Learning & thinking · a life skill
Simple Synthesis Notes
the page where three things you read meet
Read three things on one question and you usually end up with three summaries. A synthesis note is the page where they meet. Tonight you pick one question, read two or three short pieces on it, and write one note on where they agree, where they clash and what links them. Then you add a line of your own.
- Easy to start
- Medium impact
- Learn it in 1 week
- Three pieces, one note
None of the three pieces says "check weekly, water if dry". That line only appears once you read them against each other.
Tonight, with a pen
Try it now.
One question, two or three short pieces, and a page. About forty minutes, most of it reading.
-
Write one question
Something you actually want settled, at the top of the page. Every piece you read tonight answers to it.
-
Read two or three short pieces
Different kinds if you can: an article, a leaflet, a thread. After each, write its main claim in one line, in your words.
Short means one sitting each. A chapter is fine; a whole book is another night. -
Look for the threads
Take each pair. Do they agree, clash, or does one explain the other? Read for this from the start, not just for what each one says.
-
Write the note
Three rows: where they agree, where they clash, what links them. Name the sources in each row, by letter is fine.
-
Add your own line
One sentence that answers the question and needs at least two of the pieces to say. If one source already says it, keep going.
Two pieces is enough. With only two you can still fill all three rows: where they agree, where they clash, and whether one explains the other.
Your note tonight
Line up the pieces, pick the threads, write your line.
Write the question and one line for each piece you read. For each pair, say how they meet. The note fills itself in from your threads and tells you what's missing.
What each piece says
The threads
The note
Your question goes here.
Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. It's gone when you leave the page, so copy the note into wherever you keep your notes.
Why look for threads from the start
Notes helped readers see how texts related, but only when that was what they were reading for.
Keiichi Kobayashi had about eighty undergraduates read six texts that took different sides of one controversial issue. Some read to find how the texts related to each other. Others read to form their own opinion on the issue.
Half of each group were allowed what the study calls external strategies, things like writing notes as they read. The other half weren't. Afterwards everyone was tested on how the texts related, and on what each text argued.
The readers who took notes understood the relations better than those who didn't, but only among the readers looking for relations. With notes allowed, the relation-finders also beat the opinion-formers. Notes made no difference to remembering what each text argued on its own.
The honest limits: one study, about eighty students, one sitting, and texts chosen by the researcher. It shows that purpose and notes worked together, not that any particular note format is best.
| Reading purpose | Notes allowed | No notes |
|---|---|---|
| Read to find how the texts relate | Best at seeing how the texts related | Behind the readers with the same purpose who took notes |
| Read to form an opinion | Notes gave no edge; behind the relation-finders who took notes | No worse off than the note-takers in this group |
Remembering each text's own argument: no difference from notes, whatever the purpose.
The idea
Why it works.
A summary of each piece stays inside that piece. What's new when you read three things is how they fit together, and that only shows up if you go looking for it. Reading with the threads in mind changes what you notice on the page.
The note does the holding. Three claims and the links between them are more than you can keep in your head at once, but they fit on a page. Once they're written down, a line of your own often turns up, one that none of the pieces could say alone.
When it goes wrong
Habits that help.
- Question first, reading second. Without a question, you collect pieces. With one, you can see which ones answer it and how.
- Pick pieces that differ. Three articles written from the same press release will only agree. A leaflet, an article and a forum thread are more likely to clash.
- A clash is a find. Don't smooth it over. Write both sides down; often the clash is about different situations, and that's your line.
- Test your line. Cover the sources. If you could have written it after reading just one, it's a summary, not a synthesis.
Practise this in HourLife.
In Learning: Send a capture on. Track the books, courses, podcasts, videos and articles you are working through, log where you are, and keep what you take from them.
