The Process Of Writing A Synthesis Essay

1) A synthesis is something that draws conclusions from, makes observations on, or shows connections between two or more sources. The purpose of writing a synthesis varies depending on what type of paper you are writing. A synthesis is usually used for an argumentative or explanatory paper. A synthesis is important because synthesizing gives you the ability to write a paper while compiling or contrasting various sources that support your claims.

2) There are seven guidelines for writing a synthesis.

• Determine your purpose for writing by asking yourself what you want to do in your essay. Without a clear purpose, your synthesis will be a loosely organized jumble of words. Although your purpose is often governed by the way in which the assignment

When you are writing a paper using synthesis, you are usually writing an argument or wanting the reader to focus on your opinion of an issue so your thesis is key to letting the reader know why you decided to synthesize information. Your thesis statement will help the reader develop a better understanding of what you are writing about.

II. In-Text Citations

4) The MLA style of documentation requires that you are fair to the author you are borrowing information from. It is always important to give credit to the author you are paraphrasing or quoting.

5) There are six guidelines for documenting sources.

• Provide a context for your paraphrase or quote by naming the author or the title of the work, or by using attributive tags, such as observes, comments, points out, or argues.

• Provide a citation every time you paraphrase or quote directly from a source.

• Give the citation in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase.

• In the parentheses, give the author’s last name and the page number or numbers from which you took the words or ideas, if available. Do not put any punctuation between the author’s last name and the page