The synthesis essay definition revolves around one thing: data collection. It is a form of academic writing where writers are expected to collect data from different sources to create their argument or explain a perspective.

A synthesis essay outline follows the same format as other types of academic writing. They consist of an introductory section, a body, and a concluding section.

The synthesis essay exam

A common fear for most students is writing the AP Language exam. This Advanced Placement English language and composition exam is split into two sections. The first section comprises approximately 55 questions, with a percentage score of 45 and a time limit of 60 minutes. This section is quite easy as the answers lie within the text. 

The second section, however, comprises three free-response questions, with a percentage score of 55 and a total time limit of 135 minutes (15 minutes for the reading portion and 120 questions for the writing portion). Each question is accompanied by a specific prompt, which includes synthesis, passage analysis, and argument. 

In the AP Lang synthesis essay, students are provided with six to seven sources. The goal is to write an authentic essay using ideas from at least three of these sources. In the passage analysis, students are asked to read a particular passage and discuss the various writing techniques used by the writer. The final prompt allows students to choose a perspective from an assertion and write an argument that is either for or against the assertion.

This post will examine the most common essay prompt, which often challenges students: the synthesis essay. It will offer information on synthesis essay format, definition, and how to write a synthesis essay.

How to properly write a synthesis essay

A great synthesis of academic work aims to provide clear and detailed information about an argument. It achieves this by evaluating texts, making comparisons, and describing the connection between cause and effect.

Below are steps to assist you in writing a great synthesis paper without the fear of failure:

• Begin with research

Every experienced writer understands the importance of proper research. Since a synthesis essay involves the collection of data from different sources, thorough research is required. When making research, search for points that would form the basis of your argument.

Proper research is possible when writing an assignment. However, if in an exam hall, your research would involve critically examining the sources given to you and carefully marking out their points.

• Draft an outline

An outline is a guide that assists you with planning and organizing details for a good synthesis essay structure. In a synthesis paper, you do one of two things: either explain a particular perspective or make an argument. Whichever you choose to do, drafting an outline that precisely explains the connection between your sources and your essay will help you create an authentic paper.

• Write an introduction

Your introductory section should be as unique as possible. Write an introduction that clearly states your premise, offers your audience background information, and grabs the attention of your audience. You might decide to begin with either a question, a quote, an illustration, or a strong opening sentence.

• Develop your paragraphs using themes

From your outline, it is expected that you already have ideas to present in your paper. To enable your audience to enjoy the flow of your writing, you are expected to organize each paragraph using themes. This means that each paragraph must contain a different theme, which would be detailed in the body. Writing two separate themes or ideas in one paragraph would disorganize your paper. You might consider using transitional words and phrases to connect paragraphs.

• Write a concluding section

Sum up your essay with a strong conclusion. Ensure that you cover all the main themes in your concluding paragraph.

Conclusion

Over the years, synthesis essay topics have been used in analytical papers to analyze theories; research papers to integrate various ideas; argumentative papers which compare varying opinions and support one idea; and business reports to analyze various ideas and create a coherent plan. The above steps will guide you when writing your essay.

In cases such as this, students who do not fully understand the concept of analytical essays often seek assistance from an external source that provides them with an analytical essay definition. These sources further support their definitions with an analytical essay format and an analytical essay outline example.

What is an analytical essay?

There are numerous definitions of an analytical essay. While some say it is a form of academic writing in which the writer presents a research argument strongly supported by facts, others say that it is a writing form that allows a writer to analyze smaller pieces for the purpose of shedding light on a bigger picture.

Regardless of these definitions, one thing is certain: writing an analytical essay is totally different from writing a summary. Most students confuse both terms. A summary involves a narration of the points in a story, speech, article, or event. On the other hand, an analytical essay involves finding the relationship between these points and connecting them back to the main point through detailed evaluations and highlights.

In order to accurately achieve this, the writer or student must first draft an analytical essay outline. This outline helps to organize your highlights and improve the structural form of your essay. Some writers follow an analytical essay outline template to help guide them in their writing process. 

This article will provide you with tips on how to write an analytical essay. These tips will act as a guide to help you accurately write your academic paper.

Tips to use when drafting your analytical essay outline

All essays are divided into three major parts: an introduction, a body, and a concluding section. All these parts ought to be separately highlighted prior to beginning your analytical essay.

