Abstract:

The ability to express oneself in written form in a second language with accuracy and coherence is no mean achievement, let alone do so while synthesizing information from several sources.
Our students are Freshmen students in their first year at The American University in Cairo. They come from school with very little experience in summary or research-writing, both essential for academic work. Even the writing they are exposed to at school is lacking in a variety of aspects. Writing a composition generally involves the ideas themselves - the content - as well as the organization of thought and the accuracy of language. A more complex step is research-writing which also involves the synthesis of information in a coherent, logical manner. The students have to be taught all that in class. Our aim is to offer guidance for these students to enable them to collect information from a variety of sources, synthesize it, and form a cohesive essay in their own words. Methods are offered for the student to accomplish this task in a smooth, progressive manner.
The process is divided into several stages, beginning with simple paragraphs and moving to more complex ones and, finally, dealing with full passages. In the process, students will be shown how to deal with unfamiliar terms, link their notes making use of transitions and complex structures, and form a complete, cohesive essay without resorting to plagiarism.