Checklist for Synthesis Essays

Prewriting
 Make a list of what your arguments or factors will be. Make it longer than you’ll actually use so you can choose the best
things to put in your essay.
 Remember when making your list that it’s generally good to (1) refute at least one source and (2), when applicable, make a
concession to the same or a different source.
 Choose from the sources the best quotes or lines to paraphrase to help you make your argument.

Introduction
 First sentence contains an idea broader than the specific topic of the thesis, one which you will return to in conclusion for
a circular closure. But avoid grand statements like “Since the dawn of man…” or cliché and wordy phrases like “in today’s
society.”
 Introductory paragraph is short (2-4 sentences).
 Thesis specifically addresses prompt. If the prompt is asking you to take a stand on an issue, you take a clear stance, even
if it is a qualified one. If the prompt is asking you to say what the important factors are in making a decision, then you are
listing the major factors (as unformulaically as you can manage).

Body Paragraphs
 The first sentence of each body paragraph should begin with you making an assertion related to your thesis.
 No body paragraphs should begin with a source, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. Sources are evidence.
Body paragraph should always begin with an assertion that you are making.
 Every piece of evidence requires commentary, and this commentary should explain/enrich/develop the argument, not
simply restate the evidence.
 Try to have multiple sources “conversing with each other” in every body paragraph For example: “While Source A points
out _______________, Source C show the inherent flaw in this argument, saying, ‘ ___________.’” (This is using one
source to disprove another.) Or after using and commenting on Source B, you might say something like “The point that
Source B makes is only further proven by the data given in Source E” (using one source to support another).
 No body paragraphs should end with a source. Sources are evidence. Body paragraphs should end with multiple sentences
of commentary.
 If appropriate given the topic, have a whole body paragraph that comes from you knowledge or experience with no
sources used. This helps the paper seem like your argument, rather than just a report on sources.
 The commentary should be your voice. You are in control of and using the sources, not the other way around.

Conclusion
 Avoid cliché phrases like “in conclusion.”
 The first sentence of the conclusion should probably be about the specific topic you’ve been writing about, but it should
not summarize.
 The rest of the conclusion should move back to the broader topic you started with without restating what you said in the
beginning.
 Conclusion should be 3-4 sentences maximum.

Preparing for the Synthesis Question: Six Moves Toward Success

by David Jolliffe So you might want to listen to him!
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas
(former Chief Reader of the AP exam and the father of the synthesis prompt!)

The Art of Argumentation

When I taught high school in my home state, West Virginia, I encountered a situation that teachers all over the world must deal
with when they teach students how to incorporate sources in their writing. After several initial classes on searching for
information (these were the pre-Internet days, so we headed directly to the library), narrowing the topic, and crafting a
preliminary thesis, my students would return to the library and then come back to me with a familiar refrain: "I can't find
anything that supports my thesis!" I didn't blame the students, of course—they were just learning what it means to enter into the
discourse of academic argumentation. As novices in this endeavor, they needed to learn that accomplished academic writers don't
simply draw material from published sources as if the sources were maples being tapped for their sap. On the contrary, savvy
writers converse with sources and incorporate (literally: em-body) them in their argument.

As AP English Language and Composition courses prepare students to encounter the synthesis question on the free-response
section of the exam, beginning with the 2007 administration, teachers will have the opportunity to teach these "moves" of
academic writing in a way that will help students as they progress from high school to college. In most college courses that
require substantial writing, students are called upon to write researched arguments in which they take a stand on a topic or an
issue and then enter into conversation with what has already been written on it.

The synthesis question provides students with a number of relatively brief sources on a topic or an issue -- texts of no longer
than one page, plus at least one source that is a graphic, a visual, a picture, or a cartoon. The prompt calls upon students to write
a composition that develops a position on the issue and that synthesizes and incorporates perspectives from at least three of the
provided sources. Students may, of course, draw upon whatever they know about the issue as well, but they must make use of at
least three of the provided sources to earn an upper-half score.

What moves should a writer make to accomplish this task? Essentially, there are six: read, analyze, generalize, converse,
finesse, and argue.

Read Closely, Then Analyze

First, the writer must read the sources carefully. There will be an extra 15 minutes of time allotted to the free-response section to
do so. The student will be permitted to read and write on the cover sheet to the synthesis question, which will contain some
introductory material, the prompt itself, and a list of the sources. The students will also be permitted to read and annotate the
sources themselves. The student will not be permitted to open his or her test booklet and actually begin writing the composition
until after the 15 minutes has elapsed.

Second, the writer must analyze the argument each source is making: What claim is the source making about the issue?
What data or evidence does the source offer in support of that claim? What are the assumptions or beliefs (explicit or
unspoken) that warrant using this evidence or data to support the claim? Note that students will need to learn how to perform
such analyses of nontextual sources: graphs, charts, pictures, cartoons, and so on.

After Analysis: Finding and Establishing a Position

Third, the writer needs to generalize about his or her own potential stands on the issue. The writer should ask, "What are two or
three (or more) possible positions on this issue that I could take? Which of those positions do I really want to take? Why?" It's
vital at this point, I think, for the writer to keep an open mind. A stronger, more mature, more persuasive essay will result if the
writer resists the temptation to oversimplify the issue, to hone in immediately on an obvious thesis. All of the synthesis essay
prompts will be based on issues that invite careful, critical thinking. The best student responses, I predict, will be those in which
the thesis and development suggest clearly that the writer has given some thought to the nuances, the complexities of the
assigned topic.

Fourth -- and this is the most challenging move -- the writer needs to imagine presenting each of his or her best positions on the
issue to each of the authors of the provided sources. Role-playing the author or creator of each source, the student needs to
create an imaginary conversation between himself or herself and the author/creator of the source. Would the author/creator
agree with the writer's position? Why? Disagree? Why? Want to qualify it in some way? Why and how?

Fifth, on the basis of this imagined conversation, the student needs to finesse, to refine, the point that he or she would like to
make about the issue so that it can serve as a central proposition, a thesis -- as complicated and robust as the topic demands -- for
his or her composition. This proposition or thesis should probably appear relatively quickly in the composition, after a sentence
or two that contextualizes the topic or issue for the reader.

Sixth, the student needs to argue his or her position. The writer must develop the case for the position by incorporating within
his or her own thinking the conversations he or she has had with the authors/creators of the primary sources. The student
should feel free to say things like, "Source A takes a position similar to mine," or "Source C would oppose my position, but here's
why I still maintain its validity," or "Source E offers a slightly different perspective, one that I would alter a bit."

A Skill for College

In short, on the synthesis question the successful writer is going to be able to show readers how he or she has thought through
the topic at hand by considering the sources critically and creating a composition that draws conversations with the sources into
his or her own thinking. It is a task that the college-bound student should willingly take up.