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The hard part of a literature review isn't finding sources or formatting citations — it's the middle: reading closely, taking notes you can actually use, seeing how the studies speak to one another, and turning all of it into paragraphs that make an argument. This toolkit walks you through that middle with the exact templates I give my dissertation clients, one repeatable step at a time.
What's inside:
• The guide (PDF) — read → note → synthesize → build paragraphs → draft
• Double-Entry Reading Journal (Word) — your evidence and your thinking, side by side
• Synthesis Matrix (Word + Excel) — sources down, themes across, so the empty cells reveal your gap
• MEAL Paragraph Scaffold (Word) — Main idea → Evidence → Analysis → Link
The hard part of a literature review isn't finding sources or formatting citations — it's the middle: reading closely, taking notes you can actually use, seeing how the studies speak to one another, and turning all of it into paragraphs that make an argument. This toolkit walks you through that middle with the exact templates I give my dissertation clients, one repeatable step at a time.
What's inside:
• The guide (PDF) — read → note → synthesize → build paragraphs → draft
• Double-Entry Reading Journal (Word) — your evidence and your thinking, side by side
• Synthesis Matrix (Word + Excel) — sources down, themes across, so the empty cells reveal your gap
• MEAL Paragraph Scaffold (Word) — Main idea → Evidence → Analysis → Link