Synthesis techniques are taken into account when you want to organize the ideas included in a text. These techniques are very important since they will allow the student to develop his synthesis capacity. These techniques are intended to provide an overview of the text and an orderly organization of each of its parts.
The synthesis techniques that are commonly used are:
1. Underlining: consists of drawing lines under certain words, in order to highlight their meaning. Underlining is considered the first phase within the hierarchy of ideas included in a text. Among its advantages is:
- It promotes the creation of mental functions such as observation, the ability to analyze and rank.
- It allows quick review, the elaboration of diagrams and summaries.
For underlining, certain requirements must be met, some of them are:
- The text must be read beforehand.
- The underlining should be in pencil.
- The underlined text should present all possible main ideas.
- The text must be consistent. That is, if when reading it, just because of the underlined words, it makes sense, then the underline is well done.
2. The Scheme: represents a graphic sample of what has been underlined, since it includes in a summarized way the main and secondary ideas aligned in a coherent way. Outlines are important to do because just a glance at the text is enough to get a precise and comprehensive idea of the topic. The schemes can be expressed in the form of keys and in combined form of letters and numbers.
3. Conceptual Map: this technique is based on the graphic elaboration of a topic, starting from main concepts, which are linked with linguistic propositions and little arrows, thus allowing a graphic structure, which can be read following the trajectory of the arrows.
It is important to note that before drawing a concept map, the text must first be read, underlined, and understood. Then a list is made with all the main words or concepts in the text. The main idea should be placed at the top of the page or in the center of the page. Then the ideas that are associated are written and joined by lines, which will show the link that exists between them.
