Summarizing and synthesizing

Part 3: Chapter 10

Questions to consider

A. What distinguishes a synthesis from a summary?

B. How much “author voice” is present relative to source material?

C. What is the nature of the material contributed to a synthesis by the author?

The purpose of synthesizing

Combining separate elements into a whole is the basic dictionary definition of synthesis. It is a way to make connections between numerous and varied source materials. A literature review presents a synthesis of material, grouped by topic, to create a broad and comprehensive view of the literature relevant to a research question. Here, the research questions are often modified to the realities of the information, or information may be selected or rejected based on relevance. This organizational approach helps in understanding the information and structuring the review.

Because research is an iterative process, it is not unusual to go back and search information sources for more material while remaining within the parameters of the topic and research questions. It can be difficult to cope with “everything” on a topic; the need to carefully select based on relevancy is ongoing.

The synthesis must demonstrate a critical analysis of the papers assembled as well as an integration of the analytical results. All included sources must be directly relevant and the synthesis writer should make a significant contribution. As part of an introduction or literature review, the syntheses not only illustrate the evolution of research on an issue, but the writer’s own commentary on what this information means.

Many writers begin the synthesis process by creating a grid, table, or an outline organizing summaries of the source material to discover or extend common themes with the collection. The summary grid or outline provides a researcher an overview to compare, contrast and otherwise investigate the relationships and potential deficiencies.[1]

Language in Action

  1. How many different sources are used in the synthesis (excerpted from “Does international work experience pay off? The relationship between international work experience, employability and career success: A 30-country, multi-industry study”) that follows? (IWE: international work experience)
  2. How do the sources contribute to the message of the paragraph?
  3. What are the elements of a strong synthesis?
  4. What information is contributed by the authors themselves?

1Taking stock of the literature, several characteristics stand out that limit our understanding of the IWE−career success relationship. 2First, many studies focus on individuals soon after their return from an IWE or while they are still expatriates (Kraimer et al., 2016). 3These findings may therefore report results pertaining to a short-lived career phase. 4Given that careers develop over time, and success, especially in the form of promotions and salary increases, may take some time to materialise, it is perhaps not surprising that findings have been mixed. 5Some authors note that there are short-term, career-related costs of IWE and the career ‘payoff’ occurs after a time lag for which cross-sectional studies may not account (Benson & Pattie, 2008; Biemann & Braakmann, 2013). 6Second, the majority of studies use samples consisting only of individuals with IWE (Jokinen et al., 2008; Stahl et al., 2009; Suutari et al., 2018). 7Large samples that include both individuals with and without IWE are needed to provide the variance needed to identify the influence of IWE on career success (e.g., Andresen & Biemann, 2013). 8Third, studies tend to focus on the baseline question of whether IWE or IWE-specific characteristics (e.g., host country, developmental nature of assignment) are related to a particular career success variable (e.g., Bücker et al., 2016; Jokinen et al., 2008; Stahl et al., 2009). 9Yet there may be an indirect relationship between IWE and career success (Zhu et al., 2016). 10More complex models that examine the possible impact of mediating variables are thus needed (Mayrhofer et al., 2012). 11Lastly, while studies acknowledge that findings from specific countries/nationalities, industries, organisations or occupational roles may not be transferable to all individuals with IWE (Biemann & Braakmann, 2013; Schmid & Wurster, 2017; Suutari et al., 2018), the specific role of national context is rarely considered. 12However, careers do not develop in a vacuum. 13Contextual factors play an important role in moderating the career impact of various career experiences such as IWE (Shen et al., 2015).[2]

Organizing the material

Beginning the synthesis process by creating a grid, table, or an outline for summaries of sources offers an overview of the material along with findings and common themes. The summary, grid, or outline will allow quick comparison of the material and reveal gaps in information.[3]


Summarizing

The process of building a “library” from which to draw information is critical in developing the defense, argument or justification of a research study. While field and laboratory research is often engaging and interesting, understanding the backstory and presenting it as an explanation of a proposed method or approach is essential in obtaining funding and/or the necessary committee approval.

Returning to the foundational skill of producing a summary, and combining that with the maintenance of a system to manage source material and details, an annotated bibliography can be both an intellectual structure that reveals connections among sources and a means to initiating – on a manageable level – the arduous writing.

Example – Two entries from an annotated bibliography

Nafisi, A. (2003). Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. New York: Random House.

A brave teacher in Iran met with seven of her most committed female students to discuss forbidden Western classics over the course of a couple of years, while Islamic morality squads staged raids, universities fell under the control of fundamentalists, and artistic expression was suppressed. This powerful memoir weaves the stories of these women with those of the characters of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov and extols the liberating power of literature.

