5 Synthesis of Ideas

Writing Synthesis Paragraphs

When you synthesize, you combine various elements to form a new structure. In our class, synthesis is a new skill in which you bring together some main ideas from two or more articles to produce a well-organized and reflective paragraph.

In an essay exam, professors may include synthesis questions. They are designed to evaluate your ability to:

• • • Efficiently remember and organize important main ideas from two or more articles.
    • Recognize and highlight similarities and/or differences across two or more articles.
    • Demonstrate comprehension of central themes or concepts in the articles.

How to do it

When synthesizing two or more texts in an essay exam, keep these tips in mind:

• Understand the question or prompt.
• In an open-book exam, look at your annotations on the article or your notes.
• Mentally, put some main ideas side by side.  Think about how you will combine the main ideas from both articles. Where are they similar? Where are they different?
• Don’t write until you are sure what to say. Plan how you will present your response, and then write your answer.
• Refer to both articles or all the articles to be used: Always mention the articles in your answer by referring to the author’s last name or by citing them more formally, if necessary.
• Avoid adding extra details or reasons.  The response should be brief and focused. A synthesis task only asks you to demonstrate your understanding of the main ideas in the article.
• Balance your points: While you may not always have an equal number of points from each article, aim to be as balanced as possible.

Examples of Synthesis Questions

Explain how the information in Text B complements the advantages of adopting solar energy described in Text C and Text D.                                               

Look at Text D and Text E. Synthesize the benefits of swimming using information taken from these two texts. 

Synthesize the information in Text B, Text C, and Text D to show how robots can be beneficial to police departments.

Selfies can positively affect people’s lives. How do you think the author of Text C, would respond to the criticisms of selfies explained in Text A?

Checklist for enhancing your synthesis answers:

• Ensure your synthesis task demonstrates understanding – is your response clear?
• Does your synthesis answer align with the question’s focus?
• Have you included enough varied points to achieve the highest marks?
• Have you indicated clearly which text you are referencing?