Reference no: EM133091382

Synthesis Matrix and Paraphrasing

PART A

Question 1. While searching for the right sources for your literature review process, you can very quickly come up with a huge pile of papers, each of which may seem to point you in a different direction. You might feel confused and irritated by all of this and wonder how to make any sense of it. At this point, getting organised is vital. There is no one right way of doing it, but here are some suggested ways that you can follow to organise your literature.

Synthesis Matrix
A literature review requires a synthesis of different subtopics to come to a greater understanding of the state of knowledge on a larger issue. One way that seems particularly helpful in organizing literature reviews is the synthesis matrix. The synthesis matrix is a chart that allows a researcher to sort and categorize the different arguments presented on an issue. Across the top of the chart are the spaces to record sources, and along the side of the chart are the spaces to record the main points of argument on the topic at hand (NC State University, 2006).

Thus, creating a synthesis matrix will help you record the main points of each information source and document how they relate to each other.

The moodle shell for this week contains a document entitled ‘Writing A Literature Review and Using a Synthesis Matrix' (this was created by the NC State University Writing and Speaking Tutorial Service Tutors 2006 and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.)

Read the above document thoroughly and begin creating your own (on your research topic) Synthesis Matrix in the table below. Insert more rows and columns in the table as required - remember that for the Synthesis Matrix assignment you should have at least 6 sources (papers), and there will probably be 5 or 6 main ideas which those papers cover.

Not every paper will have something to say about each idea, so some cells of the table may be blank - put n/a (for not applicable) in these so it's clear that they weren't left empty by mistake). Also remember that as well as recording information about the ideas or concepts discussed by each paper, you might also want to make notes about the methodology which they follow, as that can inform the research methodology which you adopt in your Research Proposal (for example, if most authors are testing their system using a particular benchmark problem, then it makes sense for you to use that same benchmark, so that your results can be compared against theirs).

PART B

Question 2. Paraphrasing means using your own words to restate the central idea put forth by another author (refer to Lecture 2). The following link on ‘Using paraphrasing in writing' (University of Southampton) will help you to understand, evaluate, how to approach and practice paraphrasing. Visit the link and perform the activities, and then summarise your responses (copy where applicable).

Question 3. Now do some test-testing on paraphrasing and also referencing (Refer to lecture 2). The following quote is taken from the text book Business Driven Information Systems written by Paige Baltzan, Amy Phillips, Kathy Lynch, and Peter Blakey, published in 2010, page 258, published by McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd, North Ryde, NSW, Australia.

Westpac Financial Services (WFS), one of the four major banks in Australia, serves millions of customers from its many core systems, each with its own database. The databases maintain information and provide users with easy access to the stored-information. Unfortunately, the company failed to develop information-capturing standards, which led to inconsistent organizational information. For example, one system had a field to capture email addresses while another system did not. Duplicate customer information among the different systems was another major issue and the company continually found itself sending conflicting or competing messages to customers from different operations of the bank. A customer could also have multiple accounts within the company, one representing a life insurance policy and one representing a credit card. WFS had no way to identify that the two different accounts were for the same customer. WFS had to solve its information quality problems immediately if it was to remain competitive. The company purchased NADIS (Name & Address Data Integrity Software), a software solution that filters customer information, highlighting missing, inaccurate and redundant information. Customer service ratings are on the rise for WFS now that the company can operate its business with a single and comprehensive view of each one of its customers.
a. What in-text reference should appear at the end of this quote?
b. Write down the matching item for the Reference list
c. Paraphrase the quote keeping the author's meaning, but using different words.
d. Give an appropriate title to the given paragraph.

Question 4. Now that you have completed the self-testing, you need to find a valid source (a book or a journal article) related to your research topic and copy a relevant section (relevant to your research topic)- a paragraph or part of, and then do the following:
a. What in-text reference should appear at the end of this copied quote?
b. Write down the matching item for the Reference list
c. Paraphrase the quote keeping the author's meaning, but using different words.

Attachment:- Synthesis Matrix and Paraphrasing.rar