A synthesis It is an abbreviated explanation in which the most important aspects of a specific text are exposed.
A synthesis should not only develop in a few words the main ideas presented in the source text, but also make clear the points of contact between them. Therefore, its elaboration requires reading and analysis work and that is why it usually constitutes one of the main study strategies.
It differs from the summary in that the latter reproduces the fundamental aspects of a text, without paraphrasing or reworking the text, and without there being an analytical work on these aspects, which allows them to be linked or given a particular value.
Synthesis Features
- Originality. Although it is based on the contents exposed by a previous text, the synthesis is a new writing, as its author uses his own words and style to expose the fundamental aspects that he has selected from the source text.
- Liberty. It is a writing with its own flight: the decisions about its style, the way and order in which the topics are addressed and the length (as long as it is shorter than the source text) are the responsibility of its author.
- Research. Many times, a summary provides approaches or points of view that are not developed in the source text. In order to achieve a more in-depth work, with a better linkage of the concepts addressed, it is necessary to do a research work and to know the full meaning of the concepts that are described.
Objectives of the synthesis
- Make an interpretive analysis of the information provided by the source text.
- Incorporate reflections or own ideas that expand the information extracted from the source text.
- Encourage the development of inference and deduction, fundamental in the learning process.
Resources used in the preparation of the synthesis
- Paraphrase. It is the explanation with simple words of complex ideas, to provide a clear, precise and didactic version that facilitates its understanding.
- Synthesis verbs. They are verbs that allow fragments or ideas to be linked, to form a whole with them or establish new relationships. For example: analyze, examine, interpret.
Steps to make a summary
- Read carefully and underline the main ideas of the source text.
- Once the fundamental aspects of the text have been identified, organize the ideas from the simplest to the most complex.
- Carefully analyze the selected data to identify possible points of contact or links that are not explicit in the original text.
- Try to make the writing shorter than the original text. In writing, emphasize the relationships you were able to establish and the fundamental ideas, leaving aside examples, clarifications, reformulations, etc.
Examples of synthesis
- Source text: Text on caring for water
Synthesis. Despite the enormous abundance of water on Earth, it is not an endless resource. Actually, the percentage that can be consumed and used freely is very small and, therefore, it is necessary to take care of it.
The water that humans consume for domestic, industrial or agricultural use returns to the ecosystem full of substances and pollutants. On the other hand, a sector of the world population does not have access to drinking water and, if the waste continues, by 2050 those affected could reach 50% of the planet’s inhabitants. In addition, the scarcity of water could affect agricultural production, which would then generate a lack of food.
To protect water, we must change our domestic habits (reduce its use in personal hygiene and other household tasks) and our consumption habits (buy seasonal vegetables, avoid bottled water) and educate future generations to understand the importance of your care.
- Source text: Informative text about garbage
Synthesis. Garbage is the name that refers to all the waste produced by the human being. Currently, a large amount of garbage is generated, in which plastic or non-biodegradable materials predominate.
Very little of the garbage produced daily is reused, so the rest ends up in the environment. This waste is composed of various elements that can be classified according to their origin as: domestic, commercial, industrial, sanitary or space. They can also be differentiated according to their composition into: organic; inorganic or mixed, which as they combine organic and inorganic elements can produce different reactions.
The problem with this waste is that there is nothing to do with it. In most cases, they are collected in landfills or buried. As the space allocated to this task is limited, many countries pay for others with fewer resources to deal with their waste. But, in all cases, garbage pollutes the environment, damaging the land, rivers and seas. So much so that there is an island in the Pacific Ocean created entirely from accumulated garbage, which continues to degrade and affects marine fauna above all.
- Source text: Expository text on the environment
Synthesis. The environment is the environment in which life develops and sustains. Living beings establish a direct relationship with that environment throughout their existence, which implies a series of chemical, physical and biotic exchanges between them and the environment in which they live.
Drastic changes that affect the environment can cause great damage among the animals and plants that coexist in it. This can occur naturally, for example, with the eruption of a volcano. The appearance of a substance or the change in the proportion of existing substances can change the environmental conditions.
However, the damages caused to the environment by humans have greater effects in the long term, although they may seem insignificant in the short term. The emissions of polluting gases, non-biodegradable garbage and the dumping of plastics or toxins in the seas cause a little damage every day, with a terrible impact in a decade.
Environmentalists or ecologists are political, social and economic movements that seek to improve the relationship that humanity establishes with its environment. In recent times, the warnings that specialists make about the impact of environmental damage on the immediate future of humanity have spread. Although some try to contradict it, there is irrefutable evidence that the destruction of the environment is taking place because of the industry: climate change, contamination by microplastics and the loss of biodiversity are clear examples.
To achieve an effective change it will be necessary to transform the production model throughout the planet.
- Source text: expository text about dinosaurs
Synthesis. The term “dinosaurs” refers to a diverse group of prehistoric animals whose existence is evidenced by the large number of fossils found throughout the world.
These vertebrate animals originated in the Triassic period, approximately 243 million years ago, and became massively extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. They were sauropsid reptiles, ranging in size, including the largest living things that have ever existed. They populated all the habitats and the marine depths. At present, around five hundred genera and more than a thousand different species are known.
These reptiles inhabited an environment that was then hot and humid, belonging to a single supercontinent. The atmosphere was rich in oxygen, which allowed some species to grow disproportionately. According to the experts, they were fast animals, with high metabolisms and great social interaction.
The discovery of fossils of these species was revolutionary in that it allowed us to understand the antiquity of the planet and cast doubt on some religious doctrines. Its disappearance continues to be the subject of study, although the most compelling theory is that a meteorite or asteroid impact caused a global climate catastrophe and, consequently, the death of thousands of species of animals and plants, including the dinosaurs.
However, these animals were the evolutionary step that allowed the appearance of warm-blooded prehistoric mammals.
- Source text: Literary work Romeo and Julietby William Shakespeare (1597)
Synthesis. Romeo and Juliet is one of the best-known works of William Shakespeare, in which two young lovers decide to marry and live together, despite the fact that their families have been rivals for a long time. The mutual hatred of the members of both families and a series of fatalities leads the couple to commit suicide due to the impossibility of leading a life together. The death of lovers supposes, however, the reconciliation of families. In this way, the tragic work constitutes an archetypal melodrama of unhappy love.
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