The Easiest Synthesis Essay Manual for Students

Need a pithy synthesis essay guide? Have no idea how to create a top-notch paper? Our expert review will help you learn all the ins and outs of this one tricky task and provide you with the high-end academic tricks!

Before analyzing useful writing tips and valuable recommendations, it is necessary to cover the basics. We should cover the definition and meaning first to gear you up!

A synthesis essay is a piece of academic writing which has one goal - to collect information from different resources and put it together as one document. You can use absolutely any resources, including books, manuals, magazines, online media outlets, journals, etc. Besides, you are also allowed to use non-written sources like interviews or your personal observations. Your essay should be always based on facts.

Simply put, your main goal is to process the literature, learn the subject area inside out, and create an original essay on the basis of this information. You should determine the central idea of your topic. Now, you need to synthesize the information and relay different facts in one essay. All the sources should be related to one another.

Keep in mind that today, there are two types of syntheses:

• Argument Synthesis.

Writers using this type should focus on their views regarding the essay topic. However, your opinion should be supported by trusted resources.

• Explanatory Synthesis.

The primary aim of this type is to help the target audience understand the topic. You need to introduce different facts in an objective manner.

When doing this task, you need to define the main idea of your essay and use different sources in order to support it.

What about the Format?

When doing this task, you should also keep in mind that an excellent result depends not only on the content of the essay but also on proper formatting. Therefore, before writing, you should learn what style should be used in your case.

You can use one of three essay formats:

• APA, the official guidelines developed by the American Psychological Association. In other words, if you're writing on sociology, psychology, or medicine, you will use this guide to format your essay.
• MLA, the basic guidelines developed by the Modern Language Association. Students studying humanities will use the rules of this guide.
• CMS (the 16th edition of the Chicago Style). This guide is commonly used by students whose essays are on history, humanities, or arts.

Your tutor should provide you with this information. If you're in doubt or can't decide how to format your synthesis essay in a proper way, you should ask your professor to help you.

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All about the Structure

Like any other academic task, this one also has a certain structure which should be followed by students. Many students wonder how to start a synthesis essay effectively because a catchy introduction is the main key to success!

We listed the main steps to follow which should help you understand the main direction of your future essay.

Effective introduction

You need to determine the main purpose of your writing. When you do this, you can start processing the literature in search of valuable sources. Usually, students start writing essays with an introductory paragraph, which has one goal - to intrigue the readers.

First, you should establish the tone of writing that will be used throughout the whole essay. When reading your introduction, your readers should immediately understand what particular topic will be discussed in this essay. Therefore, your overriding purpose is to introduce the topic and grab their interest.

• You should introduce what particular texts will be synthesized.
• Create a brief but interesting thesis statement placed at the end of this paragraph.
• Use thought-provoking questions which will make the audience ponder on this problem.

Body paragraphs

This is the heart of your synthesis paper. This is the place where you will present all the arguments in order to cover the topic.

All of your body paragraphs should be properly structured. The best ratio is one argument per paragraph. Firstly, you need to state your argument and then cite the supporting evidence. Simply put, each paragraph of your essay should have the following structure:

• one argument,
• resources,
• in-depth analysis of these resources.

To make your essay clearer, you shouldn't discuss more than one argument in one paragraph. Besides, all the citations should always be followed by your analysis.

Conclusion Tips

For some students, this writing stage is the most pleasant one. After writing body paragraphs, it is time to move on to writing a concluding paragraph. The main goal of this paragraph is to reiterate the importance of the topic. Besides, you are allowed to offer your personal solution to a discussed problem.

When writing, you should always keep the main argument in your mind because it serves as an anchor, not allowing you to wander from the point.