literary term synthesis

Literature Syntheis 101

How To Synthesise The Existing Research (With Examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Eunice Rautenbach (DTech) | August 2023

One of the most common mistakes that students make when writing a literature review is that they err on the side of describing the existing literature rather than providing a critical synthesis of it. In this post, we’ll unpack what exactly synthesis means and show you how to craft a strong literature synthesis using practical examples.

This post is based on our popular online course, Literature Review Bootcamp . In the course, we walk you through the full process of developing a literature review, step by step. If it’s your first time writing a literature review, you definitely want to use this link to get 50% off the course (limited-time offer).

Overview: Literature Synthesis

• What exactly does “synthesis” mean?
• Aspect 1: Agreement
• Aspect 2: Disagreement
• Aspect 3: Key theories
• Aspect 4: Contexts
• Aspect 5: Methodologies
• Bringing it all together

What does “synthesis” actually mean?

As a starting point, let’s quickly define what exactly we mean when we use the term “synthesis” within the context of a literature review.

Simply put, literature synthesis means going beyond just describing what everyone has said and found. Instead, synthesis is about bringing together all the information from various sources to present a cohesive assessment of the current state of knowledge in relation to your study’s research aims and questions .

Put another way, a good synthesis tells the reader exactly where the current research is “at” in terms of the topic you’re interested in – specifically, what’s known , what’s not , and where there’s a need for more research .

So, how do you go about doing this?

Well, there’s no “one right way” when it comes to literature synthesis, but we’ve found that it’s particularly useful to ask yourself five key questions when you’re working on your literature review. Having done so,  you can then address them more articulately within your actual write up. So, let’s take a look at each of these questions.

1. Points Of Agreement

The first question that you need to ask yourself is: “Overall, what things seem to be agreed upon by the vast majority of the literature?”

For example, if your research aim is to identify which factors contribute toward job satisfaction, you’ll need to identify which factors are broadly agreed upon and “settled” within the literature. Naturally, there may at times be some lone contrarian that has a radical viewpoint , but, provided that the vast majority of researchers are in agreement, you can put these random outliers to the side. That is, of course, unless your research aims to explore a contrarian viewpoint and there’s a clear justification for doing so. 

Identifying what’s broadly agreed upon is an essential starting point for synthesising the literature, because you generally don’t want (or need) to reinvent the wheel or run down a road investigating something that is already well established . So, addressing this question first lays a foundation of “settled” knowledge.

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2. Points Of Disagreement

Related to the previous point, but on the other end of the spectrum, is the equally important question: “Where do the disagreements lie?” .

In other words, which things are not well agreed upon by current researchers? It’s important to clarify here that by disagreement, we don’t mean that researchers are (necessarily) fighting over it – just that there are relatively mixed findings within the empirical research , with no firm consensus amongst researchers.

This is a really important question to address as these “disagreements” will often set the stage for the research gap(s). In other words, they provide clues regarding potential opportunities for further research, which your study can then (hopefully) contribute toward filling. If you’re not familiar with the concept of a research gap, be sure to check out our explainer video covering exactly that .

3. Key Theories

The next question you need to ask yourself is: “Which key theories seem to be coming up repeatedly?” .

Within most research spaces, you’ll find that you keep running into a handful of key theories that are referred to over and over again. Apart from identifying these theories, you’ll also need to think about how they’re connected to each other. Specifically, you need to ask yourself:

• Are they all covering the same ground or do they have different focal points  or underlying assumptions ?
• Do some of them feed into each other and if so, is there an opportunity to integrate them into a more cohesive theory?
• Do some of them pull in different directions ? If so, why might this be?
• Do all of the theories define the key concepts and variables in the same way, or is there some disconnect? If so, what’s the impact of this ?

Simply put, you’ll need to pay careful attention to the key theories in your research area, as they will need to feature within your theoretical framework , which will form a critical component within your final literature review. This will set the foundation for your entire study, so it’s essential that you be critical in this area of your literature synthesis.

If this sounds a bit fluffy, don’t worry. We deep dive into the theoretical framework (as well as the conceptual framework) and look at practical examples in Literature Review Bootcamp . If you’d like to learn more, take advantage of our limited-time offer to get 60% off the standard price.

4. Contexts

The next question that you need to address in your literature synthesis is an important one, and that is: “Which contexts have (and have not) been covered by the existing research?” .

For example, sticking with our earlier hypothetical topic (factors that impact job satisfaction), you may find that most of the research has focused on white-collar , management-level staff within a primarily Western context, but little has been done on blue-collar workers in an Eastern context. Given the significant socio-cultural differences between these two groups, this is an important observation, as it could present a contextual research gap .

In practical terms, this means that you’ll need to carefully assess the context of each piece of literature that you’re engaging with, especially the empirical research (i.e., studies that have collected and analysed real-world data). Ideally, you should keep notes regarding the context of each study in some sort of catalogue or sheet, so that you can easily make sense of this before you start the writing phase. If you’d like, our free literature catalogue worksheet is a great tool for this task.

5. Methodological Approaches

Last but certainly not least, you need to ask yourself the question: “What types of research methodologies have (and haven’t) been used?”

For example, you might find that most studies have approached the topic using qualitative methods such as interviews and thematic analysis. Alternatively, you might find that most studies have used quantitative methods such as online surveys and statistical analysis.

But why does this matter?

Well, it can run in one of two potential directions . If you find that the vast majority of studies use a specific methodological approach, this could provide you with a firm foundation on which to base your own study’s methodology . In other words, you can use the methodologies of similar studies to inform (and justify) your own study’s research design .

On the other hand, you might argue that the lack of diverse methodological approaches presents a research gap , and therefore your study could contribute toward filling that gap by taking a different approach. For example, taking a qualitative approach to a research area that is typically approached quantitatively. Of course, if you’re going to go against the methodological grain, you’ll need to provide a strong justification for why your proposed approach makes sense. Nevertheless, it is something worth at least considering.

Regardless of which route you opt for, you need to pay careful attention to the methodologies used in the relevant studies and provide at least some discussion about this in your write-up. Again, it’s useful to keep track of this on some sort of spreadsheet or catalogue as you digest each article, so consider grabbing a copy of our free literature catalogue if you don’t have anything in place.

Bringing It All Together

Alright, so we’ve looked at five important questions that you need to ask (and answer) to help you develop a strong synthesis within your literature review.  To recap, these are:

• Which things are broadly agreed upon within the current research?
• Which things are the subject of disagreement (or at least, present mixed findings)?
• Which theories seem to be central to your research topic and how do they relate or compare to each other?
• Which contexts have (and haven’t) been covered?
• Which methodological approaches are most common?

Importantly, you’re not just asking yourself these questions for the sake of asking them – they’re not just a reflection exercise. You need to weave your answers to them into your actual literature review when you write it up. How exactly you do this will vary from project to project depending on the structure you opt for, but you’ll still need to address them within your literature review, whichever route you go.

