Synthesis is the process by which we put separate bits of information together to produce new information.

Example

For example, let us say that you find three pieces of information in three different sources as follows:

• You hear on the radio that Lucas Radebe, who is South Africa’s national soccer captain, is also captain of the Leeds United club team in England.
• You read in a newspaper that Leeds United will play a very important club championship match in England on May 14.
• You see on the television news that South Africa’s national team, the Bafana Bafana, will play a World Cup qualifying match in Johannesburg on May 14.

In your own mind, you can put these three pieces of information together, and you will realise that there is going to be a problem. Lucas Radebe cannot possibly play on the same day for both Leeds in England and South Africa in Johannesburg. With this knowledge, you can start to think sensibly about the situation.

• You can pose questions about the situation - for example, is it more important for Radebe to play for his country or his club? What would be the consequences if  Leeds lost the match. What would the consequences be if South Africa lost its match?
• You can identify things which need further investigation. For example, how much money does Radebe earn by playing for Leeds? How much would he earn playing for South Africa?
• This new information might cause you to re-consider your response to the first question.
• You could explore alternatives - could one of the matches be played on a different date?
• Once you have gathered as much information as you need about the situation, you can start to suggest solutions to the problem - maybe the world soccer authorities need to oversee all fixture lists so that clashes like this will not happen. Maybe there should be international regulations which tell people what to do in situations like this, so that individual conflicts will not arise.

(A real situation like this actually arose early in 2001. You might like to find out what happened to resolve it.)

So what is "synthesis"?

From this example, you can see that synthesis is a very important part of thinking. With synthesis, we go beyond just finding information. We see how things fit together and make sense. We become aware of problems. We identify issues that need to be examined in more detail. This may lead us to further investigation, and gives us good reasons for seeking further information. We need to check whether this information is accurate and reliable. Then, when we have got as much valid information as we can gather, we can start to come up with new and creative ideas of our own.