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When synthesizing, we combine different thoughts or voices together into a unified whole.
Synthesizing
•is a creative process,
•includescritical analysis, and
•integrates different ideas from literature that are focusedon a specific problem or research question.
Synthesizing is not just a series of article summaries.
To synthesize, you need to fit the ideas your different sources have on a subject together like a puzzle.
You show the whole picture by "combin[ing], reorganiz[ing], and integrat[ing] concepts and perspectives on the topic to create new theoretical formulations and ways of thinking about [a] topic" (Torraco, 2016, p. 420).
The information throughout this section on synthesizing sources is based on the following sources:
Frye, A. (n.d.). How to synthesize articles for a paper [PowerPoint presentation]. Retrieved from https://www.uml.edu/Images/How%20to%