6.3 Synthesizing and Citing Sources

6.3 Synthesizing and Citing Sources

Beyond grammar and organization, the PERT writing blueprint lists synthesizing information from multiple relevant sources and representing and accurately citing data, conclusions, and opinions of others. On the multiple-choice test these skills appear as a short source passage followed by a question such as Which of the following notes should be taken to reference what the passage says about X? Your job is to pick the option that captures the source accurately and completely for the stated purpose. Unlike the grammar items, these questions test reading judgment as much as writing: you must first understand exactly what a source claims and how strongly it claims it, then choose the sentence that reproduces that claim without adding, subtracting, or twisting anything.

1. What Synthesis Means on the PERT

Synthesis is combining relevant details from a source to answer a specific question. It is not summarizing everything—it is selecting the information that matches the purpose. Consider this source:

Granite is a hard, coarse rock formed by the slow cooling of magma under the earth's surface. Its main minerals are quartz and feldspar, with smaller amounts of mica and hornblende. Granite's hardness makes it a popular building stone.

If the question asks what granite is made of, the correct note lists its minerals: Granite contains quartz, feldspar, mica, and hornblende. A note that granite is "hard and coarse" is true but answers a different question, and a note that it is "a popular building stone" describes its use, not its composition. Match the note to the question. This is why the question stem matters so much: the same passage can yield four different "correct" notes depending on what is being asked, and every distractor is designed to be a true statement that answers a different question.

2. Accuracy: Do Not Add or Distort

When you represent the data, conclusions, and opinions of others, the note must say only what the source says. The wrong answers on these items usually fail in one of three ways:

• Overstatement: turning "many students" into "all students," or "a possible cause" into "the cause."
• Added information: inserting a claim the source never made.
• Wrong emphasis: reporting a minor detail as if it were the main point.

The correct choice is faithful to the source's scope and certainty. Pay special attention to the source's hedging words—verbs and qualifiers such as suggests, may, some, often, and in most cases. These words limit how far a claim reaches, and a faithful note must preserve them. Swapping suggests for proves or some for all is the single most common trap on these items, because the distorted version still sounds like a reasonable summary of the passage.

3. Distinguishing Fact, Opinion, and Conclusion

Sources mix three kinds of statements, and accurate representation means labeling each one correctly. A fact can be verified (the survey included 400 respondents); an opinion expresses a judgment or preference (the author believes the policy is unfair); and a conclusion is an inference the source draws from its evidence (therefore, the program should be expanded). A faithful note does not upgrade an opinion into a fact or present the author's conclusion as if it were established data. If a source writes, "In my view, the results are encouraging," an accurate note reports that the author finds the results encouraging, not that the results are encouraging.

4. Citing and Integrating Sources Honestly

Accurate citation means keeping the boundary between the source's words and your own clear. If you use an author's exact words, enclose them in quotation marks; if you paraphrase, restate the idea in your own words without quotation marks—but never change the meaning. A paraphrase that exaggerates or reverses the source's point is a misrepresentation even if no quotation marks are involved.

When you paraphrase, you must also attribute the idea to its source rather than presenting it as your own; phrases such as according to the article or the author reports signal that the claim belongs to someone else. Dropping that attribution, even accidentally, misrepresents whose idea it is.

5. Combining Multiple Sources

When a task references more than one passage, synthesis means finding where they agree, disagree, or add to each other, then representing each accurately. Do not blend two sources into a single claim that neither one actually made. The strongest response reflects each source's real position. If one source reports a benefit and a second reports a drawback, an accurate synthesis holds both in view—Source A notes the benefit, while Source B raises a concern—rather than flattening the two into a one-sided statement.

Exam Strategy

Read the question first so you know what information you are hunting for. Then test each option against the source with two questions: Does the source actually say this? and Does it answer what the question asks? The correct note passes both tests; distractors are usually true-but-off-topic or accurate-sounding overstatements. Before you commit, reread the source's qualifiers one more time and confirm your chosen answer keeps the same level of certainty—if the source only suggests something, your note may not prove it.