when writing a literature review there are many steps to be taken to get the final product one important aspect of a literature review is synthesis what is the synthesis and what does it mean the synthesis can briefly be described as taking different themes and combining them into one new main topic these themes are information from sources such as journal articles think of a sandwich a sandwich requires multiple condiments meat cheese and so on to build into what it will become these aspects of a sandwich when separated are the sources or articles you have gathered each source may be a little bit different in subject matter but when combined they will all create one main theme aka the sandwich otherwise known as the synthesis now that we have a general idea of what a synthesis is we need to know what a synthesis is not a synthesis is not a summary summaries require restating or paraphrasing a text synthesis goes far beyond this rather than summarizing what the articles are about overusing direct quotes and comparing and contrasting each of your different articles you need to critically analyze them synthesis is a critical analysis this requires you to identify major themes critical gaps and strengths and weaknesses in your articles this allows you to share your own ideas and also contribute to the scholarly conversation as you start to find your articles and read through each one try to look for any themes or topics each article may be addressing take notes and monitor these themes as they will come into play later when you begin to organize them for your literature review once you've chosen your articles you will then want to organize them into your literature review when synthesizing this means you want to organize your articles by each of their individual themes it's on you how you want to organize the format of your paper and where you want to discuss each of your themes or subtopics no synthesis will look the same this is when you need to ask yourself what do all these articles have in common how do they relate to your main theme or idea in order to determine this you must analyze each of your individual articles and see how they relate to the overall theme how you decide to organize these articles to discuss them in your paper and what you analyze will make your synthesis unique as you start to cite your sources within your paper you'll want to be careful how this is done for nursing 7:02 you will be required to cite multiple sources in a single source this means that if several of your articles share similar concepts and you discuss those concepts in your paper each of those articles will need to be addressed together look at this example and see where the citation has been bolted the citation will include the author's last name as well as the publication year for each article you're citing if you're struggling or have further questions reach out to your professor for assistance and suggestions now I want to focus on the synthesis matrix there's a great tool to help you organize all of your ideas and preparation of writing your paper the synthesis matrix allows you to add each of your articles on the left-hand side and then organize them by individual themes or ideas at the top include notes or quotations and the empty boxes to organize very various concepts or thoughts to see how each article might overlap here's an example of a completed synthesis matrix notice how the four themes at the top have been combined into one research topic or the main theme of your paper this allows you to see what step themes each article may or may not have in common and how those sub themes are part of a larger concept you may also notice gaps in your matrix don't panic this is fine it demonstrates how each article is still somewhat different and may have some contrasting ideas to the other articles you chose they're still very relevant to your research and you can see what aspects of those articles do overlap with others and where they don't remember just like your synthesis your matrix and they look entirely different from someone else's alright now that we've walked you through all the steps of synthesis where should you begin first read the literature find articles that interest you and analyze what they're discussing then you'll want to start comparing and contrasting do these articles overlap with their themes what are their strengths and weaknesses next it's time to organize creat assent this is matrix and determine the sub theme throughout take down important notes you'll want to remember about that article and how it may overlap with the others once you've found your sub themes or topics you'll want to determine the main theme of your paper the umbrella that all these articles follow under then you can begin to write remember to share your own perspectives and ideas throughout if you have any questions or need further assistance don't hesitate to ask a librarian visit our website to use our 24/7 chat system or call our main number we're always happy to help good luck