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Providing Guided Practice in Discourse Synthesis
Author(s) -
Numrich Carol,
Kennedy Alan S.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
tesol journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1949-3533
pISSN - 1056-7941
DOI - 10.1002/tesj.258
Subject(s) - class (philosophy) , psychology , field (mathematics) , mathematics education , english language , graduate students , academic writing , pedagogy , computer science , mathematics , artificial intelligence , pure mathematics
In this article, the authors discuss the importance of the skill of synthesis in university‐level writing. They outline specific challenges faced by students of English as a second language with synthesis as a writing skill. They then describe a lesson that they created for an English for academic purposes class for graduate students in the field of social work. Examples of texts are presented that contrast unsuccessful with successful synthesis of various sources on the topic of homelessness. The authors provide guidelines and language suggestions for teachers to introduce to students to use as this skill is addressed. Finally, they present positive testimonials provided by their students after having completed this lesson.