The summary-comparison matrix: A tool for writing the literature review

The literature review (LR) is a complex reading-writing task. It is arguably the most challenging and daunting element in project reports for the novice writer. Typically, the undergraduate engineering student first encounters the literature review in the capstone project. This paper shares a reading-writing tool, termed the summary-comparison matrix (SCM). The SCM is a data organizer that helps students to extract relevant information from research papers, categorize those extractions, and visualize the relationships among the disparate extractions. It is a conceptual bridge between the macro level of the LR (gathering scholarly resources) and the micro level (writing topic sentences and paragraphs). While all of our students were able to use the SCM, not many were able to produce or consistently produce viable topic sentences.