In the latest instalment of her writing-up diaries, blog editor Ellie shares what she got up to in October.
Last month, I was working on my discussion chapter and tidying up some of my work after supervisor comments. This month I turned to the chapter I’d been dreading the most: the Literature Review.
Back in 2019 when I started my research, the Literature Review was the first thing I worked on. This is standard: just read a bunch of papers in your area. Over a couple of months, this will help you start to identify the research gap and in turn your research questions. I must have read over 200 papers in the space of 9 months, leading me up to my upgrade in June 2020. Then, having identified those questions, you start t go about answering them and actually conducting your research. Fast-forward to 3 or so years later, and we’re done with that, and the thesis is being written up.
One thing I found really helpful during my research and reading was to constantly be writing. So, in 2020 and even into 2021, as I was reading paper and forming ideas about their limitations (and thus the research gaps) I was also writing down these thoughts into a working literature review. I did this in two ways. Firstly, I put together a master spreadsheet of every reading I’d done and record all the important information on each article, including title, year, authors, and which journal it came from. I also wrote a summary of the paper and some notes of my thoughts on it. This meant that I was a) learning how to summarise the literature in my own words, and b) starting to form my views about how that particular article contributed to my research. So, for example, I would write notes like ‘really important paper for the field but it has xyz limitations,’ or something like ‘useful to note but not directly related to my work.’
I’d also then try to write up these summaries into a word document that resembled a loose literature review. This involved grouping similar papers and organising them into arguments that would lead to my research questions. Whilst it was only rough, it really helped me organise my thoughts. But more importantly, as I turn to writing my actual literature review for my thesis, I’m not starting from scratch. And that is a big help, because lets be honest I cannot remember anything from those papers four years ago. Not a clue.
The other thing I’ve had to do is get my readings up to date. Whilst everything I read back then still applies, it is also the case that research has been published whilst I’ve been doing my own research. This all needs to get included too. So for the last few weeks, my main task has been reading the latest papers from my research area, and praying that none of it tackles my exact research to make my own work obsolete. Luckily, it hasn’t.
This has probably been the hardest element of thesis writing so far. I’ve got a really clear idea of my research questions and how the literature review leads to those questions, but ensuring every particular paper has it’s place and contributes to my argument has been difficult. I’ve had difficult road-block moments of existential crisis, where I really have questioned what on earth I’m doing with all of this. But with the help of supervisors, we have managed to talk through those arguments, identify the structure of the literature review, and start to get it down on paper.
Are you currently working on your Literature Review? Do you have any questions or tips to help others? Tweet us @researchex, message us on Instagram @warwicklibrary, or email us at libraryblogs@warwick.ac.uk
If you’d like to read more about planning, conducting and writing a literature review, check out all our posts on it here.
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