Synthesis Station

Synthesis Station 🔗

**Q2 (8 marks, AO1)** hands you both non-fiction texts and a focus, and asks you to **synthesise** them. This is the question students most often half-do — writing about one text, then the other, and never joining them. This module builds the real skill: **one point, both texts, compared**.

Text A — a letter, 1854 🏙️

Two sources on life in the city. First, the older one (written for this module — your real sources will differ): *London astonishes and appals in equal measure. By day the streets seethe with humanity — costermongers bawling, carriages thundering, a thousand chimneys blackening the air. I have seen fortunes and beggary in a single street. At night the new gas-lamps burn like captive stars, yet the fog rolls in thick as soup. It is a marvel and a monster both.*

Text B — a blog, 2020 🌃

Now the modern source on the same subject: *People warn you that London will chew you up, and honestly? They're not wrong. The Tube at rush hour is a full-contact sport, the rent is a running joke, and you can go a week without anyone catching your eye. But then the lights come on over the river, a stranger helps you with your case on the stairs, and you remember why eight million of us put up with it. It's exhausting. I love it.*

What synthesis means 🧩

To **synthesise** is to **combine and compare** the two texts — bringing evidence from **both** into the **same** point, and often **inferring** what the comparison shows. The tell-tale sign of a strong Q2 is that almost every sentence touches **both** texts at once: "Both writers…", "whereas Text B…", "similarly, Text A…".

Why it falls short

A student writes: "Text A describes Victorian London. Text B describes modern London." Why is this NOT good synthesis?

• It summarises each text separately instead of combining and comparing them
• It uses too many quotations
• It should analyse language techniques
• It gives a personal opinion

The glue: connectives 🔀

Synthesis is held together by **comparative connectives**. Keep a handful ready: • For **similarities**: *both*, *similarly*, *likewise*, *in the same way*. • For **differences**: *whereas*, *however*, *in contrast*, *while*. One connective per point forces you to touch both texts — exactly what Q2 rewards.

Glue the point together

_____ texts see the city as both a marvel and a monster: Text A calls it "a marvel and a monster", _____ Text B says it will "chew you up" but is still loved — a striking _____.

Evidence in Text A

An interactive activity.

Matching evidence in Text B

An interactive activity.

Spot the similarity

Which of these is a valid SIMILARITY to build a synthesis point on?

• Both writers show the city as overwhelming — the "seething" streets in Text A and the "full-contact" Tube in Text B
• Text A was written in 1854
• Text B mentions a suitcase on the stairs
• Both texts are non-fiction

Spot the difference

Which of these is a valid DIFFERENCE between the texts?

• Text A's hardships are the fog and gas-lamps of its era, whereas Text B's are the Tube and the rent of today
• Text A is longer than Text B
• Only Text B is about London
• Text A uses more full stops

Write the synthesis

An interactive activity.

In the exam 🎓

Synthesis mastered. Grade-9 habits for Q2: • Make **one point that touches BOTH texts** — never summarise one, then the other. • Glue it with a **connective** (both / whereas / similarly / in contrast) and back it with evidence from **each** source. • Go beyond restating: **infer** what the similarity or difference reveals about the focus.