Synthesis Tips
Synthesis Tips
Need help synthesizing sources? Start with these suggestions:
- Group your sources by topic and look for connections between them. Note where authors disagree or agree on a topic.
- Think about how your source’s arguments relate to your thesis: who agrees with you and who disagrees with you?
- Avoid list summaries where you list every point an author makes. For example, you do not want your paragraph to look like: “The author says... then they said this...also they brought up...in addition they said”
- Make sure that your quotations support the argument you are making. Do not just put a quotation in to assert that you read an article. When using quotations ask yourself: is this helping your argument? Will this contribute to your audience understanding your argument?
Helpful Synthesis Phrases
When writing, these phrases can serve as a starting place for synthesizing your sources.
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In comparison
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In contrast
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Similarly
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Moreover
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Compared with/to
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Relative to
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Versus
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Likewise
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X agrees when she writes, “_____________.”
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X disagrees when he writes, “______________.”
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According to both X and Y, _____________.
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A number of scholars have recently suggested that X’s work has several fundamental problems.
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On the contrary
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Conversely
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On the other hand
Adapted from Graff & Birkenstein (2018)
Tools for Thinking About Synthesis
These tools can help you synthesize your sources. This matrix provides an easy way of visualizing the patterns and relationships between your sources.