Synthesizing II

Synthesizing II Badge

Synthesizing II

It might often seem like working sources into a piece of writing is no more than a requirement of an assignment. You might think you need to use quotations just to show that you did in fact find relevant sources or that you do know how to use MLA format. But working intertextually, where you move between your voice — and words — and others' is really a way to think with other writers.

In ENGL 102, you have probably talked a lot about critical reading — the active process of stepping into another perspective as you read a text. When you work with other texts in your own writing, you should draw on other sources in similar ways. That is, you want to move beyond just using sources to back up or support a point you are making. Instead, you will want to use sources to show the slight variations in how writers approach the subject you are writing about; you want to articulate a specific and narrow point of your own by building it in light of what others have said before. This kind of sophisticated work usually follows an active and rich process of locating a variety of relevant sources, reading them carefully and against one another, and defining and articulating your perspective in light of what others have written.

HOW DO I SYNTHESIZE?

As your instructor and other badges have stressed, dropping quotations into your work isn't enough. You need to take time to make sure you bring others' words into your writing in ways that make your writing stronger, more interesting, and more persuasive. You want to weave other voices into your work in ways that position you as a thoughtful and well informed writer. One way to do this is to use summarizing and paraphrasing to point to what others have said about a given topic.

In ENGL 101, you completed badges that focused on summarizing and paraphrasing, which stressed the technical aspects of how to correctly structure and format these intertextual moves and how to avoid possible pitfalls (if you need a refresher, be sure to reread those badges). You also completed a synthesis badge that explained how to put sources in conversation in your writing. In this badge, you are going to use all of those skills to show that you (a) understand what others have said about a given topic, and (b) have formulated your own perspective.

As you complete this badge, you will consider how to use summaries and paraphrases to synthesize others' perspectives in your writing. Can you do this by using quotations too? Of course. We focus on summary and paraphrase here, though, because these are moves many students seem a bit more hesitant to make. As chapter three in the Coastal Writers' Reference explains, many students bring more experience using quotations from high school and seem less willing to work with other texts in less direct ways. You should see this badge as an invitation to do just that. It should help you understand when to summarize and when to paraphrase and is meant to encourage you to draw on these strategies when synthesizing multiple sources.

START BY PARAPHRASING AND SUMMARIZING THE IDEAS OF MULTIPLE SOURCES

Before we focus on synthesis, let's look quickly at both paraphrasing and summarizing. As the ENGL 101 Summarizing badge explains, a summary is a brief recap that doesn't parse out the specifics or details critical to a line of thinking, but, instead, focuses on the larger point made in a piece. As a result, while you need to introduce summaries (to let readers know what you are summarizing), you do not need to include in-text citations (such as page numbers when using MLA style). This is because you are referring to a piece in broad terms and don't reference an idea presented on a particular page. Paraphrases, on the other hand, are a bit more nuanced and particular. When paraphrasing, you put a specific piece of someone's argument or point in your own words. As a result, you do need to include an in-text citation. Take a look at this example from the ENGL 101 Paraphrasing badge:

But why are students so eager to self-infantilize? Their parents should probably share the blame. Eric Posner, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, wrote on Slate last month that although universities cosset students more than they used to, that's what they have to do, because today's undergraduates are more puerile than their predecessors (45).

An in-text citation is provided for this paraphrase because the writer references a specific idea or concept from Eric Posner's work. Both summaries and paraphrases can be useful tools to draw on in your writing as they allow you to weave others' perspectives into your work. Take this example, for instance:

With the rise of the Internet as well as personal technological devices, the ways in which we communicate and share information have shifted. Texts are moving in new ways due to emerging technologies, and new avenues of distribution have shaped what is possible in the college composition classroom. While this public turn is not new to the field of composition, this interest can be seen both in recent attention to the public sphere (Barton; Dobrin; Ward; Weisser; Welch; Wells; Boese; Baoill) and in taking student work public (Isaacs and Jackson; Couture and Kent; Danielewicz; Samuels; Boyd; Stover; Goodburn; Moran; Mauriello and Pagnucci; Owens; Benda; Benson and Latcha; Hewett and McRuer; Alexander; Samuels).

In this example, the writer is able to accomplish a few important goals by pointing, in such a quick way, to others who have written about the topic at hand. This is done through in-text citations that do not reference specific page numbers, but which indicate which authors in the Works Cited address these ideas. By pointing to those who have written about both the public sphere and the possibilities associated with making student writing public, she is able to do the following:

BUILD ON OTHERS' IDEAS BY ADDING YOUR OWN

While many writing teachers pushing student writing to the public seem to assume that distributing these texts makes them more significant (Alexander; Brooks et. al.; Wells; Weisser), I suggest that we need to consider what happens as students claim more control over where their writing goes.

This is a sophisticated move to make in an essay. We are encouraging you to use this set up to help frame your perspective by showing how it builds on the work of others. To do this, use this simple structure:

While others have argued that… (last name; last name; last name), I suggest that…

Now this list of names might strike you as excessively long, and, for a short paper, it probably is; this example is taken from a longer project. When you are working through a more traditional paper for a college class, referring to two to three names will most likely be sufficient.

Including these kinds of sweeping summaries in your work will help you, in a very succinct way, claim a bit of authority in your writing as you communicate to readers, "Hey, I know what I'm talking about here. Look at all of these sources that have informed my thinking."

CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME EXAMPLES OF SYNTHESIS?

EXAMPLE WITH PARAPHRASING

In addition to synthesizing sources in this way, you might draw on other summaries that are a bit more specific, that actually explain the argument a particular writer or text makes. Take this example of paraphrasing from the same piece of writing:

Ken Macrorie, in Writing to be Read stresses that English teachers should not be the only readers of student writing. Instead, he argues that this audience needs to be expanded and students' text should be read by their classmates (vi). Peter Elbow, in Writing Without Teachers, makes even stronger calls for peer response groups, saying they will help student writers see how their texts are received by others (77). It is clear that while Macrorie and Elbow encourage that texts be shared with readers beyond a teacher, the value of this sharing is rooted in the writer and in the writers' development.

In this example, we, as readers, get a decent sense of the points made in the original texts. We also see how we can put others' texts into conversation to create meaning. By synthesizing sources in this way, you will be able to bring readers to points that are important to you and your central argument as you show that you are extending arguments that others have begun.

EXAMPLE WITH QUOTING

Here is what this same passage might look like if the writer had quoted these authors instead of paraphrasing their words:

Ken Macrorie, in Writing to be Read stresses that "English teachers have often allowed themselves to be the only readers students write for. All the students in a class should be readers and critics" (vi). Peter Elbow, in Writing Without Teachers, makes even stronger calls for response groups, saying they will help "…the writer to come as close as possible to being able to see and experience his own words through seven or more people" (77).

While this last example stresses that you can enact this kind of synthesis by drawing on quotations or paraphrases, there can be something useful about putting others' arguments and points in your own words. By doing so, you have to fully understand their points and that helps you fold them into your own thinking in productive ways. Synthesis is about more than making sure you reference at least two sources in a paragraph; it is about putting other sources in conversation and seeing what larger meanings they suggest when you read sources against each other.

For citation, use:

Coastal Carolina University, Department of English, First-Year Writing Program. "Synthesizing II." Coastal Composition Commons, 24 August 2017, https://ccc.coastal.edu/task/102-badge-6/. Accessed xx xxxxxx xxxx.