The best approach is to spend some time actually writing out your answers to these questions, as opposed to just thinking about them in your head. Putting your thoughts onto paper really helps you flesh out your thinking . As you do this, don’t just write down the answers – instead, think about what they mean in terms of the research gap you’ll present , as well as the methodological approach you’ll take . Your literature synthesis needs to lay the groundwork for these two things, so it’s essential that you link all of it together in your mind, and of course, on paper.

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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• Write a Literature Review
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Get Organized

• Lit Review Prep Use this template to help you evaluate your sources, create article summaries for an annotated bibliography, and a synthesis matrix for your lit review outline.

Synthesize your Information

Synthesize: combine separate elements to form a whole.

Synthesis Matrix

A synthesis matrix helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each other.

After summarizing and evaluating your sources, arrange them in a matrix or use a citation manager to help you see how they relate to each other and apply to each of your themes or variables.  

By arranging your sources by theme or variable, you can see how your sources relate to each other, and can start thinking about how you weave them together to create a narrative.

• Step-by-Step Approach
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How to Write a Literature Review

• 6. Synthesize
• Literature Reviews: A Recap
• Reading Journal Articles
• Does it Describe a Literature Review?
• 1. Identify the Question
• 2. Review Discipline Styles
• Searching Article Databases
• Finding Full-Text of an Article
• Citation Chaining
• When to Stop Searching
• 4. Manage Your References
• 5. Critically Analyze and Evaluate

Synthesis Visualization

Synthesis matrix example.

• 7. Write a Literature Review

• Synthesis Worksheet

About Synthesis

Approaches to synthesis.

You can sort the literature in various ways, for example:

How to Begin?

Read your sources carefully and find the main idea(s) of each source

Look for similarities in your sources – which sources are talking about the same main ideas? (for example, sources that discuss the historical background on your topic)

Use the worksheet (above) or synthesis matrix (below) to get organized

This work can be messy. Don't worry if you have to go through a few iterations of the worksheet or matrix as you work on your lit review!

Four Examples of Student Writing

In the four examples below, only ONE shows a good example of synthesis: the fourth column, or  Student D . For a web accessible version, click the link below the image.

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Click on the example to view the pdf.

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Literature reviews: synthesis.

• Criticality

Synthesise Information

So, how can you create paragraphs within your literature review that demonstrates your knowledge of the scholarship that has been done in your field of study?  

You will need to present a synthesis of the texts you read.  

Doug Specht, Senior Lecturer at the Westminster School of Media and Communication, explains synthesis for us in the following video:  

Synthesising Texts  

What is synthesis? 

Synthesis is an important element of academic writing, demonstrating comprehension, analysis, evaluation and original creation.  

With synthesis you extract content from different sources to create an original text. While paraphrase and summary maintain the structure of the given source(s), with synthesis you create a new structure.  

The sources will provide different perspectives and evidence on a topic. They will be put together when agreeing, contrasted when disagreeing. The sources must be referenced.  

Perfect your synthesis by showing the flow of your reasoning, expressing critical evaluation of the sources and drawing conclusions.  

When you synthesise think of "using strategic thinking to resolve a problem requiring the integration of diverse pieces of information around a structuring theme" (Mateos and Sole 2009, p448). 

Synthesis is a complex activity, which requires a high degree of comprehension and active engagement with the subject. As you progress in higher education, so increase the expectations on your abilities to synthesise. 

How to synthesise in a literature review: 

Identify themes/issues you'd like to discuss in the literature review. Think of an outline.  

Read the literature and identify these themes/issues.  

Critically analyse the texts asking: how does the text I'm reading relate to the other texts I've read on the same topic? Is it in agreement? Does it differ in its perspective? Is it stronger or weaker? How does it differ (could be scope, methods, year of publication etc.). Draw your conclusions on the state of the literature on the topic.  

Start writing your literature review, structuring it according to the outline you planned.  

Put together sources stating the same point; contrast sources presenting counter-arguments or different points.  

Present your critical analysis.  

Always provide the references. 

The best synthesis requires a "recursive process" whereby you read the source texts, identify relevant parts, take notes, produce drafts, re-read the source texts, revise your text, re-write... (Mateos and Sole, 2009). 

What is good synthesis?  

The quality of your synthesis can be assessed considering the following (Mateos and Sole, 2009, p439):  

Integration and connection of the information from the source texts around a structuring theme. 

Selection of ideas necessary for producing the synthesis. 

Appropriateness of the interpretation.  

Elaboration of the content.  

Example of Synthesis

Original texts (fictitious): 

Synthesis: 

Animal experimentation is a subject of heated debate. Some argue that painful experiments should be banned. Indeed it has been demonstrated that such experiments make animals suffer physically and psychologically (Chowdhury 2012; Panatta and Hudson 2016). On the other hand, it has been argued that animal experimentation can save human lives and reduce harm on humans (Smith 2008). This argument is only valid for toxicological testing, not for tests that, for example, merely improve the efficacy of a cosmetic (Turner 2015). It can be suggested that animal experimentation should be regulated to only allow toxicological risk assessment, and the suffering to the animals should be minimised.   

Bibliography

Mateos, M. and Sole, I. (2009). Synthesising Information from various texts: A Study of Procedures and Products at Different Educational Levels. European Journal of Psychology of Education,  24 (4), 435-451. Available from https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03178760 [Accessed 29 June 2021].

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Reading & Writing Purposes

Reading & writing to synthesize, synthesis defined.

The concept of a “coherent whole” is essential to synthesis. When you synthesize in writing, you examine different types of information (ideas, examples, statistics, etc., from different sources) and different themes (perspectives and concepts) from different sources with the purpose of blending them together to help explain one main idea. So you have to look for relationships 1) among the sources’ themes and 2) between these themes and your own ideas in order to blend all of the pieces to make a coherent whole.

The concept of a “coherent whole” is important in terms of language, too. Once you examine content and choose the parts to synthesize, you need to express those parts in your own language in order to create a coherent whole in terms of writing style.

Synthesis is like combining different ingredients to make a stew. If you choose and combine carefully, with the end result (supporting your main idea) in mind, the ingredients will be both separate and well-blended, with all ingredients contributing as they should to the final taste.

View the following video for a basic definition of, and introduction to, the concept of synthesis.

As stated in the video, synthesis means combining similar information to create something new.  Reading and writing to synthesize means that you read information from many sources relating to a particular topic, question, insight, or assertion.  You extract appropriate pieces of information from each source, information that relates to your insight in some way (supporting it, negating it, offering additional detail).  You react to those pieces of information and relate them to your insight, to create something new–your own reasoned argument.

One standard example of reading and writing to synthesize is a research paper–a basic assignment in many college courses.  Skills that you develop in researching and synthesizing information also transfer to writing a business report or proposal. When you research a topic, you find information from many different sources which informs your personal thoughts and assertion about that topic.  However, reading and writing to synthesize involves more than just finding information and inserting it into an essay, report, or proposal.  You use the information you find to help create and support your own, unique thoughts.

