An examination of SOAR strategies for college students writing from multiple sources: Soaring to Successful Synthesis Writing

Abstract

Writing assignments at the collegiate level that emphasize synthesis are quite often assigned. In reading-to-writing tasks, students must choose, organize, and integrate facts from a variety of sources in order to produce an original piece of writing. This might be challenging for certain students. Consequently, it could be challenging for college students to construct a synthesis that has a distinct structure and is tightly connected to their own ideas. This research aimed to get a deeper understanding of the SOAR strategy system, which assists students in selecting, arranging, linking, and controlling various forms of information. This was accomplished in full compliance with the requirements for the synthesis writing process. In the first piece of study, the value of the educational tools that SOAR has made available to its users was investigated. Reading four separate books—four that can be finished with or without the SOAR supplements, depending on the student's preference—helps college students prepare to write synthesis essays. These four readings can be completed with or without the SOAR supplements. Students who did not utilize SOAR as their guide were able to write essays that were less comprehensive (in terms of the selection of relevant materials), less categorically organized (in terms of structuring), and had fewer intertextual relationships than students who did use SOAR as their guide (connecting). The second experiment investigated the degree to which SOA is trainable and how the quality of synthesis writing is affected by student-created SOAR tools. Students in higher education were tasked with completing their first assignment, an essay in the form of basic synthesis. After that, individuals either elected to participate in the SOAR program or decided against it and relied on their methods instead. They finished yet another writing synthesis project as their very final assignment for the day. Students who had participated in SOAR instruction could produce better-structured essays and covered more ground than those who had not participated in the program. During the dialogues, a broad variety of topics were discussed. Some of these topics included the underlying cognitive mechanisms, the limits of the study, prospective directions that future research would pursue, and the practical ramifications.