 An important part of writing a literature review is synthesis. But what is synthesis? Well, synthesis is kind of like a puzzle. It requires you to put together different pieces of research from multiple sources to form a new picture. Depending on how you organize the pieces, the story you tell will look a little different. The process of synthesis goes farther than just summarizing sources or even comparing and contrasting multiple sources and beyond even mere critiques of sources. When synthesizing, you are not just direct quoting other authors without using your own voice. It requires you critically analyze the literature by determining major themes, strengths, weaknesses, and critical gaps. Ultimately, you engage in synthesis to make your own point and add to the conversation. As you read article after article for your literature review, you should start to see the conversation surrounding your topic. Ask yourself, what are some of the common themes or subtopics that keep appearing in the articles I'm reading? Make note of these conversations or main ideas because this will help you organize your lit review. Instead of organizing your lit review source by source, like in an annotated bibliography, synthesis requires you to organize idea by idea. What is the conversation surrounding the main idea? To really know that conversation, you need to have looked at it from multiple perspectives or sources. You need to evaluate each source and then ask yourself, how does each source relate to my research question? Jot down those thoughts as you go. The sources you choose to include, your analysis, and how you organize them in a meaningful way make your literature review unique. This means you're developing your own understanding of the literature and explicitly stating what it means to your research. A helpful tool you can use to engage in synthesis is a research matrix which helps you begin to organize by idea and then add your own thoughts as you read articles. If you need help with your literature review, ask a librarian.