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I have set myself a challenge to write for 1-2 hr from a single word prompt every day for 30 days. AI is only allowed to improve my interpretation, not for writing. This is Day 2. Today’s word is; ‘synthesis’.
I really enjoyed Day 1's word writing. It made me explore what words actually mean and in doing so I am a whole lot clearer on some aspects of research and writing. You can check Day 1 out here.
I began today with the same excitement though with a little more apprehension. That fear was not justified though as I went on a fun journey, creating my own 'synthesis' in the process! This piece edged into Day 3, due in part to some writing I realised upon reflection was too tangential.
Let's get started!
Sometimes an antonym to a word reveals as much as the word itself
At first I was afraid of today's word; 'synthesis'. It made me think of bringing things together, but I didn't know how I would essentially 'bring together' an entire piece of writing around it.
When working with any new word, my first stop is my big physical dictionary. Here's what Collins had to say about synthesis:
synthesis; “the process of combining objects or ideas into a complex whole"
So my initial ideas were right. What was interesting - and as a curious mind I had to follow the line of enquiry - was the recommendation, by the dictionary, to compare synthesis to 'analysis'.
What I did not realise is that synthesis is in fact an antonym of analysis:
analysis; "the division of a physical or abstract whole into its constituent parts to examine or determine their relationship or value"
... which is kinda cool actually and I had never really thought of it in this way before.
As I think how I apply these to my own work, they are incredibly powerful concepts for the research process, because of what they represent, but also because of how they can be used. They might seem mutually exclusive, but they are both absolutely central to the research process.
Every piece of research follows a pattern
Essentially, every piece of research starts with a synthesis, becomes an analysis, then reforms to be a new synthesis. The most novel research, and writing, draws beautifully isolated components from across multiple syntheses and creates an entirely new, exciting synthesis at its conclusion.
In fact this relationship between synthesis and analysis applies to anything in life; cooking, fashion, movies...
Research starts with someone else's synthesis
Every piece of research starts from someone else's synthesis - a complex idea or multiple complex ideas as formulated by someone or something else. At its simplest it could be a book you read or it could be what you see out your window. At the more complex end it could be thousands of field or lab experiments.
The second part of all research is the analysis
With any piece of work our aim is then to do an analysis, of current syntheses, and break down our observations into component parts. We then find other component parts which are of interest, and given our understanding could combine well.
In a research paper, this exploration is usually explored in the Introduction. In this section we discuss previous syntheses and how we have taken components of them to study the subject(s) in a new light.
We then think about how we can test our isolated components to understand their relationship to one another. Yesterday, I explored our Methods and Methodology; these are how we test how our isolated components fit together. This section is our analysis - effectively our experiment.
Every piece of research must balance out component complexity with understandability in a rich soup of feasibility. So our analyses will always have limitations.
Most research investigates 3 to 4 of these components. Any more and we'll struggle to pull out relationships. If they are considered as unique components, they follow the formula 2^n, so with 4 components there are 16 relationships we need to define. That's a lot. If you are studying interactions, the number can become mind boggling.
The final part is a new synthesis
Once all the data have been gathered and reported, it's time to re-synthesise your analysis into a brand shiny new synthesis. Here we try to understand how all the new puzzle pieces we have found, fit together within the limitations of our analysis. We can look back to other syntheses and see whether what we have found agrees or disagrees.
Often it is comforting to find your new synthesis agreeing with others, but it is more exciting when it disagrees!
Developing a new synthesis is what makes research exciting for me
Developing a new synthesis, whereby you bring together all the juicy new component relationships you (hopefully) found together, is one of the most exciting and challenging parts of research.
This word has been super fun to explore! Tomorrow, I will talk about 'biodiversity'.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for more of my writing syntheses, make sure to sign up to my newsletter:
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