1. Synthesizing Sources
Based on a web-shared PowerPoint by Alisa Cooper,
Faculty Director, Center for Teaching, Learning &
Engagement at Glendale Community College
2. Synthesizing
Your research on a topic
will lead you to consult
several sources, and you
will need to present the
information you find in a
way that combines, or
synthesizes, those
sources.
3. Strategies for Synthesizing
• There are several strategies for
synthesizing multiple sources.
• The easiest is a Summary Report
which consists of two steps:
– Writing separate summaries or
paraphrases of the individual sources
and then…
– Linking them with transitional
passages.
• This is a resource for writing a
paper not the structure; that would
make it predictable and boring.
4. Writing a Summary Report
• A simple strategy for your
report is to summarize
these sources individually
and then to present the
three summaries, linked
with connecting comments.
• You want your report to
have unity.
• For your report to be
unified, you will need to
discover a theme that
relates to all three sources.
5. Writing an Objective Report on
Sources
• Writing an objective report on
sources is the second strategy
for synthesizing.
• A report on sources refers
specifically to these sources
by name.
• It says, in effect, “Source A
says theis; Source B says
this; Source C says this…”
• A report on sources can be
subjective (presenting your
own analysis and opinions of
them).
7. My notes: (summaries, paraphrases and quotes I
can use for my paper)
In-text Citation
Source A:
Lev Grossman
“Everybody associated with the productions — Portman,
McTeigue, Weaving, Silver — forcefully, insistently stresses
that V is an ambiguous, ambivalent figure. They express their
hope that the movie will spark debates about the definition of
terrorism”
Grossman finds the idea of a heroic terrorist “repugnant”,
but concedes that the question of justified violence has
never been answered.
Grossman, Lev. “The Man in the
Mad Mask”, NYT online
Sunday, Mar. 12, 2006
Source B
Carretero-Gonzalez,
Margarita.
“The film establishes a dialogical relationship, in an attempt to
reflect any period in which individual freedom has been
completely abolished in the name of –allegedly- public good.”
Carretero-Gonzalez compares the Novel to a variety of works
such as The Count of Monte Cristo, Beauty and the Beast, and
1984 to demonstrate it’s place among works that open a dialogue
for readers about the loss of freedom in the name of safety, the
question of justified violence., and that speak to whatever
“Frankenstein monster” that era produces.
Carretero-Gonzalez, Margarita.
Promoting and Producing Evil.
Ed. Nancy Billias.
Amsterdam & New York:
Rodopi, 2010: 207-218
What my sources agree on
Dialogical: As in a conversation where all
participants listen, pay attention and respond to
the others’ arguments.
Ambiguous, ambivalent figure: confusing to us because
you sort of like him but are scared and by him and
freaked out because of the violence at the same time.
8. Acknowledging Sources
• Whenever you compose a summary report or an
other type of writing that relies on sources, you
create something new for others to read.
• Although what you produce may seem less than
earth-shaking in significance, you are nevertheless
adding , in however small a way, to the sum of the
world’s knowledge.
• You are making a contribution to the domain of
scholarship.
9. The Obligation of Scholarship
• One of the principal benefits of
being a scholar is that you are
entitled to read and to use the
scholarship of others.
• Presenting your research and
ideas for others to use is in
fact one of the obligations of
scholarship.
• Another of your obligations as
a scholar is to acknowledge
your sources.
10. Acknowledging Sources
• In the Summary Report, the writer
uses parenthetical notes and a list
of works cited to identify sources of
information.
• In the Objective Report on sources,
the writer makes it clear that the
ideas and opinions being presented
have been expressed by others.
• You would do the same with a
subjective report on sources.
11. Importance of Acknowledging
Sources
• Credit must be given where
it is due. Creators of ideas
deserve to be recognized for
them.
• Readers need to know
where they can locate your
sources so they can consult
the original versions. This
allows them not only to
check the accuracy of your
citations, but also to find
additional material beyond
what you have presented.
12. Two Ways to Acknowledge
Sources:
• Besides naming them within the text itself, writers
acknowledge sources in two principal ways:
– One is to use notes, such as parenthetical notes or footnotes, to
credit sources of specific ideas and statements.
– The second way is to append a list of works cited, which
acknowledges all the sources from which words have been
quoted or from which information or ideas have been derived.
13. Assignment
• On your laptop or on a piece of loose
paper:
• Write a paragraph using both sources on
some aspect of the movie V for Vendetta
• Make sure to document them carefully
and append a works cited.
