1. Building Critical Thinking and Academic Writing Skills Assignment 4: Synthesis/Analysis Paper

3. Writing a strong synthesis and analysis paper requires a lot of hard work with the articles and a thorough understanding of the topic of your paper. A synthesis must be an organized, accurate report that provides the reader with quotes and phrases directly from your sources. An analysis includes your own interpretation and understanding of that information.

4. Instructions: 1. Research your essay topic and take notes. Write down quotes from your sources that make strong points you want to use in your paper. Write your own analysis directly beneath each quote. Remember that “analysis” does not have to mean “opinion”. Overall, your essay should be a statement of facts with your interpretation.

5. 2. Write a main claim for your paper. This claim should summarize the focus of your essay, including both the topic and your overall analysis.

6. 3. Write three or more topic sentences that support your claim, based on the notes you took from the articles. These topic sentences relate to the main claim of your paper, not the focus of each individual article.

7. 4. Return to each topic sentence and make a list beneath each sentence that includes direct quotes or paraphrases of ideas from your sources that support the topic sentence. Include the citation information (author, year, page number) of each source. Also include a few points in your list of your own analysis of the topic.

8. 5. Write your introduction, providing some background to the topic and your chosen problem. Finish your introduction by stating your main claim.

9. 6. Restate your claim for the conclusion of your essay. Summarize the ideas you put forth in your body paragraphs and show the reader how all of your topic sentences supported your main claim.

10. 7. Now that you have a thoroughly prepared outline for your paper, write your first draft by expanding upon the outline you created for each paragraph.

11. 8. Read your first draft and check for grammar and punctuation errors. Rewrite passive sentences into active sentences. For example, "The theory was proved..." could become "Scientists proved the theory..." Read your essay out loud to check for run-on sentences and to make sure the flow of your ideas is logical. Revise and edit as necessary

12. 9. List your references at the end of your paper. Cite each source you used in your essay, following APA guidelines for references.

13. That’s it!