The following tips have been carefully selected to improve the structural design, flow, organization, and accuracy of your analytical academic paper.

1. Start with a unique opening statement or question

Your opening sentence must either be interesting or surprising. Whichever approach you choose to use, it must be able to fascinate the audience and keep them glued to your work. You might want to start with a famous quote that introduces the context of your evaluations, or you might decide to start with a short, captivating story.

2. Draft a thesis statement

A thesis statement is the major part of your introduction. It usually appears at the concluding part of the introductory paragraph of your academic work. A good thesis statement will reflect what is to be expected from the essay. It offers readers a description of your entire argument in one sentence.

3. Back-up your statement

This is still part of the introductory section. You are expected to give your readers a sneak peek into how you intend to prove your argument.

4. Develop your themes

From your evaluations, you might have about three ideas to support your claim. Before writing your ideas, begin by first drafting your themes for each idea. Each theme in each paragraph should offer your audience an idea of what that paragraph will discuss.

5. Dive into stating your claim

Here, you will provide all your research, studies, surveys, and evaluations. You are expected to back-up your thesis statement with solid facts and evidence.

6. Ensure a connection

All themes must link to each other. You can do this by arranging your writing in such a way that a preceding paragraph introduces a subsequent theme. This way, your audience would naturally flow with you.

7. Draft your concluding section

The concluding section is the final piece of your academic paper. Here you are expected to restate your thesis statement and summarize your evaluations and highlights. Your concluding section ought to be the same length as your introductory section. You are encouraged to end on an interesting note with a quote or a solid closing statement.

Conclusion

There is nothing worse than staring at your screen for hours without having a single idea of what to write. This momentary block can be very frustrating, especially when you have a deadline to meet. The tips mentioned above will help you overcome this challenge when writing your analytical essay.

While some of these common writing problems can be easily noticeable, others can be slight and almost unnoticeable without proper proofreading skills. This article will provide you with a list of common mistakes writers make and how to avoid them.

Common errors in writing essays

Based on a 2019 study carried out in the Huynh Man Dat High School, located in Vietnam, four of the most common writing mistakes to avoid are related to tenses, collocations, spelling, and verb forms.

1. Misused tenses

Grammatical tense is a category in the English language that expresses time references. There are three types of tenses. These include the present, past, and future tense.

Understanding these tenses and how to appropriately apply them when writing would help you avoid this mistake. You may consider looking up each type of tense on Google for a clearer understanding.

2. Spelling errors

When it comes to rating, spelling errors have the first place as the most commonly occurring mistake in essays. These mistakes can occur when writers are confused about the appropriate homophones to use. 

Some of these spelling errors involve words like: there and their, write and right, I am and am, new and knew, your and you’re, dual and duel, where and were.

3. Repetitiveness

Constantly repeating the same words or phrases will make your reader quickly lose interest in your essay. Unfortunately, this is one common mistake in writing that many students make. Rather than reusing words or phrases, it is best to search for synonyms that can be accurately used without changing the context of the essay.

4. Excessive use of the passive voice

A good essay should contain at least 80% of sentences written in the active voice. The passive voice makes your essay dull and uninteresting, whereas the active voice creates a tone of vibrancy. Instead of saying “the kettle was thrown by David” (passive voice), you could say “David threw the kettle” (active voice).

5. Irregular use of verb forms

The three categories of verb forms include finite verb forms, infinite verb forms, and the combination of both finite and infinite with auxiliary verbs. Common mistake writers make is interchanging these forms.

For instance, instead of saying ‘I am going to school’, a student might mistakenly write ‘I going to school’, or rather than using ‘I am eating’, a student might write ‘I eating’, forgetting to include the ‘am’ in the sentence.

6. Paragraph length

One common mistake is writing paragraphs that are either too long or too short. If a paragraph only contains one or two sentences, it is considered too short. On the other hand, a paragraph would be considered too long if it exceeded eight sentences. The word count for each paragraph in an essay should be between 80-150 words.

7. Misplaced collocations

Collocation can be said to be the habitual juxtaposition of words that are in close affiliation with each other. This simply means a combination of two or more words that form a relationship and are used together.

Some examples of collocations include: making an effort, paying attention, making a mess, making trouble, making progress, making sense, fast food, and so on. However, a common mistake students make is wrongly juxtaposing words together. 

