Thematic Literature Review - How to write one without getting into a mess
Every time you try to fix your thematic literature review, it seems to get worse rather than better.
You open the document fully intending to “just tidy things up.”
Three hours later, you’ve moved sections around, added more notes, deleted something important by accident… and somehow it feels even less coherent than when you started.
At some point, the file name becomes something like:
LitReviewFinal_V3a1_USETHISONE
Which, if we’re being honest, is rarely the final version.
If you’ve found your way here, you’re probably not starting your literature review from zero.
You’re somewhere in the middle of it.
It’s become… difficult to see how it all fits together.
You’re in the right place.
If we’ve not met before, I’m Dr Elizabeth Yardley. For the past two decades, I’ve helped qualitative PhD researchers get back on course when things start to feel messy.
Mess is unavoidable in qualitative studies. This is because you’re dealing with the glorious complexity of the human experience, which by its very nature doesn’t lend itself to simple, linear explanations.
However, this isn’t something that only becomes visible when you’re out there researching with your participants. It often first appears in the form of a slippery literature review.
About the thematic literature review in qualitative research
A thematic literature review is one of the most common ways to structure a literature review in qualitative research.
It gives you flexibility. It allows you to work across different bodies of literature. In principle, it should help you build a clear foundation for your study.
But that flexibility is also where things start to unravel.
Because it is very easy to begin with a few themes, start reading, start taking notes… and then end up with pages of material that don’t quite connect.
At that point, the problem is not a lack of effort.
It’s a lack of structure.
Why your literature review feels like a mess
Most PhD researchers assume that the problem is one of three things:
They haven’t read enough
They haven’t found the “right” papers
Or they just need to reorganise what they’ve already written
They go back in, read more, move sections around, try a new structure.
Each time, it becomes slightly harder to see what’s going on.
But the real issue is usually this:
Your understanding of the literature has moved on…
but the structure you’re working with hasn’t caught up.
So you’re trying to organise new thinking inside an old framework.
That’s why it starts to feel messy.
What a thematic literature review actually is
A thematic literature review is structured around themes rather than individual studies.
But those themes are not just topics - they are ways of organising bodies of literature in relation to your research question, bringing together ideas, concepts, and debates in a way that allows you to build an argument.
That’s what makes this approach so useful in qualitative research.
It allows you to move beyond summarising studies and towards developing a more analytical account.
But it also means that the structure is not given to you. You have to develop it yourself.
How many themes should you have?
In a final written literature review chapter, this is typically between three and five main themes, often with sub-themes within each.
Fewer than this can suggest important areas have not been fully explored. More than this can make the review feel fragmented.
But that’s the final version.
If you currently have:
two themes
seven themes
or something closer to twelve
That’s not a sign that something has gone wrong.
It’s a sign that you’re in the middle of the process - not at the end of it.
From “mess” to structure
So the question is no longer: “What is a thematic literature review?”
It’s: “How do I get from this mess to something that actually holds together?”
What follows is less about steps, and more about how to think your way into a structure that works.
Start with provisional themes
Your initial themes are provisional - they are there to help you begin.
A useful place to start is your research title. Break it down.
Ask:
What concepts sit behind these words?
What bodies of literature might sit underneath them?
What ideas need to be connected?
This gives you a working structure that you can tweak and adapt as your study develops and your knowledge grows.
Work one theme at a time
This is where many literature reviews start to spiral because trying to work across multiple themes at once quickly becomes overwhelming.
You lose track of what belongs where, everything starts to feel equally important, and progress slows down to a crawl.
Instead:
Pick one theme.
Search for literature using focused keywords.
Select a small number of relevant sources.
Read, review, and take notes.
Then move on.
When you stay with one theme, you start to see connections more clearly because it allows you to achieve the necessary depth if understanding about that theme - rather than flitting from one to another only ever achieving a surface level grasp of each - and that’s where structure begins to form.
Allow the structure to change
As you work through the literature, your structure will evolve.
The literature review becomes more complex before it becomes more coherent.
That’s the part most people don’t expect, but it’s necessary.
You are moving from a collection of notes to a structured argument - and that requires refinement over time.
When your literature review feels messy, it’s down to the simple fact that your understanding has developed faster than your structure.
You are no longer just collecting material. You are starting to build an argument.
If you’re trying to get this into a shape that actually works
If your literature review exists, but doesn’t yet feel coherent or defensible, you’re not missing effort.
You’re missing structure.
That’s exactly what I focus on in the Literature Review PhD Survival Guide.
It walks you through how to move from scattered notes and provisional themes to a clear, well-reasoned structure - one you can explain and stand behind.
It’s not a shortcut - because there are no hacks, quick fixes or cheat codes to producing a strong literature review.
My Literature Review PhD Survival Guide will give you a way of working through this stage that is much more deliberate, and much less frustrating. You can explore it below.
If your literature review feels sprawling, fragmented, or harder than it should be at this stage, this guide helps you bring it into shape.
You’ve likely already done a substantial amount of reading, note-taking, and drafting - but it’s not yet translating into a clear, structured, critical chapter.
This guide gives you a way to work with what you already have, so your literature review starts to come together as a coherent argument.
Inside, you’ll find 12 carefully sequenced sections with practical worksheets to help you:
Work more purposefully with the literature you’ve already gathered
Identify patterns and develop meaningful themes
Move from summary into clear, critical interpretation
Restructure your chapter so it holds together
Make confident decisions about what stays, what goes, and why
If you’ve ever thought:
“I’ve read so much, but I don’t know how to turn it into a chapter.”
“Everything feels relevant - I can’t see what actually matters.”
“I keep rewriting this, but it’s still not quite working.”
You’re at the stage where your thinking needs to be shaped into something more coherent.
This guide helps you do that.
Designed for qualitative PhD researchers working with thematic or narrative literature reviews, it supports you in moving from a collection of sources and notes to a literature review you can clearly explain, structure, and stand behind.
This is a digital download. You’ll get immediate access to the full guide and worksheets as soon as you purchase, so you can start making progress straight away.
Swipe through the images to see exactly what’s inside.
For a more streamlined and coherent approach, you can access all four PhD Survival Guides in the full series here.
Got questions? Contact me using this form, I’ll be happy to help.
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