Synthesis Essay
By definition, writing a synthesis essay involves using several sources that the writer weaves together into a synthesis essay. Merely summarizing the information from a few sources is not the same thing as creating a synthesis. As the related word “synthetic” suggests, you are creating something different out of component parts that fuse to each other in ways that result in a new creation. Listing what two or three authors—perhaps, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L’Engle—say about being Christian writers of fantasy won’t result in a synthesis, but rather just a series of summaries or paraphrases. A real synthesis provides a new idea or application, perhaps a thesis that you propose and give evidence to support it. In other words, you use the information cited and interpreted by your sources to lead you to new concepts, applications, clarifications—to generate the meanings and the thesis that you want your audience to understand.
As the research paper instructions explained, writing a synthesis is analogous to an artist weaving a rug. The weaver begins with several skeins of yarn, having different textures and colors. The weaver envisions floral designs or geometric patterns and imagines how each color or texture will blend in with all the other yarns to create the finished carpet. This is like a student gathering information from many sources and determining the plan for his or her own synthesis. The weaver, mixing the colored yarns in intricate ways, sits at her loom to weave the rug. The main color dominants the design, as in synthesis writing a dominant idea controls and orders the subordinate material.
Assignment
Writing a Synthesis Essay
When writing a synthesis, remember that the key to success is the blending of sources around the thesis statement. It is true that the works you have examined on the topic contribute to your understanding and overall position you take in a paper, but essentially the assertion you make about the topic is the one that YOU have chosen. As noted earlier, a synthesis is not a string of summaries; however, many students incorrectly assume that following this first outline below will result in a synthesis. Please note that the following outline is NOT the correct form and should NOT be used as a model.
Introduction
Summary of First Reading
Summary of Second Reading
Summary of Third Reading
Conclusion
A proper outline for a synthesis contains at least three paragraphs that combine related information from several sources plus an introduction and conclusion. A general outline for a thesis would be the following.
Introduction (one paragraph)
Two or three sentences to attract readers and to ease into the topic
Titles and authors of works discussed
Thesis statement
First main point
Topic sentence
Supporting details from readings (Remember to include parenthetical citations.)
Analytical statement
Second main point
Topic sentence
Supporting details from readings (Remember to include parenthetical citations.)
Analytical statement
Third main point
Topic sentence
Supporting details from readings (Remember to include parenthetical citations.)
Analytical statement
Conclusion
Each of the main points would include a topic sentence that would elucidate your main point for each paragraph and also tie back into the thesis that you have stated in your introduction. Your conclusion then emphasizes your main point through a re-emphasis and restatement of your initial thesis, or a peroration (a final, heightened appeal for support), or some other kind of application (pointing toward the future, a call for awareness).
A writer must be careful in working with sources, however, because there can unethical ways of synthesizing material. Synthesizing may be misused when the ideas of texts or other sources are presented in a biased way. This may be done by over-emphasizing or under-representing one point or attitude in the original text. A writer must be careful to present the source material fairly and accurately. If a work is devoted to the raising of orchids but has one small section on tiger lilies, it is inappropriate to represent it as being “a book on lilies.” An extreme form of this overemphasis may so distort the meaning of the original as to constitute unethical interpretation, as may be seen in some movie advertisements. A critic says, “This picture continues Woody Allen’s increasingly sad attempts to create a string of comic masterpieces.” Wanting some good copy of the newspaper advertisement, an unscrupulous writer may leave out some important words: “This picture continues Woody Allen’s… string of comic masterpieces.” The three spaced dots, signifying the ellipsis, technically save the writer from telling a lie, but because the sense of the original statement is completely inverted, his quoting it in this way is unethical.
Finally, the synthesis may be faulty and its conclusions invalid if important information is not revealed and considered. Historical context, cultural attitudes, particular or extraordinary conditions—all these kinds of things need to be understood and accounted for. A student writer comparing a Hemingway story about suicide, such as “Indian Camp” and a story on the same subject by a Japanese writer, such as Yukio Mishima’s “Patriotism,” could not write a satisfactory synthesis of the works unless he or she explored the very different cultural attitudes held toward this subject in America and Japan.
