You may be at the point in your writing process where you have collected a fair amount of literature, but are unsure how to put it all together. This can be tricky, especially as a literature review is NOT the same as an annotated bibliography that summarizes and evaluates a list of curated sources. A literature review is a step beyond this type of scholarship, because you are also situating your own research in the context of other work. In this way you are expected to build a narrative where you might start to investigate gaps in the literature, and weave together disparate methodologies, concepts, and theories. One way to start to organize your work is by using a synthesis matrix.
1. Identify key themes that crop up throughout the literature you have found. This could mean anything from useful methodologies, theoretical underpinnings, and major conceptual themes. Create a concept map if you are not sure how to start.
2. Build a table with themes as columns, and sources as rows (pictured on the right). Start to comb through these resources to identify where which themes are showing up in the literature. Note the page numbers or sections of the papers where they show up. If a source does not contain any information on a theme, leave it blank. Many of your sources might only contain one or two themes, though it is possible a really stellar review article might contain all themes.
3. Start to think about how you might organize your matrix into a coherent narrative. You should be able to start seeing how sources overlap and disagree, and which sources might make the most sense to talk about in groups. Some people like to color code cells based on where they might fit best in the literature review. You might need to rearrange or tweak the columns you originally created as you find new literature and learn more about the information you have gathered.
A synthesis matrix visually represents your research by organizing your sources by themes:
| Theme #1 | Theme #2 | Theme #3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source #1 | |||
| Source #2 | |||
| Source #3 |
A synthesis matrix is a great tool to use whether you are just starting to collect literature, or you are putting the final touches on your introduction.