You may not realize it but every day you synthesize information when you make decisions based on what you already know and what you learn! When synthesizing information for your academic assignments, there are steps you can follow to help you in the learning process and to develop new understandings
1. Be sure you have a strong understanding of your assignment and the purpose of the paper you are writing.
2. Print out, save or bookmark articles you find in your research so you will be sure to have all of the citation information needed when you create your Works Cited page.
3. Read through the articles you have found, highlighting main ideas and facts that stand out to you. You may need to re-read articles or other information you find more than once to fully understand the concepts discussed. You may need to continue seeking additional sources to develop a stronger understanding of your topic.
4. Use a concept map or diagram to chart out the concepts you are learning more about to create a visual picture of your topic and to connect ideas and relationships.
5. Create an organization plan for your paper. Use the clusters of concepts to chart or outline what you have discovered to create a sequence of what you want to cover in your assignment. Part of synthesizing involves comparing and contrasting so you can expect to move back and forth between concepts and points you are making.
6. Be sure to cite sources you have used during your research! Continue to seek information with a similar strategy, even for personal reasons, to develop your research and writing skills. These information literacy skills will serve you throughout your life to help you make more informed decisions and complete work-related tasks.
Through synthesizing, you are gathering, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, organizing, comparing and presenting information and conclusions you have drawn during the process of your work!
Use this online document to better understand a step-by-step process for synthesizing research for your class assignments.
As you create arguments and attempt to persuade others through research papers and conversations with others, you should avoid using logical fallacies, or arguments that are fundamentally flawed in reasoning. You should also be aware of these logical fallacies when evaluating information presented all around you! According to the video presented above by the Mometrix YouTube channel, below are the "top ten" logical fallacies.
1. Circular reasoning "is when the argument is restated rather than proven" and not further supported.
2. Hasty generalization "is when someone makes a sweeping statement without considering all of the facts."
3. Slippery slope "is a conclusion based on the premise that one small step will lead to a chain of events resulting in some significant event, which is usually negative."
4. Straw man "is a technique where someone distorts an opponent's claim so that it is easier to refute, or where someone tries to refute a point someone made by giving a rebuttal to a point they did not make."
5. Ad Hominem " is an attack on a person’s character or personal attributes in order to discredit their argument."
6. False dichotomy "occurs when an argument presents two points while disregarding or ignoring others in order to narrow the argument in one person’s favor. This is also known as an “either/or” fallacy."
7. Appeal to emotion "is when a writer or speaker uses emotion-based language to try to persuade the reader or listener of a certain belief or position."
8. Equivocation "is when an argument is presented in an ambiguous, double-sided way, making the argument misleading."
9. Bandwagon appeal "is an appeal that presents the thoughts of a group of people in order to persuade someone to think the same way."
10. False analogy " also known as a weak analogy, is when two things that are unalike are being compared based on a trivial similarity in order to prove a point."
Watch the video for more details and examples. Be sure to craft your arguments carefully and search the MCTC Library databases for credible sources of information and data!