Building a Synthesis Claim

A sentence neither source could have written

• That is the target: a claim that needs two sources and belongs to neither.
• If your sentence could have come from one source alone, you have quoted, not synthesised.
• If it could have come from no source at all, you have asserted.

When two sources sit at the table, let them talk to each other instead of reading their own menus in turn.

Three shapes that work

• Agreement that is thinner than it looks: both defend it, for reasons that do not survive together.
• Disagreement about the question: they differ not on the answer but on what is being asked.
• A gap: what neither source is in a position to see.

Three moves turn a source into evidence- the third is where synthesis happens

Writing the paragraph

• Open with your claim, before either source is named.
• Bring the first source in with attribution inside the sentence.
• Bring the second in as what it changes about the first, not as a separate report.

Using a source's limits

• Consideration of other positions is a credibility measure you may apply in the essay.
• "Source A's account never addresses the objection Source D raises" is legitimate evidence.
• You are not attacking the source — you are weighing it, which is what synthesis requires.

Two tests

• Delete every source name. Is there still a claim? There should be.
• Search the sources for that claim. It should not be there.
• A claim that passes both is yours, built from theirs — which is the definition of synthesis.

Write from a second sitting

• Both sources agree the hall is crowded. They disagree on adding chairs or adding a second sitting.
• Write the kind of claim that belongs to neither source.