How can I move from summarizing sources to synthesizing them in a lit review?

[FrankD]

I’ve been working on my dissertation literature review for months, and I keep getting stuck on how to actually synthesize the sources instead of just summarizing them one by one. It feels like I’m just stitching together what other people said without adding my own voice or finding the real conversation between the texts. How do you move past that summary stage into actual synthesis?

[Brian_A]

I hear the frustration. the space between summarizing and synthesis feels real, and it can look like you are just stacking quotes. when I push for synthesis I look for where sources push against each other or build on a shared claim and I try to map that conversation rather than recount each line.

[Amelia.C]

Start by a question you care about and code each source by the kind of claim it makes and the evidence it uses. then compare how those claims line up or clash and what new claim your review would land on if you walked that thread through several texts.

[AvaM]

maybe you are taking synthesis as a single grand argument when it can be a small dialogue inside a paragraph. let yourself draw a tiny scene from three sources and then pause to ask what is missing from that scene.

[ElizabethC]

synthesis being easy is a myth. sometimes the best move is to admit there is no neat conversation yet and lay out the gaps and the questions those gaps raise.

[Paul15]

reframe the idea as revealing the silences between voices rather than stitching sentences together. place sources beside each other not to agree but to show what they assume about key terms and methods.

[Jacob_M]

think of synthesis as a thread you pull through the chorus of voices and then test it with a tiny claim at the start of a section to see how the sources reinforce or resist it.