Synthesizing

Synthesizing involves combining ideas from a range of sources in order to group and present
common ideas or arguments. It is a necessary skill used in essays, literature reviews and other
forms of academic writing.

Unlike summarising and paraphrasing, which only uses one author’s ideas at a time, synthesising
combines ideas from more than one text or source?

Synthesising allows you to:

 combine information and ideas from multiple sources to develop and strengthen your
argument(s)
 demonstrate that you have read widely on the topic
 use and cite multiple sources.

How to synthesise

Use the following steps to synthesise information from different sources.

 Read relevant material.

 Make brief notes using key points / keywords. This makes it easier to compare and
contrast relevant information.
 Identify common ideas.
 Cite (reference) all the authors you have used.

Note-taking for synthesising

Write down the main points. Remember to cite the references.

Topic : English is the global world language

Text 1 (Bond 2002) Text 2 (Robertson 2003)

- International language for business - used in worldwide technology

- Used for international forums (e.g. UN) - computers key factor in spread of
- Second language in many countries English
- internationalisation of education

Text 4 (Kerstjens 2000)

Text 3 (Havir 1999)
- minority of speakers in world
- small number of speakers worldwide - Chinese dominant especially in future
- importance of English linked to US - English will decline in future
power, i.e. ‘political’
- more people speak Chinese worldwide

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Writing a synthesis from notes

Look at your notes and identify similar and contradictory arguments. Group these together to
develop/support your arguments. Cite references appropriately.

Supporting ideas of Bond & Robertson

Supporting the contention that English is the dominant world language, Bond (2002) and
Robertson (2003) point out its importance as the medium of international communication in
business, technology and other global forums. However, others argue that despite its apparent
dominance, English is not the global language when the number of native speakers of other
languages, e.g. Chinese, are considered (Havir 1999; Kerstjens 2000).

Weaving together similar ideas that

Reference citations contradict the previous statement

Activity 2

Read the key points below and group the four similar ideas then complete the citations. When
citing multiple authors, the names should be in alphabetical order.

Topic: Smoking is…

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Activity 3

Read the two articles below. Using relevant information from both articles, write a synthesis on
the advantages of online shopping. You may include other information or details to support
the main ideas taken from the passages.

Article 1

Online Shopping : Advantages over the Offline Alternative

The advent of the Internet as a shopping medium has enabled shoppers to gain several benefits.
This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the benefits of Internet shopping by
identifying and discussing the advantages of Internet shopping over traditional storefront
shopping.

Shopping on the Internet offers convenience and time-saving benefits to shoppers, as compared
to shopping in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Changing consumer lifestyles and lack of time
may make it more difficult for consumers to shop at physical locations such as stores and
shopping malls (Davies 1995, Cheeseman and Breddin 1995). Shopping on the Internet
addresses this problem as shoppers can shop in the comfort and convenience of home.

The Internet operates 24 hours a week, seven days a week, and can be accessed anywhere in
the connected world; shoppers can expect to browse and purchase goods on the Internet
anytime, unlike traditional storefronts that have fixed opening hours. Shoppers can also purchase
goods that are unavailable at their location, and are able to bypass restrictive import policies, as
the Internet allows shoppers to make purchases from vendors in other locations around the world.

Shoppers are able to use the Internet as a powerful research instrument in the purchasing
process. For certain products such as books and Videos/CDs/DVDs, reviews and
recommendations are important factors in influencing purchase decision. With such products,
shoppers are not only able to browse through a larger selection on the Web in sites such as
Amazon.com, but are also able to conveniently obtain reviews and recommendations that are
usually unavailable in offline stores. Shoppers who shop online do not necessarily make the
purchase online, but 'offline' from a brick-and-mortar storefront, and vice versa. Ernst and
Young's report ('Internet Shopping' 1998) concluded that this ability to shop, research, and view

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potential purchases on the Internet empowered customers and accelerated their purchase
decisions.