Example of Synthesis in an Academic Setting

A research paper is the classic example of synthesis in an academic setting. You may be assigned to write a research paper in a sociology course, for example.  You may have read a number of selections dealing with different cultures, and the assignment asks you to synthesize information from these articles along with information from at least four other sources, to support your unique thesis. You start with a main idea in order to start the synthesis. You might create the following main idea: People within a culture have to both assimilate and adapt to their cultural and physical environments in order to thrive . You then might combine appropriate parts from different reading selections:

• definition and examples of assimilation from a chapter in a sociology textbook
• examples from researched articles on assimilation, cultural adaptation
• examples from interviews with people who have assimilated

Your research paper would blend themes from all of these sources to support your original insight and assertion (thesis) about assimilation and adaptation.

Example of  Synthesis in a Business Setting

After receiving more than ten different requests for flex time over the last year, you’ve decided that it makes sense to institute flexible hours for the fifty workers you supervise in your department.  You research a number of other businesses and examples of companies moving to flex time, quote or summarize those, and put them all into a document, which you send to your boss.  Your request is denied, because while your boss understood that flex time worked in other companies, she could not relate your research to the actual situation in your department. If you had offered your own analysis of how different companies’ strategies would benefit your own department, the outcome might have been different and your proposal approved.  It’s worth saying again: it’s important to blend the information you find with your own purpose, whether that is a proposal at work or an essay designed to offer your own, unique thoughts, supported by research.

Reading to Synthesize

Synthesis builds upon analysis.  You need to be able to read and analyze the quality of a text in order to decide whether you want to bring that text into the conversation. However, reading to synthesize moves in almost an opposite direction from analysis.  As you analyze, you break the text down into its parts in order to evaluate the text.  Analysis is like taking a puzzle apart and examining each piece, or analyzing a cake to find out what the ingredients are and how they work together.

On the other hand, as you read with the purpose of synthesizing, you search for thoughts about the same focused topic, thoughts which can be similar or different, in order to get a picture of the whole ongoing conversation about that topic. Then you decide if you agree or disagree with those thoughts–you join the conversation or discourse. Synthesis is like examining puzzle pieces with the purpose of putting the whole picture together, or baking a cake with ingredients that complement each other.

The process of reading to synthesize, in itself, blends or synthesizes many reading skills, which may include the following:

• skimming texts
• preview questions and answers
• reading for main idea (which may involve annotating, note taking, and more)
• summarizing
• analyzing the quality of the texts
• applying chosen texts to your insight
• reacting to the ideas in the texts

The main thing to remember as you read with the purpose of synthesizing is that your task is to find relationships among ideas.  Reading to synthesize does not merely consist of finding appropriate quotations and plugging them into an essay; instead, ideas from multiple texts need to be considered thoughtfully and linked with your own insights, reactions, and commentary.

Use an Idea Matrix to Synthesize Ideas

A idea matrix supports reading to synthesize, especially if you are reading multiple texts about a topic.  An idea matrix is a table that helps you identify and organize ideas from those texts according to their themes. It allows you to compare and contrast different insights about those themes. An idea matrix is a useful graphic, since one source may include ideas about many different themes.

Here’s one example of an idea matrix which synthesizes information from multiple sources around a specific focus.

Focus of Reading: Lessons Learned from the 1918 flu pandemic

To create an idea matrix, identify a topic around which your texts converge and state it clearly above the matrix. When you identify this focus, make sure it’s not too broad (e.g., pandemics – you’d have thousands of texts to read) or too narrow (e.g., number of U.S. deaths from the 1918 flu – you’d just need to consult one valid text for that information). The focus should be something that is part of a conversation happening among a manageable number of texts (e.g., lessons learned from the 1918 flu ).

The text column lists each source’s exact name.  It should also include the author, publication information for an eventual bibliography, url, and any other important identifying information.

The themes emerge from the sources you’ve read. You may choose to note them as paraphrases, summaries, and/or quotations.

Link to additional examples of idea matrices about different themes:

• Anxiety in Graduate Students from Ashford University’s Writing Center
• Thesis that makes an assertion about Democratic and Coaching Styles of Leadership

An idea matrix for reading can help you synthesize information from many texts, identify idea relationships within that information, and eventually help you formulate your own thoughts to add to the conversation.

Writing to Synthesize

Writing to synthesize involves taking those related ideas that you’ve extracted from multiple texts and incorporating them into a research paper, report, or proposal that’s structured around your own main insight, assertion, or thesis.

Don’t Do This:

In writing a document that synthesizes ideas from multiple texts, it’s the impulse of many students to summarize or paraphrase a paragraph or a whole article, insert the summary, and then move on to the next text and summary.  That’s not good practice, since it doesn’t link ideas in terms of their themes, and doesn’t focus on how those themes relate to your own ideas.

Instead , Do This:

Work from the idea matrix you built as you read different texts.  For a college research paper, turn your topic or focus statement at the top of the matrix into a thesis sentence , a sentence that makes an assertion or provides an insight offering your own informed views on the topic.  Offering your own perspective is key.  You’ll then structure the body of your essay using the groups of supporting ideas/themes you noted in the idea matrix, in whatever order you choose.  Each group gets its own topic sentence and unit of support.  And each group of supporting ideas includes your own thoughts, applications, and reactions to the texts included in that group.  One general rule is that you always structure “writing to synthesize” around your own ideas, and that you always offer your own ideas about information from each text used – that’s your contribution to the conversation.

The following video offers a clear discussion and examples to reinforce the concept of writing to synthesize.

This video about writing to synthesize researched sources incorporates information about using an idea matrix:

They Say/I Say Approach to Synthesis

Another way to think of synthesis is as though you’re joining a conversation; you’re listening to (reading) different texts, and bringing your own insight and experience to that conversation.  One good way of understanding synthesis in terms of reading and writing is to consider the “They Say/I Say” format created by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, which helps you synthesize your own ideas with the text’s. The following video, although somewhat lengthy, provides a summary of Graff’s and Birkenstein’s text.

The video below explains how to write a synthesis applying the They Say/I Say framework. There’s a useful extended example showing how a writer incorporated appropriate pieces of different texts into an essay. (Note – don’t get too caught up in the MLA/APA format details at this point – focus on the concept of synthesis and how to synthesize texts in an essay.)

