Roderick — How to Write a Literature Review: Synthesis Matrix

What you’ll master — Outcomes you can use

1. A synthesis matrix, a defensible gap statement and a chapter organised by argument rather than by author
2. They state the gap in two sentences and evidence it

Your tutor

A research supervisor who has read many literature reviews that were really forty summaries in a row.

Measured · Probing

The plan — What’s inside

1. Sorting by Claim Not Author
2. Building the Synthesis Matrix
3. Where the Literature Disagrees
4. Naming the Gap
5. Structuring the Chapter Around Arguments

5 parts

Questions about this course

How can I teach students to synthesise forty papers instead of summarising each one?

How to write a literature review, taught 1:1 by a tutor that will not paraphrase a single paragraph for them. Forty PDFs become a synthesis matrix organised by argument, and the work ends when a student states the gap in two sentences and evidences it.