Obama, B. (2007). Dreams from My Father. New York: Random House.

This autobiography extends from a childhood in numerous locations with a variety of caregivers (a single parent, grandparents, boarding school) to an exploration of individual heritage and family in Africa, revealing a broken/blended family, abandonment and reconnection, and unresolved endings. Obama describes his existence on the margins of society, the racial tension within his biracial family, and his own identity conflict and turmoil.

Using a chart or grid

Below is a model of a basic table for organizing source material.

source detail #1 detail #2 detail #3 notes
#1
#2
#3

 

Exercise #1

  1. Read the excerpts from three sources below. Determine the common topic and themes.
  2. Complete a table like the one above using information from these three sources.

Source #1

1Completion of a dissertation is an intense activity. 2For both groups [completers and non-], the advisor and the student’s family and spouse served as the major source of emotional support and are most heavily invested in the dissertation. 3Other students and the balance of the dissertation committee were rated as providing little support. 4Since work on the dissertation is highly individual and there are no College organized groups of students working on the dissertation that meet regularly, the process can be a lonely one. 5Great independence and a strong sense of direction is required. 6Although many students rated themselves as having little experience with research, students are dependent on their own resources and on those closest to them. 7It was noted that graduates rated emotional support from all sources more highly than students rated it. 8This may be a significant factor associated with dissertation completion.

9The scales and checklists suggest that there are identifiable differences between the two groups. 10Since the differences are not great, the implications are that with some modification of procedures, a greater proportion of students can become graduates. 11Emotional support, financial support, experience with research, familiarity with university and college dissertation requirements, and ready access to university resources and advisors may be factors to build into a modified system to achieve a greater proportion of graduates.

Kluever, R., Green, K. E., Lenz, K., Miller, M. M., & Katz, E. (1995). Graduates and ABDs in colleges of education: Characteristics and implications for the structure of doctoral programs. In Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA. Retrieved from the ERIC database.

Source #2

1In this writing group, students evaluated their goal achievement, reflected on the obstacles before them, and set new targets. 2This process encouraged them to achieve their goals, and they could modify or start a new target instead of giving up. 3The students also received positive feedback and support from other members of the group. 4This positive environment helped the students view failure as part of the nature of writing a thesis.

5On the other hand, daily monitoring encouraged the students to focus more on the process and less on the outcome; therefore, they experienced daily success instead of feeling a failure when the goals were not achievable.

Patria, B., & Laili, L. (2021). Writing group program reduces academic procrastination: a quasi-experimental study. BMC Psychology, 9(1), 1–157. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00665-9

Source #3

1The promotion of awareness of the tension between core qualities and ideals, and inner obstacles, in particular limiting thoughts, in combination with guidelines for overcoming the tension by being aware of one’s ideals and character strengths is characteristic of the core reflection approach and appears to have a strong potential for diminishing academic procrastination behavior. 2These results make clear that a positive psychological approach focusing on strengths can be beneficial for diminishing students’ academic procrastination. 3In particular, supporting and regenerating character strengths can be an effective approach for overcoming academic procrastination.

Visser, L., Schoonenboom, J., & Korthagen, F. A. J. (2017). A Field Experimental Design of a Strengths-Based Training to Overcome Academic Procrastination: Short- and Long-Term Effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1949–1949. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01949

Outlining

A topical outline is another tool writers may use to organize their material. It begins as a simple list of facts gleaned from various sources and arranged by category.[4]

A topical outline might look like this:

1. causes

a. fact #1/source #1

b. fact #2/source #1

2. effects

a. fact #3/source #1

b. fact #4/source #2

Exercise #2

Identify relevant facts presented by the three sources in Exercise #1. Determine the relationships between them. Consider how to categorize and arrange them in order to support or extend a related concept.

Exercise #3

A word about primary sources

Primary source material is information conveyed by the author(s) of the publication. The information they use to support or extend their ideas – their source material – is secondary source material for their readers. Anything considered for inclusion in research writing should be derived from primary sources. When writers find very valuable material cited, they retrieve the original work rather than paraphrase what has already been paraphrased.

Example – Synthesis

The excerpted synthesis below is the work of Joellen E. Coryell, Maria Cinque, Monica Fedeli, Angelina Lapina Salazar, and Concetta Tino. The two primary sources they use in the paragraph were authored by Niehaus and Williams (2016), and Urban, Navarro, and Borron (2017). Because research writers are urged to only use primary sources, further investigation into the paper of Niehaus and Williams would be required in order to use their work as a source. As discussed in Identifying and deploying source material, an effective strategy in finding useful sources is to explore the references of particularly valuable articles or papers.