Summary: Reading & Writing to Synthesize

• Synthesis means that you’re coordinating different pieces (themes, ideas, types of information) to create a coherent and new whole.
• All of the pieces you synthesize in a piece of writing for college need to focus around your own insight/assertion/ thesis.
• Often, a research essay assignment will expect that you synthesize information to address and offer your unique insight about a debatable issue.
• Synthesis itself involves blending many reading and thinking skills, such as skimming, annotating, summarizing, and analyzing, among others.
• There are different approaches to synthesis that may help you read and write about multiple texts.  They Say/I Say helps you blend your own ideas with ideas in other texts.  An Idea Matrix helps you organize ideas from multiple texts around the focus of your own main idea.
• Reading & Writing to Synthesize. Authored by : Susan Oaks. Project : Introduction to College Reading & Writing. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• video Synthesizing Information. Provided by : GCFLearnFree.org. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dEGoJdb6O0 . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• video They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. Authored by : jilljitsu81. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s8SWS-SZDw . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• image of man's face on a puzzle, with one piece askew. Authored by : Richard Reid. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/puzzle-jigsaw-jigsaw-puzzle-1487340/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• video Strategies for Synthesis. Authored by : Mary Lourdes Silva. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7HtCHtQ9w0 . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• video Synthesis: Definition and Examples. Provided by : WUWritingCenter. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLhkalJe7Zc . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• video Research Synthesis. Provided by : USU Libraries - Utah State University. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObK6J7vGnw8 . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• image of woman with laptop and pie chart showing relationship of parts to whole. Authored by : Tumisu. Provided by : p. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/analytics-charts-business-woman-3265840/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved

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Literature Reviews

• Introduction: What, Who & Why
• Define a topic
• Identify keywords
• More search tips
• Understand & Analyse

How to synthesise

Synthesis, a written example, synthesising tools.

• More resources
• Accessing help
• Systematic Style Reviews Guide

Synthesis & theme

Synthesising the content of your analysis means you need to explain and provide an original interpretation of what you've read by highlighting relationships (or lack thereof), between your sources.

Organise and categorise your content into themes or patterns. Examples of themes include:

• Chronological
• Geographical
• Theory, issue or question
• Importance (most to least); or
• Topical (general to specific).
• Synthesis Matrix
• 5 ways to tame the literature dragon
• Using a matrix to organise your notes

How not to write.

Smith (1970) reported that bilbies come out at night and eat chocolates. Jones (1972) described the variety of beetles eaten by bilbies on their daytime trips. Wheeler (1974) reported that bilbies eat only apples.

How to write.

The elusive bilby has provoked considerable disagreement over such essential facts as whether it is diurnal or nocturnal, and what constitutes its staple diet. Smith (1970) considered them to be nocturnal whereas Jones (1972) reported that they are daytime foragers. A similar disagreement about food preference can be observed in Smith (1970) who  reported bilbies had a fondness for chocolate, and in Jones (1974) who believed bilbies eat beetles and Wheeler (1974) who maintained that apples were the staple food. However, neither chocolate nor apples are indigenous to the bilby habitat, and it seems improbable that they are the main foodstuffs for bilbies.

Grouping papers by theme

Use this matrix to group papers according to themes you have identified in your topic.

• Literature review matrix by theme

Answering a specific question

Use this matrix to group papers according to the questions you asked when analysing your sources.

• Literature review matrix by question

 Remember, it is common to use more than one method to record your notes.

Evaluating or scoring resources as you go can be helpful, you may like to add a column to your matrix for recording some type of coding system such as a + or -  or numerical value.

Spreadsheets: Creating Matrixes using spreadsheets can be useful if you have a lot of resources and you need to sort the information you have collected.

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Literature Review How To

• Things To Consider
• Synthesizing Sources
• Video Tutorials
• Books On Literature Reviews

What is Synthesis

What is Synthesis? Synthesis writing is a form of analysis related to comparison and contrast, classification and division. On a basic level, synthesis requires the writer to pull together two or more summaries, looking for themes in each text. In synthesis, you search for the links between various materials in order to make your point. Most advanced academic writing, including literature reviews, relies heavily on synthesis. (Temple University Writing Center)  

How To Synthesize Sources in a Literature Review

Literature reviews synthesize large amounts of information and present it in a coherent, organized fashion. In a literature review you will be combining material from several texts to create a new text – your literature review.

You will use common points among the sources you have gathered to help you synthesize the material. This will help ensure that your literature review is organized by subtopic, not by source. This means various authors' names can appear and reappear throughout the literature review, and each paragraph will mention several different authors. 

When you shift from writing summaries of the content of a source to synthesizing content from sources, there is a number things you must keep in mind: 

• Look for specific connections and or links between your sources and how those relate to your thesis or question.
• When writing and organizing your literature review be aware that your readers need to understand how and why the information from the different sources overlap.
• Organize your literature review by the themes you find within your sources or themes you have identified. 
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Literature Reviews

• Introduction
• Tutorials and resources
• Step 1: Literature search
• Step 2: Analysis, synthesis, critique
• Step 3: Writing the review

If you need any assistance, please contact the library staff at the Georgia Tech Library Help website . 

Analysis, synthesis, critique

Literature reviews build a story. You are telling the story about what you are researching. Therefore, a literature review is a handy way to show that you know what you are talking about. To do this, here are a few important skills you will need.

Skill #1: Analysis

Analysis means that you have carefully read a wide range of the literature on your topic and have understood the main themes, and identified how the literature relates to your own topic. Carefully read and analyze the articles you find in your search, and take notes. Notice the main point of the article, the methodologies used, what conclusions are reached, and what the main themes are. Most bibliographic management tools have capability to keep notes on each article you find, tag them with keywords, and organize into groups.

Skill #2: Synthesis

After you’ve read the literature, you will start to see some themes and categories emerge, some research trends to emerge, to see where scholars agree or disagree, and how works in your chosen field or discipline are related. One way to keep track of this is by using a Synthesis Matrix .

Skill #3: Critique

As you are writing your literature review, you will want to apply a critical eye to the literature you have evaluated and synthesized. Consider the strong arguments you will make contrasted with the potential gaps in previous research. The words that you choose to report your critiques of the literature will be non-neutral. For instance, using a word like “attempted” suggests that a researcher tried something but was not successful. For example: 

There were some attempts by Smith (2012) and Jones (2013) to integrate a new methodology in this process.

On the other hand, using a word like “proved” or a phrase like “produced results” evokes a more positive argument. For example:

The new methodologies employed by Blake (2014) produced results that provided further evidence of X.

In your critique, you can point out where you believe there is room for more coverage in a topic, or further exploration in in a sub-topic.

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3.2 Synthesizing literature

Learning objectives.

• Connect the sources you read with key concepts in your research question and proposal
• Systematize the information and facts from each source you read

Putting the pieces together

Combining separate elements into a whole is the dictionary definition of synthesis. It is a way to make connections among and between numerous and varied source materials. A literature review is not an annotated bibliography, organized by title, author, or date of publication. Rather, it is grouped by topic and argument to create a whole view of the literature relevant to your research question.

Your synthesis must demonstrate a critical analysis of the papers you collected, as well as your ability to integrate the results of your analysis into your own literature review. Each source you collect should be critically evaluated and weighed based on the criteria from Chapter 2 before you include it in your review.

