What is the Synthesis Essay?

Synthesis essay is a profound way of writing, where there’s a unique focus on a central or general idea, theme, or topic. Synthesis essay involves picking a topic, attaching a claim, combining available resources, and asserting the request made.

Table of Contents

Types of Synthesis Essay

There are two main types of synthesis essay which includes:

1. Argument Synthesis

This essay type has a well-rooted thesis that expresses the writer’s thoughts. It combines crucial information from reasonable sources in a well-outlined way to support the claim made.

The purpose is to defend your claims by drawing a relationship between your sources and make a clear stand. In argument synthesis, a single proposition is debatable between two different writers even when they are working with the same material source.

2. Explanatory Synthesis

From the term explanatory, this essay explains a topic for clarification. Explanatory synthesis is not about arguing or debating a subject; instead, it presents a clear and undeniable fact necessary for readers to understand.

An explanatory synthesis essay describes objects, events, and other things needed.

There are six components of synthesis essay which includes the following;

Understanding the topic
Providing sources
Thesis preparation
Outline
Essay structure
Review

1. Understanding the Topic

Writing a synthesis essay becomes easy when the writer understands the topic. The concept, audience, and style of writing are all fundamental.

Understanding the topic aids the writer in gathering efficient sources for the next step. Another important thing is to understand the audience as this will decide the writing voice used for this essay.

2. Providing Sources

The location of any information used to back up or reinforce a claim is known as the source.

There are about three types of sources used in synthesis essay writing;

Primary Source: A primary source is an original material initially produced. Every other source relies on it, and the secondary source is derived from this. An example includes surveys, academic journals, and others.
Secondary Source: The secondary source mainly analyzed the primary and is used as references, E.g., Dictionary, textbook, and comprehensive books.
Tertiary Sources: These are index sources used in locating other sources. They give citations and a brief of the other two. Note that about 5-6 sources will be used in a single synthesis essay at the same time if adequately combined.

In some cases, three sources are enough to assert your claim, depending on how narrow the topic is.

3. Thesis Preparation

After obtaining and combining the sources, post-proper examination, formulation of a thesis takes place.

The Thesis is an essential part of every synthesis essay. It gives a brief overview of what the article is about and engages the reader into finding out more about the claim through further reading.

A strong thesis must keep up the essay’s focus. Usually, it is always a sentence, but in some cases, two might be needed depending on how broad or narrow the topic is.

4. Outline

Just like every other essay, the synthesis essay needs an outline. The Outline is more of a summary of the already procured ideas, orderly arranged.

An outline serves as a guide when writing the essay without losing focus.

Each focus or topic sentence is to occupy a single paragraph, followed by the synthesized sources.

5. Essay Structure

There are three sections of a synthesis essay which includes the following;

Introduction: The introduction of a synthesis essay, houses the prepared Thesis. This section is significant because it is the first place that almost all readers focus on, apart from the abstract.

It should grasp the interest of your readers and stimulate their want to keep reading. Although it only Thesis is present here, the remaining non-thesis sentences in this section helps in building a base for the essay.

Body: This section has all the sources needed to back up the provided claim. Every paragraph, most likely 2-3, starts with a topic sentence. A topic sentence gives a summary of what the section represents. Every other sentence in the paragraph must revolve around it.

Sources are essential in this section to approve your claims. Note that your references should revolve around your demands, not vice versa.

Conclusion: A synthesis essay summarizes and paraphrases every previously noted idea, especially the Thesis, as a final draw to top your claim. Repetition of any main idea without paraphrasing is not necessarily a good thing, so it is best to end your synthesis essay in the right tone.

6. Review

The writer remove errors made grammaticality and passive verbs present in the essay. Inclusion of necessary punctuation marks such as comma and full-stop after writing your essay is essential.

Do’s of Synthesis Essay

Your claim or topic is central.
Combine and analyze your sources
Use transitive words

Don’ts of Synthesis Essay

Do not summarize your sources.
Don’t lose the focus of your claim.

Techniques of Synthesis Essay

1. Illustrations

An illustration is more useful when dealing with an explanatory type of synthesis essay. Illustrations are gotten directly from one of the three sources and are credited back to the source.

2. Straw Man

Straw man technique is mostly used in arguments and other controversial claims.

Here, the writer erects an opposing argument against the original claim. Afterwards, the writer justifies the initial request by providing a sufficient answer to the oppositional case.

The Process Is As Follows:

Thesis
Straw man opposing argument
Refutation of Straw man’s argument
Breaking the argument using sufficient facts

4. Concession

This technique is like a Straw man, but here, the argument receives acknowledgement by the writer.

The opposing argument is acknowledged, but the original Thesis is more practical and reliable.

The Process Includes:

Thesis
Opposition
Concession
Maintaining the original claim

Compare and Contrast

This technique finds similarities and differences between two or more central ideas. Doing this will allow the writer to get a hold of the crucial information possibly overlooked. The technique carries a general viewpoint concerning the audience or readers.

Other techniques include summary and more than one-reason technique.