This article helps you with everything you need to know, starting from the component of a synthesis essay, outlining, writing, and refining your final draft.

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To write a synthesis essay, you need to have great coordination skills. You will need it to link various sources and research outcomes together while deriving and building on your thesis statement.

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Fredrick Eghosa

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This article helps you with everything you need to know, starting from the component of a synthesis essay, outlining, writing, and refining your final draft.

To write a synthesis essay, you need to have great coordination skills. You will need it to link various sources and research outcomes together while deriving and building on your thesis statement.

Whether you are new to synthesis essay writing or have been writing this kind of essay in high school or college, our guide will help you understand the subject thoroughly.

We will talk about everything you need to know, starting from the component of a synthesis essay, outlining, writing, and refining your final draft.

Key takeaways

A synthesis essay involves analyzing various sources and combining them to create a cohesive and well-supported argument. It is more than just summarizing; it requires blending information to reveal new insights.

The key components of a synthesis essay are:

Thesis Statement

Introduction

Main Body

Conclusion

Citations

Synthesis essays combine multiple viewpoints to create a new viewpoint whereas argumentative essays focus on rebuttal.

AI tools like Cowriter.ai can assist with research, summarizing sources, drafting, paraphrasing, editing, and managing citations, making the essay-writing process more efficient.

What is a Synthesis Essay?

A synthesis essay is simply one of the many types of essays out there. It is a type of writing that requires you to analyze a variety of sources on a particular topic, then combine them into a coherent, well-supported argument.

Many people mistake a synthesis essay to mean merely summarizing each source. However, when writing a synthesis essay, your task is to blend - just like the word synthesis implies - the information in a way that reveals new insights or perspectives.

In the context of a synthesis essay, the word "synthesis" means combining different ideas, information, or pieces of evidence from multiple sources to create a new understanding or to support a particular argument.

Writing a synthesis essay is a task that requires a deep understanding of the subject matter. Not only that, the ability to combine different perspectives into a cohesive presentation is highly important.

Let’s say, you're writing a synthesis essay about the impact of social media on mental health.

Of course, you will find information from several sources: one study might talk about how social media helps people feel connected, while another might discuss how it leads to anxiety.

Synthesis involves taking these different points of view, analyzing them, and then combining them in a way that creates a well-rounded argument or insight.

Components of a Synthesis Essay

A strong synthesis essay is built on several key components that include the following:

1. Thesis Statement: If you are in an academic setting, you have come across the word “thesis” so many times and have formed a thesis a number of times.

This is the backbone of your essay, which clearly states your main argument or point of view on the topic. As you will see in our examples, every paragraph in your essay should support this thesis.

2. Introduction: This sets the stage for your essay. It is a couple of statements that present the topic, provide some background information, and end with your thesis statement.

Don’t just lunge right into making statements or stating facts in your introduction. You need to start off with a captivating intro to capture the reader’s attention. This is called The hook.

Use a provocative question, a jarring fact, a relevant quote, or statistics to make your readers interested in what you have to say.

Keep this interesting so they read the first line, the second, the next, and so on. For example, if you’re writing about the effects of social media on society, you might start with,

"Did you know that the average person spends over two hours a day on social media?"

A good hook makes the reader want to keep reading, so take your time crafting one that’s both interesting and relevant to your topic.

A smart writing assistant like Cowriter.ai makes writing hooks so fun and simple. All you need to do is input the topic and nudge it in the direction you desire, depending on whether you want your hook to be a provocative question or a jarring fact.

3. Main Body: In a synthesis essay, each paragraph should focus on a specific point that supports your thesis.

You should include information from multiple sources in each paragraph, showing how they relate to each other and to your argument. Add context to your work and introduce your sources in the paper.

4. Conclusion:This wraps up your essay, summarizing your main points and restating the thesis in light of the evidence you’ve presented.

5. Citations: Proper citations are crucial in a synthesis essay. They show where your information is coming from and help to avoid plagiarism.

The citation style your professor requires will depend on the subject of your essay. Here are some common citation styles:

MLA (Modern Language Association): This is typically used for essays in the humanities, such as literature or history.

APA (American Psychological Association): The APA style is commonly used in the social sciences, such as psychology or sociology.

When writing a synthesis essay, always confirm your professor’s guidelines to ensure you’re using the correct citation style.

Proper citation is crucial in a synthesis essay. It helps to avoid plagiarism and gives credit to the original authors of the sources you’re using.

The Difference Between a Synthesis Essay and an Argumentative Essay

A synthesis essay is not the same as an argumentative essay. People often confuse synthesis essays with argumentative essays because both require you to form an argument based on evidence but the key difference is in how the evidence is used.

In a synthesis essay, you’re not just presenting a single argument; you’re blending multiple viewpoints, to create a more nuanced understanding of the topic.

Sure, a synthesis essay may be argumentative, explorative or even sound discursive but they have distinct differences:

Purpose: The primary goal of a synthesis essay is to combine information from multiple sources to create a new understanding, while an argumentative essay aims to convince the reader of a specific viewpoint.

Use of Sources: In a synthesis essay, you use sources to support your points and show how they relate to each other. In an argumentative essay, sources are often used to support or refute a specific claim.

Structure: Both types of essays follow a similar structure, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, a synthesis essay often requires a deeper analysis of how different sources interact.

