Chapter 6 Reading Synthesis

Chapter 6 discusses how to integrate outside sources into your research paper effectively. What I took away from it was mostly the fact that you aren't using your outside sources to create your argument, you're using them to back up what you're saying. Most people try to find sources and then base their argument around them so they know they'll have information backing it up. However, this is not a very smart way to handle a research assignment. What you want to do is to create your argument and then find sources that fit it, not vice versa. So, once you've found these sources, you don't want to just thrown in random quotes or information into your paper, you need to integrate it in an intelligent manner. You find points that back up ideas you have and then when you're discussing these ideas in your paper, you'll bring in the outside information to back up your point and make it seem more valid. You can paraphrase the information, take a direct quote, or summarize the information in order to back up your claims, you just have to make sure it fits well within the paper and doesn't disrupt the flow by being awkwardly placed somewhere it might not necessarily go well. That's what it's talking about when it says you need to integrate your sources, not insert them. Don't just throw them into your paper where you're talking about a certain idea just because that information backs it up. You need to make it seem like the ideas were fluid and you knew exactly where that quote or paraphrasing was going to end up all along. You also want to mix up which form of integration you use. You don't want to just use a bunch of quotes and have your paper be littered with them. It gets boring reading someone else's words in your paper. So use paraphrasing, summarizing and direct quotation throughout the paper and change it up for the reader in order to keep them interested and present your argument to them more effectively.