WHAT

A synthesis offers insightful connections and comparisons among sources. It is not a summary, for while a summary repeats information in condensed form (like an entire film’s plot boiled down to one paragraph), a synthesis combines information from different sources by comparing and contrasting those sources; a summary offers an overview, but a synthesis focuses on main ideas and the details of those ideas.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. SUMMARIZE: Familiarize yourself with the four required readings and the sources you find on your own. Summarize the main ideas.
2. ANALYZE: Compare and contrast your sources to identify the similarities and differences or group similar ideas together. Think about how these ideas interact. How do they relate? How do they agree or disagree with one another?
   • Compare: What do all or most of the sources say that is similar? What is the point of agreement?
   • Contrast: What does one source add to the conversation that is unique? Do any of the sources disagree? What is the point of stasis/difference?

3. ORGANIZE:Assemble the ideas (the similarities and differences you find) in a logical and coherent way. Organize according to the ideas the articles address (in agreement or disagreement) in common. Avoid just summarizing an article in each paragraph.

4. REQUIREMENTS: The synthesis you write should

• Be about 2 pages, double spaced.
• Include (in the beginning or end) a statement of the conclusion you come to about the topic after considering the readings. In other words, after you have done the readings, what do you think?
• Offer, in paragraph form, what you created in step three.
• • Note, do not include a series of summaries. The point is to discuss the ideas the articles address. While you will need to summarize and paraphrase parts of the sources’ arguments in order to fulfill this task, the bulk of your synthesis will be discussion in which you make sense of the arguments and ideas.
  • Steps one and two are prewriting (before drafting) steps. You will not directly include steps one and two except for the extent to which what you create in step two (comparisons) becomes part of step three (discussion) since the comparisons provide the some of the discussion.

  **************** There are four reading require, two files are reading and one is ted talk (linked below) and one audio file. and two source that I found.