The Paper Synthesis – 4 Steps to Scholarship
Here’s a step-by-step approach to writing one synthesis
1. How to begin the paragraph: provide a transition from the previous paragraph AND provide a clear context for the synthesis you are about to write. The context involves: you are focusing on a particular author [your key text] and adding meaning to his/her arguments by comparing/relating them to other writers’ arguments. It’s that simple.
a. What specific argument/concept are you going to explore in this synthesis? [The more specific you are the better]. No matter which author you begin with, provide a quote sandwich that gives your reader enough clarity on the context and argument/concept you are going to explore; this depends on the focus of the article you have found to synthesize with your author:
Ungar topics: STEM vs Liberal Arts; his seven “misperceptions” are different research angles/topics.
b. Since you are going to connect this quote sandwich to another source [your key text or the other source, depending-on how you structure this synthesis] start to connect in the commentary of this first quote – the emphasis is on connecting your sources to establish an insightful synthesis: you are finding more meaning by seeing an author’s argument “in light” of another author. That’s the entire point of this. Find meaning between the two. These authors can be difficult, but other readings can help us understand the arguments more clearly. The quotes should relate: BUT YOU CAN ENHANCE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR COMMENTARY – this is the sign of high-level academic reading and writing. You can and should enhance the connection – this is your argument.
2. Based on that first quote sandwich, apply the other author’s text – his or her insight on this particular argument/concept [be specific!]. This should be another quote sandwich. The reason for this repeated use of quote sandwiches revolves around you providing BOTH specific textual evidence and commentary that conveys to the reader your focus, clarity and authority in this scholarly exercise. You need evidence, obviously. But you also need voice, an ethos of determination to provide the reader with an informed and interesting discussion of these texts. You are, in effect, having a formal conversation with the reader. You have to communicate clearly.
3. The SECOND HALF OF A SYNTHESIS: Depending on your “outline” or approach to this particular synthesis, I suspect you are either going to continue to build upon this first connection [see #1 and #2] OR indicate that there is another [related but perhaps different] connection between the two authors [DIFFERENT TOPIC: see above]. This SECOND HALF or NEXT LEVEL of the synthesis often determines the quality of your analysis. An “A” paper will provide this next-level of connection in a clear and logical way that enables the reader to easily follow and arrive at this added clarity with the writer [this is certainly where the writing – grammar and syntax – come into play: you are educating your reader, so do not lose him or her].
a. The second half of the synthesis may be two more quote sandwiches, or the use of the two texts could become more creative or unique to the point[s] you are trying to make.
4. In the end, do not forget your argument in this synthesis: The Connecting Verb [illustrate, clarify, extend, complicate] [YOUR COMMENTARY IS CRITICAL]. You are showing your reader how these authors relate, specifically how the research [other text] adds to the meaning of your key text. Clarify your connections and conclude your synthesis in a clean, clear fashion that wraps-up this little scholarly synthesis of two texts.
