The Synthesis Essay

Synthesis is a lot like baking a cake.

We will start with a group discussion of The Heart of a Peacock (including going over the multiple choice questions). Your task will be to discuss (and prove) whether or not the protagonist in the story is a dynamic character.

A synthesis is a written discussion that draws on one or more sources.

Your ability to write syntheses depends on your capability to infer relationships among sources - poems, articles, essays, fiction....

Synthesis often involves comparing and/or contrasting. Because they involve at least two subjects and offer the possibility of doing several things, comparison and contrast pieces pose problems of focus and organization.

FOCUS

First you face the question of whether to deal only with points of likeness or of difference, or to treat both. You must be clear about the focus in your own mind and make it equally clear to the reader.

A second problem of focus concerns the subjects. Will you concentrate upon one subject or treat both as equally important? If, for instance, you are writing about high school and university, you have three possibilities of focus: on high school, on university, or on both. This focus must be made clear to the reader, but without the obviousness of a sentence like the following:

In this essay I shall be chiefly concerned with high school.

Work with a lighter hand. For example, if you wish to concentrate on high school:

In many ways high school is like university.

If upon university:

In many ways university is like high school.

And if upon both:

University and high school are alike in many ways.

ORGANIZATION

A second problem posed by comparison and contrast involves organization. When you compare any two subjects - call them A and B - you must do so with regard to specific points - 1, 2, 3, and so on. You may organize your material in two ways - either:

A. 1. 2. 3.

B. 1. 2. 3.

or:

1. A. B.

2. A. B.

3. A. B.

In an essay about high school and university, you could devote the first half to high school and discuss such specifics as teachers, lessons and homework; and spend the second half on university, treating the same points, preferably in the same order. Or you could organize around the particular similarities or differences. In the first paragraph of the body you would discuss teachers, in high school then in university; in the second, lessons; and in the third, homework.

Neither method of organizing is inherently better. Proceeding by A and B stresses each subject in its totality. Organizing by 1, 2, 3, emphasizes specific likenesses or dissimilarities. But while neither method is absolutely superior, one will probably serve your purpose better on any specific occasion.