Begin the synthesis process by creating a grid, table, or an outline where you will summarize your literature review findings, using common themes you have identified and the sources you have found. The summary, grid, or outline will help you compare and contrast the themes, so you can see the relationships among them as well as areas where you may need to do more searching. A basic summary table is provided in Figure 3.2. Whichever method you choose, this type of organization will help you to both understand the information you find and structure the writing of your review. Remember, although “the means of summarizing can vary, the key at this point is to make sure you understand what you’ve found and how it relates to your topic and research question” (Bennard et al., 2014, para. 10).

As you read through the material you gather, look for common themes as they may provide the structure for your literature review. And, remember, writing a literature review is an iterative process. It is not unusual to go back and search academic databases for more sources of information as you read the articles you’ve collected.

Literature reviews can be organized sequentially or by topic, theme, method, results, theory, or argument. It’s important to develop categories that are meaningful and relevant to your research question. Take detailed notes on each article and use a consistent format for capturing all the information each article provides. These notes and the summary table can be done manually using note cards. However, given the amount of information you will be recording, an electronic file created in a word processing or spreadsheet (like this example Literature Search Template ) is more manageable. Examples of fields you may want to capture in your notes include:

• Authors’ names
• Article title
• Publication year
• Main purpose of the article
• Methodology or research design
• Participants
• Measurement
• Conclusions

Other fields that will be useful when you begin to synthesize the sum total of your research:

• Specific details of the article or research that are especially relevant to your study
• Key terms and definitions
• Strengths or weaknesses in research design
• Relationships to other studies
• Possible gaps in the research or literature (for example, many research articles conclude with the statement “more research is needed in this area”)
• Finally, note how closely each article relates to your topic. You may want to rank these as high, medium, or low relevance. For papers that you decide not to include, you may want to note your reasoning for exclusion, such as small sample size, local case study, or lacks evidence to support conclusions.

An example of how to organize summary tables by author or theme is shown in Table 3.1.

Here is an example summary table template .

Creating a topical outline

An alternative way to organize your articles for synthesis it to create an outline. After you have collected the articles you intend to use (and have put aside the ones you won’t be using), it’s time to extract as much as possible from the facts provided in those articles. You are starting your research project without a lot of hard facts on the topics you want to study, and by using the literature reviews provided in academic journal articles, you can gain a lot of knowledge about a topic in a short period of time.

As you read an article in detail, try copying the information you find relevant to your research topic in a separate word processing document. Copying and pasting from PDF to Word can be a pain because PDFs are image files not documents. To make that easier, use the HTML version of the article, convert the PDF to Word in Adobe Acrobat or another PDF reader, or use “paste special” command to paste the content into Word without formatting. If it’s an old PDF, you may have to simply type out the information you need. It can be a messy job, but having all of your facts in one place is very helpful for drafting your literature review.  Of course, you will not be using other authors’ words in your own literature review, but this is a good way to start compiling your notes.

You should copy and paste any fact or argument you consider important. Some good examples include definitions of concepts, statistics about the size of the social problem, and empirical evidence about the key variables in the research question, among countless others. It’s a good idea to consult with your professor and the syllabus for the course about what they are looking for when they read your literature review. Facts for your literature review are principally found in the introduction, results, and discussion section of an empirical article or at any point in a non-empirical article. Copy and paste into your notes anything you may want to use in your literature review.

Importantly, you must make sure you note the original source of that information. Nothing is worse than searching your articles for hours only to realize you forgot to note where your facts came from. If you found a statistic that the author used in the introduction, it almost certainly came from another source that the author cited in a footnote or internal citation. You will want to check the original source to make sure the author represented the information correctly. Moreover, you may want to read the original study to learn more about your topic and discover other sources relevant to your inquiry.

Assuming you have pulled all of the facts out of multiple articles, it’s time to start thinking about how these pieces of information relate to each other. Start grouping each fact into categories and subcategories as shown in Figure 3.3. For example, a statistic stating that homeless single adults are more likely to be male may fit into a category of gender and homelessness. For each topic or subtopic you identified during your critical analysis of each paper, determine what those papers have in common. Likewise, determine which ones in the group differ. If there are contradictory findings, you may be able to identify methodological or theoretical differences that could account for the contradiction. For example, one study may sample only high-income earners or those in a rural area. Determine what general conclusions you can report about the topic or subtopic, based on all of the information you’ve found.

Create a separate document containing a topical outline that combines your facts from each source and organizes them by topic or category. As you include more facts and more sources into your topical outline, you will begin to see how each fact fits into a category and how categories are related to each other. Your category names may change over time, as may their definitions. This is a natural reflection of the learning you are doing.

A complete topical outline is a long list of facts, arranged by category about your topic. As you step back from the outline, you should understand the topic areas where you have enough information to make strong conclusions about what the literature says. You should also assess in what areas you need to do more research before you can write a robust literature review. The topical outline should serve as a transitional document between the notes you write on each source and the literature review you submit to your professor. It is important to note that they contain plagiarized information that is copied and pasted directly from the primary sources. That’s okay because these are just notes and are not meant to be turned in as your own ideas. For your final literature review, you must paraphrase these sources to avoid plagiarism. More importantly, you should keep your voice and ideas front-and-center in what you write as this is your analysis of the literature. Make strong claims and support them thoroughly using facts you found in the literature. We will pick up the task of writing your literature review in section 3.3.

Additional resources for synthesizing literature

There are many ways to approach synthesizing literature. We’ve reviewed two examples here: summary tables and topical outlines. Other examples you may encounter include annotated bibliographies and synthesis matrices. As you are learning research, find a method that works for you. Reviewing the literature is a core component of evidence-based practice in social work at any level. See the resources below if you need some additional help:

Literature Reviews: Using a Matrix to Organize Research  / Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota

Literature Review: Synthesizing Multiple Sources  / Indiana University

Writing a Literature Review and Using a Synthesis Matrix  / Florida International University

Sample Literature Reviews Grid  / Complied by Lindsay Roberts

Killam, Laura (2013) . Literature review preparation: Creating a summary table . Includes transcript.

Key Takeaways

• It is necessary to take notes on research articles as you read. Try to develop a system that works for you to keep your notes organized, such as a summary table.
• Summary tables and topical outlines help researchers synthesize sources for the purpose of writing a literature review.

Image attributions

Pieces of the puzzle by congerdesign cc-0, adult diary by pexels cc-0.

• Figure 3.2 copied from Frederiksen, L. & Phelps, S. F. (2018). Literature reviews for education and nursing graduate students. Shared under a CC-BY 4.0 license. ↵
• This table was adapted from the work of Amanda Parsons ↵

Guidebook for Social Work Literature Reviews and Research Questions Copyright © 2020 by Rebecca Mauldin and Matthew DeCarlo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Literature Synthesis

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• Ana Paula Cardoso Ermel   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3874-9792 5 ,
• D. P. Lacerda   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8011-3376 6 ,
• Maria Isabel W. M. Morandi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1337-1487 7 &
• Leandro Gauss   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5708-5912 8  

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• The original version of this chapter was revised: Figure 5.1 was moved to section 5.2.9. The correction to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75722-9_10

This chapter addresses the concept of Literature Synthesis and classifies it as Configurative and Aggregative based upon the research approach and objectives. For each type of synthesis, its main characteristics, techniques, and applications are pointed out.

