Day 23: Source Synthesis

Objectives: Students will be able to:

-Recognize the definition and purpose of source synthesis in academic writing
-Categorize ideas from different sources through the use of a grid
-Synthesize sources based on ideas rather than the author
-Review the principle of unity in when synthesizing sources

First, you will finish up sharing your outlines with your classmates.

We will move on to cover source synthesis. This will be especially helpful in developing your literature reviews which are due Thursday.

Begin by opening the SOURCE SYNTHESIS POWERPOINT.

You will revisit what it means to synthesize your sources, and then you will have the opportunity to evaluate the structure some excerpts from literature reviews. Review these EXAMPLES OF SOURCE SYNTHESIS. In groups try to answer these questions:
-What are the organizing principles of text A and text B?
-Which text synthesized the sources better?
-What are some characteristics that make a good source synthesis?

We will finish up with the powerpoint. You will then need to read the information in the
SAMPLE SOURCES document, and organize the information found in those sources into a GRID ORGANIZER.

Remember strategies for making your writing more clear. For each main idea that recurs among the sources, create a topic sentence that both
1) Synthesizes the literature to be discussed
2) Describes the literature to be discussed
Example 1) Much of the literature points out that whole capital punishment does not stop crime, most Americans still believe that it does stop crime.
Example 2) Not only does the literature agree that capital punishment does not stop crime, Prejean, Fitzpatrick and Marshall also suggests that capital punishment may in fact cause more crime.