Literature Reviews

Organizing Your Research

As you progress in your research and start to collect relevant books, articles, and more, you may want to use a citation and research management tool to help you organize your research. The Hunt Library provides access to an institutional subscription to RefWorks, but there are also other free tools available. 

See the below research guides for more information.

Synthesis Matrix

Once you have searched and analyzed the literature, you can now synthesize what you have learned and how it fits into your research project. You will then be ready to write your literature review. 

One strategy is to create a synthesis matrix. A synthesis matrix helps you organize the main points of each book, article, or other information resource you use. It allows you to see how the sources relate to each other and helps guide your writing.