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Use the graphic organizer to begin to think about how your claim relates to each source, and what use that source might be, whether to support your claim, to qualify your claim, or to serve as a counterargument that you can concede and refute. Of course, you probably won’t use all five sources in your essay, but this exercise will help you decide which ones are more and less useful in reinforcing your ideas.
| Source | Main Point | How I Might Use the Source in My Argument |
| Ripley | ||
| Sato | ||
| Bowen and Hitt | ||
| Edmundson | ||
| Comparative Test Scores |
The key thing to remember when you start to gather sources is that your own ideas need to remain central in your synthesis essay. You don’t want outside sources to replace your argument: you want them to inform it.
We’ve been thinking of synthesis as a conversation. If you’re talking with three other people, would you just repeat back what they’ve already said? Or would you contribute to the conversation by connecting to what they’ve said? So, instead of joining in by saying,
“Mark Edmundson participated in sports in high school even though he never became a star athlete. He describes how he went to practice and put forth effort so that he improved, slowly and steadily. He was proud of that accomplishment. Thus, he developed strong character traits such as discipline and perseverance, . . .” etc., etc.,
it is more effective to use wording that connects Edmundson’s argument to your own view. For instance, you might say,
“We shouldn’t underestimate the value of participating in sports to those who don’t become star athletes. As Edmundson reminds us with his own experience, just participating can instill positive lifelong characteristics such as perseverance and discipline.”