Synthesis Report
The Synthesis Report is both a short written report (<250 words) and a brief (< 5 minute) presentation of that report.
Following on the course reading for the week and the previous class’s discussion, the report should highlight new ideas and insights you have gained as you draw connections between ideas. The Synthesis Writing and Reading Strategies guides should be helpful in explaining the kinds of skills that would aid preparing your Synthesis Report.
One simple way to approach this assignment is to focus on a “third idea.” For example, if text 1 gives us idea A, and text 2 gives us idea B, what is idea C (the third idea) that becomes possible when we put ideas A and B together? The idea or insight does not need to be ground-breaking or impressive. Good thinking and writing usually proceeds through smaller synthesizing steps, and the Synthesis Report aims to put this into practice.
The written Synthesis Report needs to explain the existing ideas that you’re synthesizing. You might consider naming or defining them and explaining them using examples. Then express a synthesizing idea. Doing this in writing first makes the no-notes delivery a lot easier. It’s fine to use a numbered or bulleted list to keep things simple, but please write in complete sentences.
The verbal Synthesis Report in class should be delivered on your scheduled day in under 5 minutes and without notes.