The main purpose of a synthesis essay is to make insightful connections. Those connections can show the relationship(s) between parts of a work or even between two or more works. It is your job to explain why those relationships are important. In order to write a successful synthesis essay, you must gather research on your chosen topic, discover meaningful connections throughout your research, and develop a unique and interesting argument or perspective.
A synthesis is not a summary. A synthesis is an opportunity to create new knowledge out of
already existing knowledge, i.e., other sources. You combine, “synthesize,” the information in your sources to develop an argument or a unique perspective on a topic. Your thesis statement becomes a one-sentence claim that presents your perspective and identifies the new knowledge that you will create.
Before writing your synthesis
1. Narrow a broad or general topic to a specific topic:
In a short essay, completely covering a large topic is impossible, so picking a specific, focused topic is important. For example, the broad topic of global warming would need to be narrowed down to something more specific, like the effects of automobile exhaust on an ecosystem.
2. Develop a working thesis statement:
A working thesis statement should include a rough idea of your topic and the important point you want to make about that topic. Writing this statement at the top of a rough draft or outline and looking at it often can help you remain focused throughout the essay. However, the thesis statement that you begin with is not set in stone. If you find that your essay shifts topic slightly, you can change your thesis in later drafts so that it matches your new focus.
3. Decide how you will use your sources:
After completing your research and gathering sources, you may have a large or overwhelming
amount of information. However, the purpose of a synthesis essay is to use only the most important parts of your research, the information that will best support your claim. At this point, you must decide which sources, and/or which parts of those sources, you will use.
4. Organize your research:
Now, decide the order in which you will present your evidence, the various arguments you will employ, and how you will convince your readers.
Writing your synthesis
In the following synthesis essay the author found various sources on the same topic and used certain parts of those sources to support the thesis statement.
Television has affected every aspect of life in society, radically changing the way individuals live and interact with the world. However, change is not always for the better, especially the influence of television on political campaigns towards presidency. Since the 1960s, presidential elections in the United States were greatly impacted by television, yet the impact has not been positive. Television allowed the public to have more access to information and gained reassurance to which candidate they chose to vote for. However, the media failed to recognize the importance of elections. Candidates became image based rather than issue based using a “celebrity system” to concern the public with subjects regarding debates (Hart and Trice). Due to “hyperfamiliarity” television turned numerous people away from being interested in debates between candidates (Hart and Trice). Although television had the ability to reach a greater number of people than it did before the Nixon/Kennedy debate, it shortened the attention span of the public, which made the overall process of elections unfair, due to the emphasis on image rather than issue.
Similar to the rhetorical strategies essay, there are several strong components in my synthesis essays. I write strong introductions, connecting the pre-thesis to the objective of the documents. Furthermore, my topic sentences are clear, and each sentence takes a side to introduce an example. Each paragraph contains a lengthy analysis of the example, which allows one to understand the ways each example connects to the thesis. Although my syntheses are usually strong, there are also parts that I can improve.
I decided to revise my argumentative synthesis essay first because this essay just required a lot of attention as I was mostly excited about fixing this essay completely. I started out by deleting and rewriting both of my main body paragraphs. The reason for this was because unlike my first and third essay I had not put any effort into the essay itself as i had a really difficult time writing this particular essay. In more detail it was my first time using sources to the fullest which ended up being more of a challenge than i thought it would. Overall i ended up failing as a writer and ended up rewriting what the sources had to say and i failed in putting it into my own words thus plagiarizing became the heart of the problem so deleting the
Essays can range from daily reflections of an author’s life, political opinions, literary criticism and learned arguments. The objective of writing an essay is to help the author and the reader alike to determine more about the certain subject that the author decides to write about. An essay is composed of an introduction, body and lastly, the conclusion. A standard essay is composed of five paragraphs
It states that a thesis statement is an opinion and never a fact. The evidence to support this statement should be expert opinions, anecdotal evidence and data. The author also states that a good essay will address any evidence supporting the opposing opinion. I think the most useful thing in chapter 1 for me was seeing how the author broke down the twenty-five-paragraph essay. I think that was a great example because it shows the reader how to clearly separate the ideas into different section.
What types of evidence can be used in a thesis? You can use your personal information that you writing about. You need to accomplish setting out to the four goals that will complete the thesis
The thesis essentially tells the reader whether the essay is important and worth reading. As a result, the thesis should be stated in the introduction paragraph such that readers can easily identify what the essay is about and they will know what to expect. Furthermore, if the thesis is not strong, then the overall essay will follow suit and will not be strong either. The common saying, “quality over quantity,” is applicable to the thesis; its strength comes from its conciseness, clarity, and detail, instead of its length. If the thesis does not express the essay’s purpose in a coherent and detailed fashion, the reader will not be interested and may not wish to continue reading.
A thesis acts as a guide for ideas that are written within a paper, but having ideas out of what the thesis states does not meet the
Our society over time, has drastically changed. More interests start occuring, imagination starts expanding and people start changing. As students in a school with a specific structure of how a day will run, limits them. Schools shouldn’t be limiting students, they should do the opposite, they are figuring who they are.
A thesis statement makes the reader aware of the topics you will be discussing and your details to support them. Before developing my thesis, I found it easier for me to create a list of all my topics and reasons to support those topics with detail. From that list I was better able to create my thesis. A thesis allows you to create a nice flow to the paper by setting up the order of the chosen topics within the statement itself. For example; Music has influenced my life and America in many positive ways, for example; Music brings out individuality, can be useful in education, and creates appreciation for other cultures and diversity.
“Conception about Presenting a Thesis Statement that Supports/Hinders my Writing Process.” The previous two assignments have enabled me to grasp the idea of writing a good thesis statement. My proficiency is in writing a thesis statement as it pertains to academic writing. What I have learned is that a good thesis statement should inform the readers about my topic as well as address my stance in what I am writing about.
What is a thesis? Your thesis statement asserts the central idea of your writing. The thesis takes a clear-cut position on a debatable topic, or summarizes the main point or argument of your paper. The thesis answers the main question or problem associated with your topic, which your course’s assignment directions often state. Why should I write a thesis?
During my time in this class I found that my skills as a writer were getting better with each essay. While conducting my research for the third essay, the research-supported cause/effect essay, I found that I may have had too much information. At first I struggled with the thesis statement, as I couldn’t decide which direction to take on my topic, aerial archeology. Narrowing results and finding the ideal way to proceed I found a good thesis statement and began to use the research and knowledge of the subject to form my essay. I could not be more pleased with how the essay turned out, and now understand just how important a good topic and thesis statement are to a good essay.
Making a thesis is a point to show when beginning your essay. There are specific ways to make a thesis statement to which it should basically tell you about what the essay should be about. There are elements to a thesis statement. Which are A thesis statement is usually in one sentence.
subject) and gradually narrows to a specific thesis. The thesis, or thesis statement, tells the reader what you