كتابة فقرات التخليص

Sort the sources before you write a word

• Most weak synthesis essays were decided before the first sentence — at the sorting stage.
• Sorting sources by side gives you two piles and a paragraph per pile.
• Sorting them by something else gives you an argument.

“For” and “against” are easy piles to make. Unfortunately, piles do not argue.

Two ways to open a paragraph

• Weak: name a source, then say what it says.
• Strong: state a claim of your own, then bring sources in to defend it.
• The order decides whether the paragraph belongs to you or to the sources.

Using more than one source in a claim

• The strongest synthesis sentences hold two sources at once and say something about the relationship.
• "Both X and Y argue Z, but for reasons that do not survive together."
• That sentence could not be written from either source alone — which is the definition of integration.

Citing as you go

• Attribute inside the sentence rather than in a separate announcement.
• "As Source C's figures show, ..." attributes and integrates at the same time.
• "Source C says the following: ..." announces, and then the reader waits.

Checking a synthesis paragraph

• Delete every source name and read what is left. Is there still a claim? There should be.
• Now check whether that claim appears in any single source. It should not.
• A claim that survives both tests is yours, built from theirs.