A completed EN 304 Unit 3 literature synthesis exercise: several sources organized around points of agreement and disagreement, with the writer's sentence carrying each claim. Searches like "en 304 unit 3 assignment example", "en304 unit 3 sample" and "en 304 unit 3 example" land here.
What a finished EN 304 Unit 3 literature synthesis exercise looks like
The exercise is short and its shape is the whole point. Each paragraph opens with a sentence the writer wrote, stating something about the state of the conversation: that several researchers converge on a finding, that two accounts explain the same result differently, that a claim widely repeated rests on one study. Citations then arrive inside that sentence or immediately after it, two or three per paragraph, because a paragraph carrying one source is a summary wearing a synthesis heading. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is characterized rather than reported: what exactly they differ about, and whether it is evidence, definition or scope. No paragraph is organized by author. A short closing says what the set establishes and what it leaves open.
How a EN 304 Unit 3 example is structured
The writer's sentence governs each paragraph because the failure this exercise exists to correct is the paragraph that begins with an author's name and ends wherever that author stopped. Sources are grouped by what they say rather than by who said it, which forces the writer to have read closely enough to see the grouping. Disagreements are characterized before they are adjudicated, since two sources can appear to conflict while measuring different things and a writer who settles the dispute too early usually settles the wrong one. Convergence and divergence are both represented, as a set agreeing about everything commonly means the search was narrow. Attribution stays tight to the specific claim, and the closing reports the state of the question rather than the writer's opinion of it.
Every paragraph opens on the writer's claim
The first sentence belongs to the writer and states something about the conversation, not to whichever author is cited next.
Two or three sources per paragraph
A paragraph resting on a single source is a summary with a synthesis heading, which the criterion catches quickly.
Sources grouped by claim, not author
Material is organized around what is said rather than who said it, which only close reading makes possible.
Disagreements characterized before they are settled
The exercise says what exactly two sources differ about, since apparent conflicts often turn out to measure different things.
Agreement and divergence both represented
A set that converges on everything usually signals a narrow search rather than a settled question, and markers read it that way.
A closing on the state of the question
The final lines report what the sources establish together and what they leave open, rather than the writer's preference among them.
Where marks go in EN 304 Unit 3
Synthesis exercises lose points by being summaries in sequence. Paragraphs that begin with one author, then a second, then a third have reported three sources and synthesized none, and this is the commonest submission in the unit. Paragraphs with one citation cannot synthesize by definition. Disagreements flattened into a note that scholars disagree tell a reader nothing about what is actually in dispute. Sources grouped by publication date rather than by claim produce a chronology. Long quotations used where a characterization was wanted hand the paragraph back to the author. Attribution attached to a whole paragraph instead of to the claim it supports makes the reasoning impossible to check. A closing announcing the writer's view has answered a later unit.
Get a EN 304 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
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EN 304 Unit 3 questions, answered
How many sources make a synthesis?
Per paragraph, at least two, because the relationship between them is what is being graded. Across the exercise, your instructions set the number, and sections commonly name a range. Beyond the count, a marker looks for the same sources reappearing in different combinations as the claims change, which shows they were read rather than distributed one to a paragraph.
What if all my sources agree?
Then the search was probably narrow, and it is worth going back before the draft. Genuine agreement does exist, but a conversation worth a researched argument usually contains disputes about scope, definition or method even where the headline finding holds. Look for review articles that map the debate, and for the work your current sources cite in order to disagree with it.
Can I put my own view into the synthesis?
Sparingly, and not as evidence. This exercise is graded on how accurately the sources are placed against each other, so a paragraph ending in your opinion has changed genre. Your judgment is visible anyway in what you group together and what you call a real disagreement. The argument proper, with your position stated and defended, belongs to the later units.