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Reading / Compare and contrast / Grade 11 / rcb01

Synthesize Sources Without Erasing Limits

Combine complementary findings while preserving each source's scope.

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Track what each source measured, when, and with whom. Build a claim supported by both, but do not turn one sample into a universal result. Preserve a limitation when it changes what can reasonably be concluded.

Worked example

A survey of preferences and a count of actual visits answer different questions. A synthesis can compare them, but a stated preference is not identical to observed attendance.

The Workshop Schedule

Source A: In a survey, 60 of 100 current workshop members preferred Saturday sessions. Nonmembers were not surveyed. Source B: During a four-week trial, Saturday sessions averaged 24 attendees and weekday sessions averaged 18. Saturday sessions also offered a new topic, so schedule and topic changed together. Both sources were prepared for a decision about a future schedule.

1. Which synthesis is supported?
2. Which limitation belongs specifically to Source A?
3. Why cannot Source B isolate the effect of schedule?
4. Which follow-up best separates schedule from topic?
5. Which sentence overgeneralizes the evidence?