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Literature Reviews

• 5. Synthesize your findings
• Getting started
• Types of reviews
• 1. Define your research question
• 2. Plan your search
• 3. Search the literature
• 4. Organize your results

How to synthesize

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In the synthesis step of a literature review, researchers analyze and integrate information from selected sources to identify patterns and themes. This involves critically evaluating findings, recognizing commonalities, and constructing a cohesive narrative that contributes to the understanding of the research topic.

Here are some examples of how to approach synthesizing the literature:

💡 By themes or concepts

🕘 Historically or chronologically

📊 By methodology

These organizational approaches can also be used when writing your review. It can be beneficial to begin organizing your references by these approaches in your citation manager by using folders, groups, or collections.

Create a synthesis matrix

A synthesis matrix allows you to visually organize your literature.

Topic: ______________________________________________

Topic: Chemical exposure to workers in nail salons

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Using Evidence: Synthesis

Synthesis video playlist.

Note that these videos were created while APA 6 was the style guide edition in use. There may be some examples of writing that have not been updated to APA 7 guidelines.

Basics of Synthesis

As you incorporate published writing into your own writing, you should aim for synthesis of the material.

Synthesizing requires critical reading and thinking in order to compare different material, highlighting similarities, differences, and connections. When writers synthesize successfully, they present new ideas based on interpretations of other evidence or arguments. You can also think of synthesis as an extension of—or a more complicated form of—analysis. One main difference is that synthesis involves multiple sources, while analysis often focuses on one source.

Conceptually, it can be helpful to think about synthesis existing at both the local (or paragraph) level and the global (or paper) level.

Local Synthesis

Local synthesis occurs at the paragraph level when writers connect individual pieces of evidence from multiple sources to support a paragraph’s main idea and advance a paper’s thesis statement. A common example in academic writing is a scholarly paragraph that includes a main idea, evidence from multiple sources, and analysis of those multiple sources together.

Global Synthesis

Global synthesis occurs at the paper (or, sometimes, section) level when writers connect ideas across paragraphs or sections to create a new narrative whole. A literature review , which can either stand alone or be a section/chapter within a capstone, is a common example of a place where global synthesis is necessary. However, in almost all academic writing, global synthesis is created by and sometimes referred to as good cohesion and flow.

Synthesis in Literature Reviews

While any types of scholarly writing can include synthesis, it is most often discussed in the context of literature reviews. Visit our literature review pages for more information about synthesis in literature reviews.

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Synthesis and Making Connections for Strong Analysis

by acburton | Apr 25, 2024 | Resources for Students , Writing Resources

If Russian Dolls Aren’t For You, Here Are a Few Other Ways to Think About Synthesis

‘Joining the Conversation’: When we perform synthesis in our writing and engage with making connections, we are joining a wider conversation. We are seeing what has already been said about the topic, seeking out what these many perspectives and viewpoints have in common and/or how they differ, and then interpreting these relationships to form our own input to the conversation. We must directly engage with our sources to draw insightful conclusions and share what we think as a result. ‘Building the Bridge’: Synthesis is building the bridge between your sources for the reader. To synthesize or make connections, we must figure out how we get from one source to the other. In other words, we cannot present our sources in isolation (this wouldn’t help create any new meaning). Instead, we need to build the bridge between source A and source B so that our readers can understand what the two, together, suggest about our understanding of a topic. Then, we build a bridge from this new understanding to source C and source D, and so on.

Start Synthesizing

So you want to synthesize information? To start, review the existing literature on your selected topic. When searching for resources, aim to collect a number from various authors, subjects, and settings to broaden your understanding of the material – giving yourself more information to consider in the next stage. Ultimately, you’ll want to find the main idea presented in each source, as well as how the author supports or argues against it, as well as why.

• Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast the main idea found in each source reviewed. What does each perspective have in common? What are their differences? Begin to consider how these sources  ‘fit together’ (or, in other words, build the bridge!). During this stage, you may find that some of your collected resources don’t have as much depth or go into as much detail as you’d like. That’s okay, but you’ll want to consider what effect this might have on your ability to draw a meaningful conclusion once synthesized with other source material.

• Ask, What’s the Significance?

By evaluating the quality and significance of each source, you can begin to consider its relevance within the context of your research or in relation to your topic. How does the relationship of one source to another further your understanding of the topic you are focusing on? What is the larger impact of what is being said or argued?

• Infer the Relationship and Draw Conclusions

By this point, you have gone through the existing literature surrounding your subject and compared/contrasted it, finding the main idea of each, as well as their intended purpose, possible criticisms, strengths, and weaknesses. Finally, you have related these ideas to your own research. Although you may have found that your sources agree or disagree on minor (or major) key details, it is the writer’s job to seek the relationship between these sources, put them in conversation together, and draw meaning through analysis. In some cases, you’ll be asked to offer your own perspective or argumentation. Consider, how might you add to the existing conversation?

Synthesis is all about meaningful connections, it is not summarizing sources side by side. Before you make larger claims about a topic, make sure you build those bridges between the sources you found through research. Nestle them together. Move beyond summary. Then, you can create an interesting and compelling argument. For additional help, make an appointment with the Writing Center!

Works Cited

Kourakos, Evanthia J. “The Matryoshka-Doll Effect.”  Medium , Azure’s Whereabouts, 22 Apr. 2016,  medium.com/azure-s- whereabouts/the-matryoshka- doll-effect-be9d2760d2e2 .Acces sed 25 Apr. 2024.

“Libguides: English Research: Synthesizing Information.”  Synthesizing Information – English Research – LibGuides at Aultman Health Sciences Library ,  aultman.libguides.com/c.php?g= 545558&p=7711993 . Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Phrases that begin the work of synthesis

Melanie Gagich

Examples of sentence structures that demonstrate synthesis:

Synthesis that indicates agreement/support:

• Source A asserts that… Source B agrees when he or she states…
• According to both A & B…
• The combined conclusions of sources B & C seem to indicate that…
• The evidence shows that…
• Source B is correct that…
• Source C makes a convincing case when she argues…
• I agree with Source A’s conclusion that…

Synthesis that indicates disagreement/conflict:

• Source A asserts that…Yet Source B offers a different perspective by…
• Source C & B would likely disagree regarding…
• My view, however, contrary to what Source A has argued, is…
• I argue that X & Y are the best solution, though Source B offers a different option.
• In contrast, I would like to offer some objections to the opinions expressed by source C…
• While source A makes an intriguing argument, I would disagree…

What the above examples indicate is that synthesis is the careful weaving in of outside opinions in order to show your reader the many ideas and arguments on your topic and further assert your own. Notice, too, that the above examples are also signal phrases : language that introduces outside source material to be either quoted or paraphrased.