In short, while both essays require you to form an argument, a synthesis essay is more focused on combining different perspectives, while an argumentative essay is more about defending a specific viewpoint.

That takes us to the next point.

Different Types of Synthesis Essays

There are three main types of synthesis essays:

1. Explanatory Synthesis: This type of synthesis essay aims to explain a topic in a clear and straightforward way. You simply combine information from various sources to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.

2. Argumentative Synthesis: In this type of essay, you take a stance on a particular issue and use evidence from your sources to support your argument. This is similar to an argumentative essay but requires you to synthesize multiple viewpoints.

3. Comparative Synthesis: This essay compares and contrasts different viewpoints or sources on a particular topic. Your goal is to highlight the similarities and differences between them, leading to a deeper understanding of the issue.

How to Write a Synthesis Essay Step-by-Step with Examples

Writing a synthetic essay can seem confusing at first, but once you understand the steps and purpose, it becomes much easier.

Ultimately, the goal of the synthesis essay is to show different sources connect to a central idea or theme that you develop.

Steps to Write a Synthetic Essay

Understand the Prompt

Your professor will give you a prompt in the form of a question or topic. Before you start, make sure you understand what you are being asked to do? Is there a specific topic or theme you need to focus on?

Gather Sources

The next task is to collect different sources that relate to the topic. These could be articles, books, videos, or other materials. Your sources should provide different perspectives or pieces of information on the topic.

Read and Annotate

Now, carefully read and study each source. As you read, highlight or underline key points, arguments, or evidence that seem important.

Write notes in the margins about how each point might relate to the main topic or to other sources.

Develop a Thesis Statement

Remember, we said, your thesis statement is the central idea of your essay. It’s what you’re trying to prove or explain using your sources. Think of it as the answer to the essay prompt.

For example, if the prompt is about the impact of social media on teenagers, your thesis might be, “Social media significantly influences teenagers’ self-esteem, both positively and negatively.”

Organize Your Ideas

Decide how you want to structure your essay. Typically, a synthetic essay follows this structure:

Introduction

The body of the essay is divided into paragraphs for each point. (Combine information from different sources within each paragraph to support the point. Note that you can improve your essay by using transition words to show how the sources connect to each other and to your thesis.)

Conclusion: Summarize your main points and restate your thesis in a new way. Explain why this synthesis is important or what it shows about the topic.

Write the Essay:

When you have set the outline in place and your research is handy, you can begin your synthesis essay.

Start with a hook to grab the reader’s attention (you can ask a provocative question, begin with striking a quote, or state a fact).

After doing this, briefly introduce the topic and state your thesis clearly.

The next step is to flesh out and expatiate on research findings in the body paragraphs.

Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that tells what the paragraph will be about. Then, use evidence from your sources to support the topic sentence.

Also, show how the sources relate to each other. Do they agree? Disagree? Offer different perspectives?

Moving on, you can explain how this evidence supports your thesis.

After all these, summarize the key points from your body paragraphs and restate your thesis in a new way.

Lastly, end with a final thought or a call to action. It should be something that leaves an impact on the reader.

Revise and Edit

It could be quite a task writing an essay of any kind, but take it easy on yourself. After writing your first draft, take a break and then come back to it with fresh eyes. This affords you the opportunity to see the topic in a new light.

During this stage, check for clarity, grammar, and whether your ideas flow logically.

Make sure each paragraph supports your thesis and that your sources are properly cited.

How to Use AI to Write a Synthesis Essay

Writing a synthesis essay requires great coordination and organizational skills.

An AI writing assistant is necessary if you need to speed up your work while maintaining high level effectiveness.

A tool like Cowriter.AI can help you in the following ways:

Research and Gathering Sources

Finding sources is one of Cowriter’s strongest suits. It can quickly pull up articles, studies, books, and other materials to streamline the research process.

Summarizing Sources

Cowriter.ai can summarize long articles or papers, making it easier for you to understand the key points and decide if the source is relevant to your essay.

Understanding and Analyzing Sources

Sometimes, you may find it hard to analyze the content of an article. A smart assistant can help analyze the content of different sources to identify main ideas, arguments, and evidence.

It can also explain complex ideas or compare the arguments from different sources.

This can help you identify the connections among different sources, helping you see how they relate to one another, which is crucial in synthesis writing.

Drafting the Essay

Writer’s block can strike at the wrong time. This can be crippling.

Fortunately, there is no need to stay in the rut longer than necessary when you can use Cowriter.ai to help draft sections of your essay.

For example, if you input your thesis statement and main points, AI can generate paragraphs or sentences that synthesize information from your sources. Plus, finding the hook is now easier than ever.

Paraphrasing and Rewriting

Cowriter.ai can help you rephrase sentences or paragraphs to improve clarity or to avoid plagiarism when you’re summarizing information from your sources.

Editing and Revising

Cowriter.ai can help you catch grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, and issues with style or tone.

Feedback on Coherence

Cowriter.ai provides feedback on the coherence and flow of your essay, suggesting ways to improve transitions between ideas or to better align your paragraphs with your thesis.

It will then suggest improvements to word choice, sentence structure, and overall readability, so your essay comes out polished and professional.

Citations and References

This is an important aspect of a synthesis essay, which is difficult for most students. The good thing is, Cowriter can help format your citations and references correctly in MLA, APA, or other styles to save you time and ensure accuracy.