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Using a synthesis matrix, is an easy way to organize important information for your literature review.
Make a copy of this Synthesis Matrix Google Doc to use for your literature review!
Now that you've found sources, you need to synthesize the most relevant works into your literature review. Watch this video on what it means to synthesize various resources together.
Remember synthesis is not:
Synthesis requires you to formulate your own thoughts and analysis, so that you organize your papers idea by idea instead of source by source. It's often a messy process, but don't be intimidated! Here are some tips to help:
As you begin synthesizing your literature, you will begin identifying themes in the literature. A theme is a concept or topic that occurs in the literature. Typically, themes will stand out as being an important aspect of the journal article.
A single article may have several themes. What you want to do is read the article and record the possible themes in your synthesis matrix. Once you do this for each article, you will be able to see which articles have similar themes.
Things to look for:
Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
Check “Cited by” in Google Scholar to get a sense of how influential the research
Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?
Writing literature reviews can be challenging. Here are some additional resources that have different ways of describing how to conduct a literature review.
OWL Purdue: Writing a Literature Review
University of North Carolina Writing Center: Literature Reviews
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