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5. SYNTHESIS
How do you integrate and present information from a variety of sources to meet your information need?

It is time to organize your ideas, incorporate your sources, and present the result of your hard work to an audience.   
5.1 Organize information from multiple sources 
• How does the information from all the sources fit together?


5.2 Present the result
• How is the information best presented?

How to complete step 5 successfully (or the tale of many drafts)

1. You will be revising your work many, MANY times, so give yourself plenty of time to complete the assignment. Your first draft is not your final draft. Ask your classmates for feedback. Bring your work to your teacher for suggestions. See the librarian for ideas on how to improve your writing or add more sources to your work. Be prepared to rewrite your essay—as many times as it takes to make it the best draft you can possibly write.

2. Take advantage of technology when organizing and presenting information. Word processing (Word, Pages), graphics programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, Gimp), desktop publishing (InDesign, iStudio), spreadsheets (Excel, Numbers), presentation software (PowerPoint, Keynote) are some options that allow you to add creativity to your final product.


3. If you have the option to select the format in which you will submit your research, take a look at this article with alternatives to essays and select one.

4. If the format has been determined by your teacher, review all submission criteria for the assignment. Reread the assignment sheet for format guidelines and check to make sure that you have attached all necessary documents (drafts, notes, sources, source cards, rubric, etc.).

5. Make sure you have added a "Works Cited" (MLA) or "References" (APA) page.  


Helpful Links to Complete Step 5

Online Interactive Outline Maker
Create a printable outline online

You Quote It, You Note It

Interactive tutorial about plagiarizing and citing sources

Cyberbee Interactive
Cute interactive tutorial about copyright issues

MACHS Library Plagiarism Page
List of resources about plagiarism and citation

PlagiarismChecker.com
Great tool to self-check for plagiarism





Citation Help and Citation Makers
Websites that help you cite your sources and create a Works Cited page
Bib Me
Free MLA and APA citation maker

EasyBib
Free MLA maker.  More than 50 types of sources

Purdue OWL APA Citation
Help with in-text citations and "References" page

Purdue OWL MLA Citation
Help with in-text citations and "Works Cited" page

Son of Citation Machine
Create MLA or APA citations using ISBN/Web lookup search feature

Feeling good about step 5? Then, move on to step 6, Evaluation


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