We want to hear from you! The Learning Commons team is striving to provide the best possible learning experience for our students, staff, and faculty. Please share your valuable feedback and suggestions.
After you have made your thematic table, ask yourself the following questions:
•In what order should I talk about the main themes?
•Why that order?
•In what order should I talk about the sub-themes?
•Why that order?
You should consider these themes and subthemes and decide a logical organization that will help your reader(s) follow and understand the ideas.
Take the time to organize the information you find important. This will help to keep your discussion, thoughts, and conclusion(s) clear for the reader and easier for you to synthesize in your writing.
Videos
Watch this 3-minute video for an introduction to organizing your findings in a literature review.
Salter, J. [Dr. Jodie Salter]. (2016, March 14). Writing the literature review: A banquet hall analogy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE_Us8UjS64
Watch this 10-minute video to learn about using reverse outlining to help you check your organization as you write your literature review.
Badenhorst, C. [cecile badenhorst]. (2019, January 12). Reverse outlining [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO-d0Y5GidE
Watch this 3-minute video on synthesizing information.
USU Libraries. (2019, June 25). Research synthesis [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObK6J7vGnw8
Watch this 3-minute video on synthesizing literature.
Sheridan, N. [Nathalie Sheridan]. (2013, November 23). Synthesizing literature [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm8mZ-ClNuw
More Information
More information and tips on synthesizing can be found at "Synthesizing Sources," by the University of Toronto.
