Organising ideas in the body of your literature review
As discussed in the previous section, the body of your literature review needs to provide an account of the major themes, arguments and debates found in the literature and to articulate how these relate to each other and to your own research.
Since this usually involves reading through and taking notes on a large amount of sources, you will need a strategy that can help you organise the different ideas you have drawn from the literature.
One such important organisational strategy is the use of matrices.
Using matrices to organise the literature
Matrices are particularly useful for capturing key information from the texts that you have read and thefore providing an overview of this information.
They can help with identifying patterns such as:
- which texts deal with which key identified themes
- a text’s main points and how these fit under key identified themes
- a text’s main points and how they can be used / incorporated in your writing
- a text’s main points and whether they support or refute a particular argument.
Below are examples of matrices which capture information in the literature according to each of the above four organisational patterns.
Identifying texts dealing with key identified themes
| Topic: Prenatal influences on the child | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concepts >
Texts |
Harmful substances and diseases | Maternal age and physical characteristics | Domestic violence | Prenatal healthcare |
| McDonald (2011) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Smith (2009) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Langley (2011) | Yes | |||
| Seddon (2012) | Yes | |||
| Anderson (2010) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Etc. | ||||
Identifying a text’s main points in relation to key identified themes
| Topic: Prenatal influences on the child | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concepts >
Texts |
Harmful substances and diseases | Environmental dangers | Prenatal health care | Etc. |
| McDonald (2011) | Tobacco = retarded foetal growth & increased infant mortality | |||
| Smith (2009) | Impact involves interaction of many factors | |||
| Langley (2011) | Tobacco: Generally agrees with Jones but disputes causal influence – too many variables | Challenges in identifying exposure to toxins | ||
| Seddon (2012) | Alcohol: Effects of foetal alcohol syndrome | |||
| Anderson (2010) | Useful table of toxicants and associated foetal impact | Frequency of prenatal examinations – benefits and problems | ||
| Etc. | ||||
Identifying a text’s main points in relation to their incorporation in your writing
| Topic: Issues in measurement of teaching quality | ||
|---|---|---|
| Texts | Main points | Comments / use in my writing |
| Keogh (2011) | Learning performance = index measuring result of learning and quality of teaching | But what does ‘quality’ of teaching mean? |
| Brown (2009) | Identifies several criteria of quality of teaching | Contrast 2nd criterion with Keogh’s ideas; differences are contentious |
| Morgan (2011) | Etc. | Etc. |
Identifying a text’s main points in relation to supporting or refuting an argument
| Topic: Does meditation improve the immune system? | ||
|---|---|---|
| Texts | Support | Refute |
| O’Dwyer & Jones (2010) | Single case report Healing was more rapid when subjects meditated |
|
| McKenzie (2011) | Two-group design No difference observed |
|
| Peters et al. (2009) | Two-group design Meditation group significantly reduced infection rates |
|
| Etc. | ||
Reflection
Consider the different matricies presented above. Which of these ways of organising your ideas might be useful for you at the moment? (Keep in mind that different approaches might be more useful for you at different stages of reviewing the literature.)
If you would like to further explore the use of matrices as an organisational tool, take a few minutes to choose one of the above matrix types and begin organising the themes, ideas or arguments from the literature you are reading according to it.
