Analyze your sources and gather information and ideas from them

In a synthesis paper, you will combine information and ideas from multiple sources to come to an independent conclusion. You will need to interpret data logically by selecting and organizing relevant facts and opinions and identifying the relationships among them. In a synthesis paper, you draw on the work of other scholars who have made contributions to knowledge related to your topic. In this case, you will draw on some other scholars whose work you are already familiar with: your classmates!
Guidelines for writing a synthesis paper
Your assignment is to:
Choose 3 papers that your classmates posted to the forum in the previous unit and write a synthesis using those papers as your principal scholarly sources

Analyze your sources and gather information and ideas from them
Define a question or theme that connects all three papers.
Synthesize information and ideas from the papers related to points within that question. Keep in mind that this is not a three-part summary: “A wrote….. B wrote…. C wrote…The End.” No! You must integrate information and ideas from the papers. “A wrote ….. B’s paper addressed a similar theme by ….. In contrast to A, C took the position that….”
Your thesis must consider all three papers in relation to each other and then in relation to some larger idea. For example:
“A’s paper revealed the exploitation of workers on coffee plantations in Colombia, while B’s paper addressed the exploitation of immigrant workers in Dunkin’ Donuts stores in Boston. C addressed the importation of Nescafe into countries that grow coffee for export to highly “developed” countries such as the US and the UK. Considered together, these papers call into question the role of coffee in supporting global economic injustices.”
An outline for this paper might look like this:
Point 1: Labor (references to plantation workers (A) and Dunkin workers (B)
Point 2: Resources (reference to export/import Nescafe paper, also human resources (A, B, C)
Point 3: Environmental sustainability (sustainability when it comes to humans and when it comes to natural landscape, addressed in all three papers).
You will communicate your synthesis of your classmates’ scholarly works in an essay of 1200-1800 words.

As always, in your essay you should follow the following practices, common in most academic writing:
Integrate your sources using quotations and lead-in phrases.
Include in-text citations (follow the MLA guidelines: http://owl.excelsior.edu/).
Create your Works Cited page (follow the MLA guidelines: http://owl.excelsior.edu/).

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