The content on this page is from Melanie Gagich’s book Introduction to Writing in College, which is licensed as CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 and can be accessed here.

English 102: Reading, Research, and Writing by Melanie Gagich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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When you look for areas where your sources agree or disagree and try to draw broader conclusions about your topic based on what your sources say, you are engaging in synthesis. Writing a research paper usually requires synthesizing the available sources in order to provide new insight or a different perspective into your particular topic (as opposed to simply restating what each individual source says about your research topic).

Note that synthesizing is not the same as summarizing.  

• A summary restates the information in one or more sources without providing new insight or reaching new conclusions.
• A synthesis draws on multiple sources to reach a broader conclusion.

There are two types of syntheses: explanatory syntheses and argumentative syntheses . Explanatory syntheses seek to bring sources together to explain a perspective and the reasoning behind it. Argumentative syntheses seek to bring sources together to make an argument. Both types of synthesis involve looking for relationships between sources and drawing conclusions.

In order to successfully synthesize your sources, you might begin by grouping your sources by topic and looking for connections. For example, if you were researching the pros and cons of encouraging healthy eating in children, you would want to separate your sources to find which ones agree with each other and which ones disagree.

After you have a good idea of what your sources are saying, you want to construct your body paragraphs in a way that acknowledges different sources and highlights where you can draw new conclusions.

As you continue synthesizing, here are a few points to remember:

• Don’t force a relationship between sources if there isn’t one. Not all of your sources have to complement one another.
• Do your best to highlight the relationships between sources in very clear ways.
• Don’t ignore any outliers in your research. It’s important to take note of every perspective (even those that disagree with your broader conclusions).

Example Syntheses

Below are two examples of synthesis: one where synthesis is NOT utilized well, and one where it is.

Parents are always trying to find ways to encourage healthy eating in their children. Elena Pearl Ben-Joseph, a doctor and writer for KidsHealth , encourages parents to be role models for their children by not dieting or vocalizing concerns about their body image. The first popular diet began in 1863. William Banting named it the “Banting” diet after himself, and it consisted of eating fruits, vegetables, meat, and dry wine. Despite the fact that dieting has been around for over a hundred and fifty years, parents should not diet because it hinders children’s understanding of healthy eating.

In this sample paragraph, the paragraph begins with one idea then drastically shifts to another. Rather than comparing the sources, the author simply describes their content. This leads the paragraph to veer in an different direction at the end, and it prevents the paragraph from expressing any strong arguments or conclusions.

An example of a stronger synthesis can be found below.

Parents are always trying to find ways to encourage healthy eating in their children. Different scientists and educators have different strategies for promoting a well-rounded diet while still encouraging body positivity in children. David R. Just and Joseph Price suggest in their article “Using Incentives to Encourage Healthy Eating in Children” that children are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if they are given a reward (855-856). Similarly, Elena Pearl Ben-Joseph, a doctor and writer for Kids Health , encourages parents to be role models for their children. She states that “parents who are always dieting or complaining about their bodies may foster these same negative feelings in their kids. Try to keep a positive approach about food” (Ben-Joseph). Martha J. Nepper and Weiwen Chai support Ben-Joseph’s suggestions in their article “Parents’ Barriers and Strategies to Promote Healthy Eating among School-age Children.” Nepper and Chai note, “Parents felt that patience, consistency, educating themselves on proper nutrition, and having more healthy foods available in the home were important strategies when developing healthy eating habits for their children.” By following some of these ideas, parents can help their children develop healthy eating habits while still maintaining body positivity.

In this example, the author puts different sources in conversation with one another. Rather than simply describing the content of the sources in order, the author uses transitions (like "similarly") and makes the relationship between the sources evident.

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Definition of synthesis

• amalgamation
• combination
• intermixture

Examples of synthesis in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'synthesis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Greek, from syntithenai to put together, from syn- + tithenai to put, place — more at do

1589, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing synthesis

synthesis gas

Dictionary Entries Near synthesis

Cite this entry.

“Synthesis.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synthesis. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of synthesis, medical definition, medical definition of synthesis, more from merriam-webster on synthesis.

Nglish: Translation of synthesis for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of synthesis for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about synthesis

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• Literary Terms
• Synesthesia
• Definition & Examples
• When & How to Use Synesthesia

I. What is Synesthesia?

In literature, synesthesia (sin-uh s-thee-zhee-uh), (also spelled synaesthesia) is a rhetorical device that describes or associates one sense in terms of another, most often in the form of a simile. Sensations of touch, taste, see, hear, and smell are expressed as being intertwined or having a connection between them. The term is derived from the neurological condition of the same name, where some people experience an actual link between their senses, where one sense stimulates another—for instance, they may feel like they hear a color, smell a shape, or taste a texture. A person that experiences synesthesia is referred to as a synesthete . As a literary technique, synesthesia reflects this condition.

Synesthesia’s presence in literature is usually through a person or narrator that is characterized as being synesthete, which allows authors to uniquely express that character’s sensations and experiences. But, the feeling of synesthesia isn’t something that all authors are familiar with—on the contrary, it is more rare than common. So, it is actually a unique literary device that we don’t see in everyday writing.

II. Example of Synesthesia

The following sentences provide several examples of synesthesia:

• The bright field of wildflowers smelled like purple, magenta, yellow, white and green.
• The stars sounded like piles of diamonds.
• Her voice was as smooth as pudding.
• The scent of smoke burned my skin.
• The blueberry tasted round in my mouth, the same flavor as a circle.

III. Importance of Synesthesia

Synesthesia allows authors to deliver another level of description in literature. It challenges readers to think out of the box and reinterpret their senses as they know them. Most importantly, though, synesthesia is a unique device that very few authors employ, making it quite notable and distinctive when an author does use it.

IV. Examples of Synesthesia in Literature

The beloved children’s fantasy novel The Phantom Tollbooth is rich with descriptions that use synesthesia. The author Norton Juster is a synesthete, and he used his own sensory perceptions to inspire parts of the book, as you can see in the following passage from Chapter 10: A Colorful Symphony:

“I don’t hear any music,” said Milo. “That’s right,” said Alec; “you don’t listen to this concert—you watch it. Now, pay attention.” As the conductor waved his arms, he molded the air like handfuls of soft clay, and the musicians carefully followed his every direction. “What are they playing?” asked Tock, looking up inquisitively at Alec. “The sunset, of course. They play it every evening about this time.” “They do?” said Milo quizzically. “Naturally,” answered Alec; “and they also play morning, noon and night, when, of course, it’s morning, noon and night. Why, there wouldn’t be any color in the world unless they played it.”

Here, Juster uses synesthesia in the book’s fantasy world to express the idea of a connection between music and colors. Alec explains that the sunset they see every day is actually created by instruments that play colors instead of musical notes. He also tells Milo to “watch” the concert, rather than listen to it, because the instruments will create the colors of the sunset; and all of the colors in the world.

