical situation here -- subject/audience/purpose -- to demonstrate that these articles are in direct conversation with one another.
Finally, you should narrow your synthesis to one specific focus from the three texts. Be more specific than "youth voter turnout" or "social media." Identify a more specific aspect of these topics and present that narrowed topic here. This will serve as your thesis statement for your paper.
PARAGRAPH TWO: Present what your first article has to say about the specific topic you've chosen to focus on in this synthesis. You can choose which article to begin with!
What issues or questions, if any, does the article raise about the specific topic you've identified and how does the author address those issues or questions? Somewhere in the paragraph, present one KEY (i.e., important/vital/pivotal) quote from your first article to show what the author is saying about this topic.
You want to introduce the quote with the author's name and a strong active verb. Example: Smith argues, "quote" (2). Then, fully explain the quote; use at least as many words explaining the quote as the words in the quote. Remember to 1) set up your quote, 2) provide your quote and cite it, and 3) connect your quote back to your main point. Be careful not to just paraphrase the information instead of explaining the significance of your evidence!
PARAGRAPH THREE: Present your second article and explain how it relates to the first article.
You should see this paragraph as adding to the previous paragraph. This is the beginning of your synthesis skills (putting pieces together). Use transition words, especially words of comparison, to show how this second article relates to the first one.
Focus on how this article extends the understanding of the specific topic you are discussing in this paper. Somewhere in this paragraph, you will want to present one KEY quote from your second text to show what the second author adds to this conversation on this specific topic.
You should connect to the information outlined in paragraph two in this paragraph as well.
PARAGRAPH FOUR: Present your third article and how it relates to the first and second articles.
You should see this paragraph as adding to the previous paragraphs. This is the continuation of your synthesis skills (putting pieces together). Again, use transition words, especially words of comparison, to show how this third article relates to the first and second ones.
Continue to focus on how this article extends the understanding of the specific topic you are discussing in this paper. Somewhere in this paragraph, you will want to present one KEY quote from your third text to show what the third author adds to this conversation on this specific topic.
You should connect to the information outlined in paragraphs two and three in this paragraph as well.
PARAGRAPHS FIVE and SIX (Conclusion): This is where you will present the insights, or the "so what," regarding this synthesis.
You want to begin this paragraph with a few sentences showing the key findings from bringing your three articles together. That is, what has been learned by bringing these articles together in conversation? What do these three authors have to say about the specific focus of your paper? Do they agree or disagree with one another when it comes to this specific focus? Why or why not? In this paragraph, you are summing up your findings, so be concise and restate your main points.
Next, in your second conclusion paragraph, you want to move to the new concept that can be concluded due to the synthesis. What new research idea have you discovered in bringing your three articles together? Now that you have looked at your three texts for one specific topic, what is something new that can be gathered from these articles? Finally, present a direction for future research due to a "gap" in the understanding that you found. That is, when you bring your articles together, what is still unknown about your specific topic? Where can future research go? Why would this research be valuable to the field and audience you've identified in your introduction?
Note: The new concept you find out is what is NEW TO YOU! Don't worry about whether or not the idea is original -- if it's new to YOU, then it is new.