24 Synthesizing Information

As you’ve already read, your mantra in this class for the rest of the semester—and any time you do research beyond this class—is deceptively simple:

LET THE RESEARCH GUIDE YOU

As you go through various research processes, you’ll find a lot of information, and will always need to take some time to figure out what that information is telling you. When doing research, then, it’s important to follow our simple rule and see where the research guides you.

Bad research happens when we already know what we want the research to say and only look for things that confirm our original thoughts. Good research challenges us, forces us to look at things in new ways, and requires that we synthesize lots of information into a cohesive idea.

When you do good research, you’ll find lots of information. So, then what? What do you do with that information and how do you use it to make a point in your own compositions?

Start by practicing information synthesis. When we synthesize information, we take what we’ve learned and try to make sense of it by looking for connections and a clear sense of what that information is teaching us. In other words, we let the research guide us.

Look at/think about the information you’ve found in your Research so far. Use the following questions to help you synthesize that information and begin thinking about a working thesis for your draft.