University Teaching in Global Times: Perspectives of Italian University Faculty on Teaching International Graduate Students

1Other researchers (Niehaus & Williams, 2016; Urban et al., 2017) offered analyses of faculty’s experiences participating in various training programs for internationalization of their courses.  2Niehaus and Williams (2016) studied a 4-year global faculty development program aimed at transforming faculty perspectives and internationalizing the curriculum.  3Findings indicated that participants integrated international and comparative topics to support their learners’ development of global perspectives.  4They worked to integrate international students’ viewpoints on research, and participants reported professional and personal gains defined by expanded professional networks of faculty members and higher standing that comes with teaching international students.  5Similarly, Urban et al. (2017) reported findings from a training program that assisted teaching staff to internationalize their courses.  6The program included a 12-day field trip to a different country.  7Semi-structured interviews with faculty members, 6 years after participating in the program, affirmed updated course content, new and broader perspectives, and a supportive environment for implementing the internationalized courses and teaching activities.

Primary source:

Coryell, J. E., Cinque, M., Fedeli, M., Lapina Salazar, A., & Tino, C. (2022). University Teaching in Global Times: Perspectives of Italian University Faculty on Teaching International Graduate Students. Journal of Studies in International Education, 26(3), 369–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315321990749

Secondary sources:

Niehaus, E., & Williams, L. (2016). Faculty Transformation in Curriculum Transformation: The Role of Faculty Development in Campus Internationalization. Innovative Higher Education, 41(1), 59–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-015-9334-7

Urban, E., Navarro, M., & Borron, A. (2017). Long-term Impacts of a Faculty Development Program for the Internationalization of Curriculum in Higher Education. Journal of Agricultural Education, 58(3), 219–238. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2017.03219

Two common approaches to the synthesis-producing process

Experienced researchers often have a strong hypothesis and search for evidence that supports or extends this. However, students often learn about their topic during the research process and formulate a hypothesis as they learn what is established in the field on their topic. Both approaches are acceptable, as is a hybrid.

Discovery phase

Researchers typically begin by paraphrasing any important facts or arguments, tracking their discoveries in a table, outline or spreadsheet. Some good examples include definitions of concepts, statistics regarding relevance, and empirical evidence about the key variables in the research question. The original source information (citations in the appropriate style and format) is as important as the content under consideration.  As shown in the model syntheses here, multiple sources often support a common finding.

Evaluation and analysis phase

A strong synthesis must demonstrate a critical analysis of the papers as well as an integration of analytical results; this is the voice of the synthesis writer, interpreting the relationships of the cited works as they are assembled. Each paper under consideration should be critically evaluated according to its relevancy to the topic and the quality of its content.

Writers first establish relationships between cited concepts and facts by continuously considering these questions:

A. Where are the similarities within each topic or subtopic?

B. Where are the differences?

C. Are the differences methodological or theoretical in nature?

The answers will produce general conclusions for each topic or subtopic as the entire group of studies relate to it.

As the material is organized logically using a grid, table or outline, the most logical order must be determined. That order might be from general to specific, sequential or chronological, or from cause to result.[5]

Review and Reinforce

Summarizing and synthesizing are key building blocks in research writing. Read with an awareness of

A. what information has been added for support;

B. what the source of that information is; and

C. how the information was incorporated (quotations or summaries) and documented (integral or parenthetical citations) into the material.

Research writing is a process itself that synthesizes new information, stylistic tendencies, and established conventions with the background knowledge of the researcher.

Media Attributions

  1. Adapted from Frederiksen, L., & Phelps, S. F. (2017). Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students. Open Textbook Library. ↵
  2. Andresen, M., Lazarova, M., Apospori, E., Cotton, R., Bosak, J., Dickmann, M., Kaše, R., & Smale, A. (2022). Does international work experience pay off? The relationship between international work experience, employability and career success: A 30-country, multi-industry study. Human Resource Management Journal, 32(3), 698–721. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12423 ↵
  3. Adapted from DeCarlo, M. (2018). Scientific Inquiry in Social Work. Open Textbook Library. ↵
  4. Adapted from DeCarlo, M. (2018). Scientific Inquiry in Social Work. Open Textbook Library. ↵
  5. Adapted from Frederiksen, L., & Phelps, S. F. (2017). Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students. Open Textbook Library.   ↵
definition

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Sourcing, summarizing, and synthesizing:  Skills for effective research writing  Copyright © 2023 by Wendy L. McBride is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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