In Inferno of the epic poem The Divine Comedy, Dante uses synesthesia to emphasize a place’s harshness:

E’en such made me that beast withouten peace, Which, coming on against me by degrees Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.

Here, Dante refers to a place “where the sun is silent.” Our perception of the sun is usually associated with our sense of sight (its brightness) and touch (its heat), but not with any sort of sound. By asserting that the sun is silent, Dante is highlighting the fact that it is absent from the place he is describing. His description has a greater impact than “the sun can’t be seen” or “there is no heat”—“silent” suggests a dark, lifeless, cold and colorless place that never sees the sun.

V. Examples of Synesthesia in Pop Culture

Synesthesia is a popular device in modern advertising, particularly in the food industry. Brands often relate the experience of eating or drinking their product to some other sensory experience—for instance, a brand of chewing gum may suggest that chewing their gum will make you feel a blast of icy cold air. The classic candy Skittles does this in the commercial below:

Skittles uses synesthesia as inspiration for their slogan “Taste the Rainbow.” As we know, a rainbow is an illusion in nature that we only experience through our sight. Skittles plays with the audience’s senses by tempting them to “taste the rainbow” rather than merely see it.

In the Pixar film Ratatouille, Remy is a rat with a very special talent for food. In the scene below, when Remy tastes food, he has an extraordinary sensory experience:

Here, Remy doesn’t just taste the flavors of the strawberries and the cheese. In fact, he doesn’t comment on the flavor at all—instead, each time he takes a bite he hears music and visualizes shapes and designs. When it comes to eating, Remy experiences synesthesia, which could be the secret to his skills.

VI. Conclusion

In conclusion, synesthesia is a unique rhetorical device not found in everyday writing and literature. It uses words to express a completely different form of sensory perception that forces audiences to step outside their normal understanding of taste, touch, sight, smell, and sound and imagine a relationship between them.

List of Terms

• Alliteration
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
• Cite This Website

Synesthesia

Synesthesia definition.

In literature, synesthesia refers to a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters, or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one sense, like hearing, sight, smell, and touch at a given time.

Generally, the term synesthesia refers to a certain medical condition in which one of the five senses simultaneously stimulates another sense. A person with such a condition may not only see letters of the alphabet, but also associate them with particular scents. This happens when the different parts of the brain that are responsible in identifying color, sound, taste, and smell somehow get interlinked, and thus one sense triggers another sense.

Everyday Life Examples of Synesthesia

In everyday language, we find many examples of synesthesia, such as the frequently used adjective “cool.” This word is generally associated with temperature. However, in casual conversation, we hear phrases like “cool dress,”, “cool color,” or “you look cool,” wherein the visual sensation is blended with the sense of touch. Moreover, we commonly hear phrases like “loud colors,” “frozen silence ,” “warm colors,” and “bitter cold.”

Examples of Synesthesia in Literature

In literature, synesthesia is a figurative use of words that intends to draw out a response from readers by stimulating multiple senses.

Example #1: The Divine Comedy (By Dante Alighieri)

Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy contains a good synesthesia example in literature. In the first canto , the poet tells us about a place called “ Inferno .” He says,

“Back to the region where the sun is silent .”

Here, Dante binds the sense of sight (sun) with the sense of hearing (silent).

Example #2: Ode to a Nightingale (By John Keats)

We notice synesthetic imageries in John Keats ’ Ode to a Nightingale :

“Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provencal song, and sun burnt mirth!”

In the above example, Keats combines visual sensation with the sensations of taste and hearing. In the same poem , he further states:

“In some melodious plot , Of beechen green, Singest of summer in full throated ease.”

Keats associates the act of melodious singing with a plot covered with green beechen trees , and thus connects visual sense with the sense of hearing.

Example #3: King Lear (By William Shakespeare)

We see Shakespeare employing the synesthetic device in his play King Lear , Act 2, Scene 2:

“Thou art a lady: if only to go warm were gorgeous, Why nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st, Which scarcely keeps thee warm.”

In the above excerpt, King Lear makes fun of his daughter Goneril for wearing revealing attire. He associates the word “warm” with “gorgeous,” which is an attempt to blend the sense of touch with the sense of sight.

Example #4: A Tuft of Flowers (By Robert Frost)

Robert Frost , in his poem A Tuft of Flowers , uses synesthesia:

“ The butterfly and I had lit upon, Nevertheless, a message from the dawn, That made me hear the wakening birds around, And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground…”

In the above excerpt, the speaker reveals a blend of sensory experiences he is experiencing. The speaker’s visual sense and his sense of hearing make him aware of his surroundings.

Example #5: Dying (By Emily Dickinson)

Emily Dickinson , in her poem Dying , uses synesthesia:

“With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then could not see to see.”

Here, the poetess added a visual element to the buzzing sound “buzz” by describing it as having a blue color.

Example #6: The Whole World Over (By Julia Glass)

The character Saga, in Julia Glass’ novel The Whole World Over , has a condition of synesthesia, in which she seems to sense colors in the words she reads, as illustrated below:

“The word would fill her mind for a few minutes with a single color: not an unpleasant sensation but still an intrusion… Patriarch: Brown, she thought, a temple of a word, a shiny red brown, like the surface of a chestnut.”

These lines are comments spoken by Duffy, who thinks that Saga’s synesthesia is a distraction.

Function of Synesthesia

Writers employ this device to be creative in communicating their ideas to the readers. It makes their ideas more vivid, and adds more layers of meaning to a text for the readers’ pleasure. By blending different senses, writers make their works more interesting and appealing.

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Dalton Transactions

Novel ternary ag ii co iii f 5 fluoride: synthesis, structure and magnetic characteristics † ‡.

* Corresponding authors

a Center of New Technologies, University of Warsaw, 02089 Warsaw, Poland E-mail: [email protected] , [email protected]

b Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia E-mail: [email protected]

We present a new compound in the silver–cobalt-fluoride system, featuring paramagnetic silver (d 9 ) and high-spin cobalt (d 6 ), synthesized by solid-state method in an autoclave under F 2 overpressure. Based on powder X-ray diffraction, we determined that Ag II Co III F 5 crystallizes in a monoclinic system with space group C 2/ c . The calculated fundamental band-gap falls in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the compound has the character of charge-transfer insulator. AgCoF 5 is likely a ferrimagnet with one predominant superexchange magnetic interaction constant between mixed spin cations (Ag–Co) of −62 meV (SCAN result). Magnetometric measurements conducted on a powdered sample allowed the identification of a transition at 128 K, which could indicate magnetic ordering.

Supplementary files

• Supplementary information PDF (1019K)
• Crystal structure data CIF (178K)

Article information

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Novel ternary Ag II Co III F 5 fluoride: synthesis, structure and magnetic characteristics

D. Jezierski, Z. Mazej and W. Grochala, Dalton Trans. , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4DT00419A

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