For instance, rather than saying ‘heavy rain’, which is grammatically correct, some writers would make the mistake of using ‘strong rain’.

8. Improper use of coordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunction acts as a link, joining two words, clauses, or sentences that are of the same grammatical rank. These conjunctions include: but, for, yet, so, or, and nor. One common mistake often made by students is using these conjunctions to begin a sentence. Rather than using coordinating conjunctions to begin a sentence, you might consider using transition words and phrases.

9. Excessive use of informal words or phrases

Informal words or phrases do not refer to slang alone. Very frequently, writers make the mistake of exchanging formal words with informal phrases. For instance, instead of using ‘apologize’ (formal), students make the mistake of using ‘say sorry’ (informal).

10. Use of contractions

The use of contractions is not acceptable when writing formal essays. This is a common mistake student make. Learn to spell out your words in full. This makes your essay longer and also gives it a professional writing style.

Conclusion

Even the best students make mistakes in writing. To get the perfect score, students are often encouraged to proofread and thoroughly edit their essays after writing to avoid common essay mistakes.

This challenge often leads to burnout, anger, anxiety, stress, and sometimes an effect on mental health. To seek solutions to this problem, students frequently resort to finding ways to make essays longer.

There are various ways to do this without necessarily doing more research or writing more ideas. These techniques involve the correct things to say to make your essay longer. They might include an extension of words or phrases or the use of illustrations and quotations.

This article would attempt to answer the question of how to extend essay length. It would provide you with information on how to make an essay look longer without going out of context and maintaining quality.

How to make essays longer

The following short, simple tips would act as a guide to help you learn how to lengthen an essay and even exceed the specified word count required of you.

• Include transitional phrases and words

Transition words or phrases function grammatically to show the relationship between paragraphs. Including these words or phrases in your essay will not only help to lengthen it but will also help to increase its flow.

Some examples include: however, consequently, moreover, in addition, thus, hence, accordingly, on the other hand, notwithstanding, conversely, on the contrary, in contrast, meanwhile, since, for this reason, and so on.

When using these transition words and phrases, ensure that you use them accurately in the correct context in which they are to appear. Some can be used to show the relationship between cause and effect, others can be used to show comparison, time, examples, or sequence.

• Write your numbers in the alphabet, not figures

One very simple trick that helps students extend the length of their essays is spelling out numbers. Instead of writing it in figures like 1, 10,000, 20,000, and 5000, you could write it out completely. As “5000” becomes “five thousand” and all other figures change, you will notice the extended length of your essay and an increase in the word count.

Before spelling out your numbers in full, read through your essay instructions and check for specific writing styles and formats which might affect this trick.

• Avoid contractions

Contractions are the combination of two words to create shortened versions of the spoken or written forms of those words. It is usually created by omitting certain internal letters or sounds. Adding contractions in any essay is academically wrong. 

Examples of contractions include: I’m, don’t, won’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t, you’ve, could’ve, would’ve, didn’t, they’re, wasn’t, isn’t, they’ll, can’t, there’s, I’ve, and so on.

When you write out words in full rather than in their contracted forms, your word count will increase. For instance, notice the difference between “aren’t” and “are not”. It went from one word to two words.

• Use quotes

One of the best ways to grab the attention of your reader is to introduce the topic using famous quotes. Using quotes helps you not only extend the length of your essay but also keep your readers engaged and entertained. 

When using quotes, look out for those which are most suited to the context of your essay. Furthermore, ensure that the people whose quotes you are using are mentioned.

• Be descriptive

Accurately describing and expanding your ideas not only creates intrigue in the minds of your readers but also helps you make your essay longer. Your descriptiveness could also include fascinating illustrations and examples.

For instance, rather than saying “he loved her smile,” you could say “whenever he thought of her smile, he imagined all seven colors of the rainbow, wishing he could just touch it and bask in its warmth.”

Conclusion

One of the most frequently asked questions on Google regarding essay writing is: “How can I lengthen my essay?”. While many solutions to this problem have been proffered, you can simply buy essay cheap and leave the stress behind. Because when you try to lengthen the essay by yourself, you should be careful not to reduce the quality of your writing in an attempt to apply tricks to make your essay longer.