NURS 6795: Synthesis of Teaching Practice Practicum

Once you have enough sources to completely answer your research question, it’s time to start the writing process.

• Read your articles—it's OK to skim rather than reading each article from beginning to end. Scan the abstracts, introductions, discussions, and conclusions. Highlight and make note of important findings, main ideas and arguments, and references to previous studies and theories.
• Create an outline that organizes your sources into an order (topical, chronological, etc.) for you to follow in your review.
• Write a short introduction to your summary that lets your reader know what to expect.
• Write paragraphs that summarize the findings found in the literature. Each paragraph should address one major idea. Similar sources can be summarized together in statements like, "Most researchers agree that..." or "Current trends in the literature are..."
• Use transitions to show how different sources interact with each other. For example, you might write, "While earlier researchers thought X, new discoveries have led researchers to think Y." Or "Researcher applied W in new circumstances and found Z."
• Avoid directly quoting material in your review—you should be summarizing and paraphrasing as much as possible. Remember to use in-text citations when you refer to an idea from a specific source, whether you're paraphrasing or using a direct quotation.
• Write a short conclusion that sums up the major points from the literature. If you've noticed there are subjects that the literature hasn't tackled yet, you can point out that further research is needed.
• Only include sources in your bibliography that you quoted, paraphrased, or mentioned in your paper. 

Adapted from "Help…I've Been Asked to Synthesize!" by Colleen Warwick, Bowling Green State University

Writing a strong, thoroughly researched paper requires the ability to synthesize—or combine elements of several sources—to help you make a point. Synthesis is a tool for drawing together particular themes or traits that you observe in various texts and reorganizing the material according to themes or traits put forth by you and driven by your thesis.

We synthesize information naturally to help others see the connections between things. For example, when you report to a friend the things that several other friends have said about a song or movie, you probably don't just list what each and every person said. More likely, you'll group together similar opinions (most people said "they liked it") with some details ("because they liked the story and the fight scenes were amazing") and point out any important differences ("but my historian friend didn't like it because they said having aliens fighting in the Revolutionary War wasn't accurate"). Overall, you'd tell your friend, the movie was pretty good but you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief to really enjoy it. This is synthesis! 

As you can see from the above example, synthesis is more than just simply reporting, defining something, or even just doing a simple compare/contrast. Synthesizing is a matter of pulling various sources together into some kind of harmony. It is the ability to combine clearly and coherently the ideas of more than one source with your own.

The blank synthesis matrix can help you organize your paper by the main idea, identify connections between your sources, and add your own analysis.

• Blank Synthesis Matrix

This video comes from the USU Library

Things to Avoid when Synthesizing:

1. Avoid constructing the body of your paper out of a series of summaries. 

2. Avoid bombarding your reader with undifferentiated masses of facts, examples, and quotations. 

3. Avoid beginning your paragraphs by presenting quotations or facts from your sources

Try to:

1. After you've done your research, try to start by carefully formulating a thesis. Know what point you are trying to prove and then make sure the rest of your essay sticks to that point and supports it. This is probably good advice for any kind of essay, but especially important for this kind. Synthesized essays require that you draw on more source material than you might be used to. Having a well-formulated thesis will keep you and your readers from getting bogged down in competing facts and opinions.
2. Try to write complete sentences stating each of the supporting points you want to use to support your main point or thesis. Then use these sentences as topic sentences for your paragraphs. This way each paragraph can proceed from the general supporting point of the topic sentence to specific facts, quotes, and paraphrases from your sources (material that gives authority to your points). You can draw on points from your sources to expand, develop, support, and/or illustrate your main ideas.
3. For specific facts, quotations, and paraphrases, always identify your sources. Introduce quotations by putting the name of the writer you drew the material from into your text whenever possible, preferably before the quoted material. If you are quoting someone, it's always a good idea to tell your readers why they should listen to that person. Tell your reader something about the quoted writer to establish them as an expert or an authority. Remember, for any borrowed material you use, you will need to be sure to provide citations in the text that will direct your audience to more complete information about your sources on the Works Cited page.

Your literature review should be focused on the topic defined in your research question. It should be written in a logical, structured way; maintain an objective perspective; and use a formal voice.

Outline

Use the following guidelines to prepare an outline of the main points you want to make. 

• Synthesize previous research on the topic.
• Aim to include both summary and synthesis.
• Include literature that supports your research question as well as that which offers a different perspective.
• Avoid relying on one author or publication too heavily.
• Select an organizational structure, such as chronological, methodological, and thematic.

Structure

The three elements of a literature review are introduction, body, and conclusion.

Introduction

• Define the topic of the literature review, including any terminology.
• Introduce the central theme and organization of the literature review.
• Summarize the state of research on the topic.
• Frame the literature review with your research question.

Body

• Focus on ways to have the body of literature tell its own story. Do not add your own interpretations at this point.
• Look for patterns and find ways to tie the pieces together.
• Summarize instead of quote.
• Weave the points together rather than list summaries of each source.
• Include the most important sources, not everything you have read.

Conclusion

• Summarize the review of the literature.
• Identify areas of further research on the topic.
• Connect the review with your research.

This content comes from the Brown University Library

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