List as many as you can.

Literary analysis can be tricky, so as you practice the necessary skills on your own, it is also beneficial to see how professional literary critics do it. Your first major writing assignment is an explanatory synthesis of critical articles offering an interpretation of a text we have read so far. (Gilgamesh or Beowulf)
FOR EACH TEXT, YOU WILL SELECT TWO CRITICAL SOURCES. THESE WILL CONSTITUTE THE FOUNDATIONS OF YOUR SYNTHESIS. I recommend you use the Library databases for your research.
This writing task requires that you present the information from these sources accurately and briefly, a skill necessary to academic writing in any field. The sources will clearly address the same topic and the same text, but they will present divergent opinions on it. Your task is to inform the readers of your essay about these positions without favoring a particular one. In fact, the idea is to remain neutral in order to truly understand and not misrepresent to the readers of your essay the message of the sources under consideration. This is an important step in the research process; neglecting it will lead to misinformation and will undermine your credibility and integrity as a researcher.
Pre-Writing
Think about your writing task. Identify subtopics that the sources have in common. List as many as you can. Choose a few subtopics that seem best suited for the purpose of this task.
Introduction
Use a strategy to capture your reader’s attention and direct it toward the topic. The purpose of your introduction is, naturally, to introduce your primary text, your topic, and, in this case, the authors and their articles (your “sources”). Briefly summarize their divergent positions in relation to the topic, and then establish which subtopics you plan to discuss (this is your “essay map”). The final sentence of this section may be your thesis statement, which states the reason for alerting your readers to the discussion that follows (your writing purpose).
The Body
For each subtopic, paraphrase the authors’ views, giving each source equal time, space, and consideration. Explain what reasoning and evidence each uses to support their view. Include the specific quotations from the primary text each source uses as support. Remember that this is an explanatory synthesis, so your reporting should be as impartial as possible. Be sure to provide a clear topic sentence for each subtopic, and use transition markers to help you shift between the authors’ viewpoints and between subtopics (this will enhance your essay’s coherence).
The Conclusion
Write a conclusion that explains the significance of the topic. Use this opportunity to leave your reader with a lasting impression of your treatment of the topic and the skill with which you satisfied the task you set out for yourself in the introduction. Avoid simply repeating your thesis and essay map, as this approach hardly communicates sophistication.