Writing research papers and synthesis essays, like weaving, is a craft that you can learn. Taking pride in your workmanship, you deal with the information and ideas of your sources with respect and care. The resulting essay credits and shows appreciation to the thinking of those artists or scholars you have drawn from, for it is by their work you have been able to form your own thesis, and their ideas have provided—to continue the analogy—the loom on which you weave.
With your information gathered, analyzed, quoted, paraphrased, and summarized, you are ready to reflect on how all strands of it best fit together to build an insightful synthesis essay or research paper. By asking good questions as you reflect, you can establish some links among your sources—perhaps even identifying some issues that are best explained by a cause-effect pattern. You then are ready to narrow your focus, writing a tentative thesis that provides a guide for the ordering of your supporting material and for your further research. After you have completed a thorough search and selected the best, most authoritative sources you can find, you may discover that your thesis for the paper is insufficiently supported; you then need to modify your tentative thesis to conform to the information you have found. You may be making discoveries during research, or even during the writing of the essay, that change details in the thesis, so your wording of the thesis must not be considered final until you completed the essay. Before you invite your peers—or your teacher—to see your work, you want to be sure you have creatively woven your information, insights, and sources into a nicely written document.
Suggested Selections to Synthesize
Dealing with Life’s Problems
Ben Jonson.............................................................................................. “On My First Son”
Ben Jonson...................................................................................... “On My First Daughter”
Margaret Sanger........................................................ .“The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery”
George Orwell.................................................................................. "Shooting an Elephant"
Garrison Keillor........................................................................................... "Letter from Jim"
Mark Twain....................................... “Jim” (ch. XXXI) from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Motives for Making Decisions
Margaret Sanger......................................................... “The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery”
Martin Luther King, Jr.............................................................. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Dan Wakefield.................................................................................... “Returning to Church”
Langston Hughes................................................................................................. “Salvation”
Garrison Keillor........................................................................................... "Letter from Jim"
George Orwell.................................................................................. "Shooting an Elephant"
Robert Frost...................................................................................... “The Road Not Taken”
John Updike............................................................................................. “Pigeon Feathers”
Dan Wakefield.................................................................................... “Returning to Church”
Ben Jonson.............................................................................................. “On My First Son”
Ben Jonson...................................................................................... “On My First Daughter”
Experiencing a Turning Point
Dan Wakefield.................................................................................... “Returning to Church”
Garrison Keillor........................................................................................... "Letter from Jim"
Margaret Sanger......................................................... “The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery”
Flannery O’Connor............................................................................................ "Revelation"
John Updike............................................................................................. “Pigeon Feathers”
Langston Hughes................................................................................................. “Salvation”
Malcolm X................................................................... “Freedom through Learning to Read”
Robert Frost....................................................................................... “The Road Not Taken”
Mark Twain...................................... “Jim” (ch. XXXI) from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Women’s Perspectives
Flannery O’Connor............................................................................................ "Revelation"
Zora Neale Hurston........................................................... “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”
Margaret Sanger......................................................... “The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman................................................................. “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Henrik Ibsen................................................................................................ “A Doll’s House”
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette............................................................................ “The Other Wife”
Emilia Pardo Bazan............................................................................................. “Torn Lace”
Men’s Perspectives
Mark Twain...................................... “Jim” (ch. XXXI) from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
John Updike............................................................................................. “Pigeon Feathers”
Ben Jonson.............................................................................................. “On My First Son”
Ben Jonson...................................................................................... “On My First Daughter”
Garrison Keillor........................................................................................... "Letter from Jim"
George Orwell.................................................................................. "Shooting an Elephant"
Raymond Carver................................................................................................. “Cathedral”
Culture Shaping One’s View of Life
Guy de Maupassant............................................................................................ “Moonlight”
Zora Neale Hurston........................................................... “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”
Flannery O’Connor............................................................................................ "Revelation"
George Orwell.................................................................................. "Shooting an Elephant"
Malcolm X................................................................... “Freedom through Learning to Read”