Synthesize the sources you’ve chosen for YOUR individual section of the group paper and UPLOAD A complete draft of your section here. You will peer review each other’s sections in class and for HW. To be prepared for class: Bring two printed copies of this draft on Tuesday. What is a synthesis Although at its most basic level, a synthesis involves combining several texts together, synthesis writing takes this one step further because this combining must be done in a meaningful, strategic, and purposeful way. Instead of merely attending to themes across texts, or finding similarities and differences across texts, synthesizing sources is a matter of pulling them together into some kind of harmony. Synthesis SEARCHES for links between materials for the purpose of constructing a thesis, theory, argument, or analysis across texts. Synthesis shows how, when read together, a series of sources can OFFER something new, interesting, significant, or vital to the overall topic. Thus, a synthesis is a type of argument, because you are strategically choosing a set of sources and then strategically choosing how they fit together. A synthesis: accurately REPORTS information from the sources through academic summary accurately distinguishes between what information came from which source organizes the information strategically so that readers can understand the purpose of the synthesis makes sense of the sources and helps the reader understand them in greater depth Synthesis in the Literature Review For the literature review, your job as individual group members is to synthesize sources for your own individual task in the group project; then, the group as a whole synthesizes all the sections into one whole literature review. The purpose here is to answer the question: “what information must we know in ORDER to understand this topic in a meaningful way?” Hence, you make choices as a group about what information is most important to synthesize for your readers. Structure of a Synthesis: Individual Sections in the Literature Review Introduction: Sums up the focus of your synthesis Makes a claim for how you want your reader to understand this section of the literature review Organization: Your synthesis should be organized by theme, point, similarity, or aspect of the topic, however you choose to relay the information to your audience Your organization will be determined by the patterns you see in the material you are synthesizing and the overall focus of your synthesis The organization is the most important part of a synthesis Body Paragraphs: BEGIN each paragraph with a sentence or phrase that informs readers of the main topic of the paragraph: “topic sentence” Even though you aren’t making an argument about YOUR topic, your topic sentence still serves as a “WINDOW” into the rest of the paragraph Include information from more than one source and clearly indicate which material comes from which source using lead in phrases and in-text citations Do the synthesis work in the paragraph: show how the sources come together and what reading these sources together OFFERS Beware of plagiarism: accurately depict when you are summarizing or paraphrasing a source (by using parenthetical citations) and accurately depict when you are saying something about that source Represent the texts fairly and accurately without inserting personal opinion or moral/ethical claims—you are simply repeating what each source says, in your own words Follow guidelines for academic summary Follow guidelines for MLA style in-text citations and quotation integration Conclusion: Write a conclusion stating the most significant themes you have found and the ways they CONNECT TO the overall topic. You may also want to suggest further research or comment on things that it was not possible for you to discuss in the section. DO NOT merely repeat what you have already said in the body paragraphs – use the conclusion as the space to wrap-up your synthesis. Formatting Requirements A complete draft (ideally, each group member writes ~3 pages so that the final group paper comes out to 10-15pgs) Double-spaced 12 pt Times New Roman font 1-in margins MLA style in-text citations MLA style Works Cited Page Heading, upper-right hand corner (and single-spaced): Name, Group name, assignment title, date PLEASE see the syllabus for class policies on late work, missing work, or plagiarism