Shopping using the Internet also overcomes the time and financial costs of traditional shopping;
shoppers can shop from the comfort and convenience of home, and need not travel to physical
storefronts. Shoppers are able to locate many vendors online using search engines and websites
designed to navigate shoppers, view detailed product information from a variety of vendors'
websites, compare price and quality among different vendors, and make purchases online. With
online shopping, shoppers no longer have to suffer the costs and incomplete information of
traditional search, making product searches easier and more effective.

The Internet makes it easier for shoppers to compare prices between vendors. Online vendors
offer the prices of their goods in their websites. Simply by viewing different vendor websites,
shoppers are able to obtain and compare prices easily, as compared to visiting different physical
storefronts, which is costly and time consuming. Shoppers are able to find lower prices using the
Internet due to the wider reach of information, and navigator websites such as
www.autobytel.com that offers prices of competing vendors. With price information on the
Internet, shoppers are less vulnerable to overpaying when buying from physical storefronts that
may manipulate prices to shopper's disadvantages.

Shoppers are able to obtain lower prices when buying online. Shoppers are able to buy direct
from a manufacturer's or wholesaler's website using the Internet. As more manufacturers and
wholesalers cut off retail intermediaries to sell direct to consumers via the Internet, costs are
lowered and hence they are able to offer lower prices. Online stores are not burdened by the
costs of running a physical store, such as the rent of the physical premises and operating costs
such as the wages of sales staff. The cost savings by online stores lead to lower pricing on the
Internet, passing on cost savings to shoppers. Furthermore, the Internet encourages online
vendors to compete amongst one another by lowering prices.

Source:

Chang, J. (2007). Online shopping: Advantages over the offline alternative, Journal of Internet
Banking and Commerce. Retrieved February 2, 2012 from
http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/JIBC/0311-07.htm

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Article 2

Research on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Shopping and Corresponding

Strategies

With the promotion of e-commerce, online shopping is gradually understood by consumers, and it
is developing with the trend of specialisation and large-scale, as a new fashion of shopping.
More and more users like online shopping because of its price transparency and shopping
convenience. Currently, among China's netizens, about one of four is online shopper; however,
in Europe and Korea, about two of three are online shoppers.

Consumers who enjoy online shopping believe that online shopping can save time and enable
them to buy the goods not sold in local market. Online shopping has no spatio-temporal
boundary, which means that you can go shopping in the website of stores, any time, any place,
as long as you connect to the Internet. Consumers have less time in shopping at physical stores;
moreover, many office staffs only have time at night or weekend for shopping. Traffic congestion
and growing store prolong the shopping time, and consumers have difficulty in identifying variety
of goods. Through the network, consumers can compare goods indoors, which save time and
cost and improve efficiency of purchasing.

Other than that, consumers can grasp the whole information of goods in online shop, such as
place of origin, manufacturers, price, features, function and so on. Through the virtual reality
technology, consumers can see the goods in the form of 3D dynamic picture, and enjoy going
shopping at home, as long as they click on the items of online store with mouse, and the price of
kinds of goods can show on the computer, with illustrations and detailed instructions.

Convenient payment is another benefit of online shopping. The main e-payment is the bank card
online. Netizens can pay online in a few seconds if they have a bank card. Consumers can issue
order instructions through feedback form, E-mail or any other ways for the selected goods, and
wait the goods at home.

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Online shopping is favoured as it saves the cost of shopping. In traditional shopping, consumers
first collect information of goods, and then choose and buy goods, at last go home with goods.
The purchase cost includes the goods prices, freight including the traffic fees between shop and
home, and transaction time and energy. Under the e-commerce environment, the cost includes
goods cost, network cost and logistics cost and so on. Compared with traditional retail business,
e-commerce reduced greatly the consumers' transaction cost because consumers do not have to
go different shops for goods, do not bargain with salesman exhaustedly. Consumers compare
goods price in a flash because of e-commerce; thus, the transparency of the goods prices are
improved greatly. Online marketing mode can significantly save the cost of channel, lowered
goods price.

Source:

Yang, J.X., Zhao, H.X. & Wan, J. (2010). Research on the advantages and disadvantages of
online shopping and corresponding strategies. Paper presented at International Conference on
E-Product E-Service and E-Entertainment (ICEEE), 2010 in Henan, China. Retrieved February 2,
2012 from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5660278