Critical reading as an impediment for effective synthesis: Case of master 2 students

Abstract

Writing an appropriate research paper requires evidently the mastery of effective synthesis. This paper intends to highlight students’ hindrances in producing a sound synthesis, particularly weak critical reading and proposes equally outlets for a sturdy comprehension. The motivation is linked with the slenderness of studies addressing critical reading/effective synthesis binary. This will have pedagogical implications regarding the teaching of synthesis. The researchers used purposive sampling with master two didactic students (39 students). Self-assessment of the teaching strategy, corpus analysis, and an eight-item student questionnaire were used. The findings indicated that the major problems surrounding the internalisation of good synthesis were related to the different operations required for critical reading. The paper put into evidence the necessity of integrating the subject of academic writing into the syllabi of Master didactic students, the design of adequate critical reading tasks, and urged equally the necessity of more condensed practice, both in-class and off-class. Keywords: Critical reading, effective synthesis, paraphrasing, shortness of instruction, master 2 students.