When categorizing the writings in the review, the researcher might consider
He might consider such questions as:
Remember that you are relating other studies to your study. How do the studies in your lit. review relate to your thesis? How are the other studies related to each other?
If there are many similar studies, a strategy might be to discuss the most important ones and say that the results were confirmed in many other studies.
There are numerous ways to organize the material in a lit. review. For example, one might organize the selected readings by
Such methods are generally better than organizing chronologically or by author. The latter often result in a boring review or one lacking clarity or direction.
As you read, you'll encounter various ideas, disagreements, methods, and perspectives which can be hard to organize in a meaningful way.
A synthesis matrix helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each other.