SYNTHESIZING
INFORMATION:
THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT INCORPORATING
SOURCES INTO YOUR RESEARCH
Kevin Klipfel, Information Literacy Coordinator, California State University, Chico.
kklipfel@csuchico.edu
Synthesizing Sources into Research
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One of the major research skills you’ll need to develop
in order to do successful college level research is the
ability to effectively “synthesize” the research sources
you found into your own work.
By synthesize we mean that you combine the research
you’ve found with your own work and turn it into one
coherent, well-organized, piece of research.
This module will offer some principles designed to help
you effectively incorporate information into your
research.
When do you Synthesize?
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Synthesizing information is one of the last steps of
the research process: you’ve gone through the
process of choosing a topic; found the information
you need; understand the claims you want to make
in your paper; and now you’re about to actually
write your paper (or speech, or Ted Talk) and want
to figure out how to best way incorporate the
research you’ve done into your final product.
Synthesizing Information: What Will
my Research Product Look Like?
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One strategy is to imagine what your assignment
might look like (Paper, Ted Talk, etc.).
What is my overall argument? How am I going to
present this information to my audience? What
information do I want to present in the intro? In the
main body/argument of the paper? In the
conclusion?
Thinking this way will help you take the information
you’ve found from your research and synthesize it
using the best source(s) for your current purposes.
Using Sources: Citing your Information
as Evidence
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One of the main reasons to use sources in your paper is to verify, or
provide support for the claims you make in your paper.
You can think of citations as providing an answer to the question,
“Why should someone reading this believe what I’m saying?”
For example, suppose I want to write a paper about why college
students don’t get enough sleep and I open with the claim, “College
students sleep less than other segments of the population.”
Well, I can’t just say that. I have to find good, empirical evidence to
cite in support of that claim.
This citation would function as (1) evidence to support your point and
(2) a way for your reader to verify what you said to find out if it’s
really true.
Context
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A helpful trick for effectively synthesizing
information into your research is to ask yourself
yourself: What am I trying to do right now?
 Define
what is meant by a particular term?
 Provide evidence/support for something I just said in my
paper?
 Argue for a more abstract, philosophical point?
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This will help you understand the proper kind of
evidence – or source type – to use in your citation.
Examples: Definitions
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Suppose you are writing about organic farming and
why organically farmed foods are better than nonorganic foods. Thinking about your paper outline,
you’ll first need to define what you mean by organic
farming. What kind of source would be good for
that? There are several that might work.
A
reputable governmental agency.
 A quality encyclopedia.
 A scholarly article on the topic.
Examples: Empirical Claims
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An empirical claim is a statement made about the
world of the senses. For example, what if I wanted
to argue in a paper that you should be yourself,
because people who are true to themselves lead
more happy, meaningful lives. What kind of
evidence would support that claim?
 Here
I might cite a very specific, empirical study from a
scholarly journal article.
Summing Up: Key Points
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When thinking about successfully synthesizing
sources into your research, there are a couple key
strategies to remember.
 1.
Think about the key points and the overall argument
you want to make in your paper. Structure your
research with those key points in mind.
 2. Think about context: Ask yourself, “What kind of
evidence do I need to support the claim I am making
right now?”
Contact a Librarian
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If you have any questions, don’t forget to contact a
librarian: we’re more than happy to help!
For questions about this module, or how to incorporate this module into specific courses, contact:
Kevin Klipfel, Information Literacy Coordinator, California State University, Chico. Contact: kklipfel@csuchico.edu