Eng8Q4-W-4-Synthesizing-essential-information.ppt

All about synthesising essential information, Grade 8 module week 4, quarter 4

1. Synthesizing
essential information
ENGLISH 8 QUARTER 4 WEEK 4

2. •Synthesize essential
information found in
various sources

3. WHAT IS SYNTHESIZING?
•At the very basic level, synthesize refers to
combine multiple sources and
ideas.
•As a writer, you will use information from
several sources to create new ideas based
on your analysis of what you have read.
•In other words, you need to combine all
the main points of the sources
you have in your own words to
create something new.

5. HOW IS SYNTHESIZING DIFFERENT
FROM SUMMARIZING?
• In a summary, you share the key points
from an individual source and then move on
and summarize another source.
• In synthesis, you need to combine the
information from those multiple sources and add
your own analysis of the literature. This means that
each of your paragraphs will include multiple sources
and citations, as well as your own ideas and voice.

6. Why do I need to include synthesis?
a.Because of this, you need to show that you
understand and can
 integrate research on these
topics in a unique way that adds to the
conversation.
b.By synthesizing research, you are showing that
you can combine current information in your
study and add a new interpretation or analysis
of those sources.

8. To effectively synthesize the literature,
a.you must first critically read
the research on your topic

9. To effectively synthesize the literature,
b. you need to think about how all of the ideas
and findings are connected. One great way to
think about synthesis is to think about the
authors of the research discussing the
topic at a research conference. They would
not individually share summaries of their research;
rather, the conversation would be dynamic as they
shared similarities and differences in their findings.

10. To effectively synthesize the literature,
c. As you write your paragraphs, focus on a
back and forth conversation
between the researchers.

11. WHAT STRATEGIES CAN I USE TO
SYNTHESIZE MY INFORMATION?
The key to a good synthesis is to be organized as
you’re researching and reading sources
on your topic. One way to organize your research is
to use a synthesis matrix.
In
 this chart, you can record your sources and main ideas on
the topic. When finished, it will provide a visual
representation of your research and help you to see how
sources are connected.

12. IN ADDITION TO A MATRIX, AS YOU
CRITICALLY READ YOUR SOURCES,
TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING:
a.Do any authors disagree with another author?
b.Does one author extend the research of another author?
c.Are the authors all in agreement?
d.Does any author raise new questions or ideas about the topic?

13. USE THE FOLLOWING STEPS TO SYNTHESIZE
INFORMATION FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES
1.ORGANIZE YOUR SOURCES
2.OUTLINE YOUR STRUCTURE
3.WRITE PARAGRAPHS WITH TOPIC
SENTENCES
4.REVISE, EDIT AND PROOFREAD

14. STEP 1: ORGANIZE YOUR SOURCES
•After collecting the relevant literature, you’ve got a lot of
information to work through, and no clear idea of how it all fits
together.
•Before you can start writing, you need to organize your notes in a
way that allows you to see the relationships between sources.
•One way to begin synthesizing the literature is to put your notes
into a table. Depending on your topic and the type of literature
you’re dealing with, there are a couple of different ways you can
organize this.

15. SUMMARY TABLE
Ideas Your evaluation
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3

16. •A summary table collates the key points of each source
under consistent headings. This is a good approach if
your sources tend to have a similar structure – for
instance, if they’re all empirical papers.
•Each row in the table lists one source, and each column
identifies a specific part of the source. You can decide
which headings to include based on what’s most relevant
to the literature you’re dealing with.

17. •For each study, you briefly summarize
each of these aspects. You can also
include columns for your own
evaluation and analysis.

18. STEP 2: OUTLINE YOUR
STRUCTURE
•Now you should have a clear overview of the main
connections and differences between the sources
you’ve read. Next, you need to decide how you’ll group
them together and the order in which you’ll discuss
them.
•For shorter papers, your outline can just identify the
focus of each paragraph; for longer papers, you might
want to divide it into sections with headings.

19. There are a few different approaches you can take to
help you structure your synthesis.
1.If your sources cover a broad time period, and you found patterns in
how researchers approached the topic over time, you can organize your
discussion
 
chronologically.
•That doesn’t mean you just summarize each paper in chronological
order; instead, you should group articles into time periods and identify
what they have in common, as well as signalling important turning
points or developments in the literature.

20. There are a few different approaches you can
take to help you structure your synthesis.
2. If the literature covers various different topics, you can
organize it thematically.
•That means that each paragraph or section focuses on a
specific theme and explains how that theme is approached
in the literature.

21. 3. If you’re drawing on literature from various
different fields or they use a wide variety of
research methods, you can organize your
sources
 
methodologically.
•That means grouping together studies based on
the type of research they did and discussing the
findings that emerged from each method.

22. 4. If your topic involves a debate between different
schools of thought, you can organize it
 
theoretically.
•That means comparing the different theories that
have been developed and grouping together papers
based on the position or perspective they take on
the topic, as well as evaluating which arguments are
most convincing.

23. STEP 3: WRITE PARAGRAPHS
WITH TOPIC SENTENCES
•What sets a synthesis apart from a summary is that it combines
various sources. The easiest way to think about this is that
each paragraph should discuss a few different sources, and you
should be able to condense the overall point of the paragraph
into one sentence.
•This is called a
 topic sentence, and it usually appears at the
start of the paragraph. The topic sentence signals what the
whole paragraph is about; every sentence in the paragraph
should be clearly related to it.

24. STEP 3: WRITE PARAGRAPHS
WITH TOPIC SENTENCES
•By using topic sentences, you can ensure that your
paragraphs are coherent and clearly show the connections
between the articles you are discussing.

25. •As you write your paragraphs, avoid quoting directly
from sources: use your own words to explain the
commonalities and differences that you found in the
literature.
•Don’t try to cover every single point from every single
source – the key to synthesizing is to extract the most
important and relevant information and combine it to
give your reader an overall picture of the state of
knowledge on your topic.

26. STEP 4: REVISE, EDIT AND
PROOFREAD
Checklist for Synthesis
1.Do I introduce the paragraph with a clear, focused topic
sentence?
2.Do I discuss more than one source in the paragraph?
3.Do I mention only the most relevant findings, rather than
describing every part of the studies?
4.Do I discuss the similarities or differences between the sources,
rather than summarizing each source in turn?

27. 5. Do I put the findings or arguments of the sources in
my own words?
6. Is the paragraph organized around a single idea?
7. Is the paragraph directly relevant to my research
question or topic?
8. Is there a logical transition from this paragraph to
the next one?

28. Example of a synthesis

29. For ACTIVITY # 1, 2 and 3:
Rubric in the checking
ADVANCED (30) PROFICIENT (25) BASIC (20) BELOW BASIC (15)
clearly synthesizes the
content from several
sources dealing with a
single issue,
paraphrasing the ideas
and connecting them to
other sources and related
topics to demonstrate
comprehension
synthesizes content from
several sources dealing
with a single issue,
paraphrasing the ideas
and connecting them to
other sources and related
topics to demonstrate
comprehension
synthesizes some of the
content from several
sources dealing with a
single issue, but
paraphrasing
demonstrates limited
comprehension
demonstrates minimal
synthesis of information