A literature review is a method where you synthesize sources to conduct your own analysis to answer your research question. The way you will construct your literature review will be thematic. First, youll title each section with a theme that covers multiple sources. Second, youll write a couple of paragraphs per theme that define your analysis and explain the synthesis of your sources.
The synthesis matrix is a chart that can help you organize your sources, contrast ideas and help you combine themes before writing your literature review. Think about it as an outline. You use outlines to help you organize your essays.
In this In-class writing, you are going to practice using the synthesis matrix to help you organize your sources through common ideas/themes. You will be using the synthesis matrix for two or three sources. Pick two or three out of the 10 sources you have and create a chart to help you practice seeing patterns of commonalities, differences and overlaps in your sources.
On the topic section write your research question. For sources 1, 2 etc, write the author’s last name. For your main idea, find keywords that help define the main component of the sources. I recommend you to continue this practice before writing your literature review section on your research paper.
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