The synthesis is the final paragraph of Chapter 2. It is where you knit together literature and related systems and state - in one or two paragraphs - the gap that your study will fill.
What A Good Synthesis Does
Element
Description
Recap themes
Name the 3-5 themes from your literature review
Recap related systems
One sentence per system, what was learnt
Identify common gap
The shared limitation across them
State your value-add
What your system does that those did not
Bridge to Chapter 3
A one-liner pointing to the methodology
Synthesis Template
The literature reviewed and the related systems studied converge on three observations. First, [theme]. Second, [theme]. Third, [theme]. Despite these advances, [gap]. The present study addresses this gap by [your contribution], which will be designed and built using the methodology described in Chapter 3.
What To Avoid
New citations - the synthesis is yours, not the literature's.
Repetition of citations from earlier sections.
Hedged language - be specific about the gap.
Promises you cannot deliver in the scope of your project.
Discussion
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