A Doctoral degree is the pinnacle of your academic career. As such, achieving one is no easy task and requires years of hard work. Beginning with choosing the right topic to writing a winning proposal that will get the approval from your university committee to writing the final thesis, the task requires high resolve, focus, and determination Writing literature review can be a daunting task and looks to many as one lost in thick dark forest with many trees. This will get you to trees leading to the path out Doctoral Dissertation Writing Help & Services by Doctoral February 25, Unless a writing service has graduate-degreed writers with plenty of experience in writing dissertations, it cannot produce what students need. Improve your own writing and grades. Wowessays is a trusted dissertation writing service you can rely on. February 20,
How to Write a Literature Review for a Dissertation: 12 Steps
by Dr. Max Lempriere Feb 10, When I was writing my PhD I hated the literature review. I was scared of it. I was terrified. Sound familiar? According to Google, 5, people a month search for advice on how to conduct a literature review.
And we know from the one-on-one PhD coaching we offer and from the theses we proofread that many students struggle with this part of their thesis. Let us make one thing very clear. This is the mistake I see most frequently in the PhDs I proofread. A PhD literature review is a critical assessment of the literature in your field and related to your specific research topic. When discussing each relevant piece of literature, the review must highlight where the gaps are and what the strengths and weaknesses are of particular studies, papers, books, etc.
Also, different pieces of literature are compared and contrasted with one another so that themes and relationships are highlighted. What has been written on your topic 2.
Who the key authors are and what the key works are 3. The main theories and hypotheses 4. The main themes that exist in the literature 5. Gaps and weaknesses that your study will then help fill.
Well, you should and your examiners definitely will. For your own study to make sense, it has to be situated in the literature. That means you must relate it to what others are talking about. If you wanted to build a new mobile phone, you would have to research how other mobile phones are built, find out where they can be improved and then design one that makes those improvements.
But where do I start? Here, we list nine steps. You will be reviewing literature on a particular topic, so knowing what your topic is beforehand means you can narrow down your search. At this stage your topic is broad. So, having a clearly defined purpose is really important. Otherwise you are searching blind. Each week we send a short, thought-provoking email that will make you think differently about what it means to be a PhD student. Each is designed to be read in thirty seconds and thought about all day.
Your job at this stage is to find out the key debates in the field. Whenever you read anything you should be taking notes. Detailed notes. These need to cover the following points:. The more of these kind of standardised notes you have, the easier it will be when you write your literature review. As you read the key texts, you will begin to see what the key debates are in your field, how to write a literature review for a doctoral dissertation.
When you become aware of them, start to focus your literature review around them. You need to find a way to filter through the articles or books that are relevant. For example, scan the abstracts, introduction, keywords, titles and references. As you read through these articles, look at their reference list.
Collect articles that you think will be relevant and use them in your literature review. This is known as snowball sampling. You must be reading critically, which means asking what the weaknesses are and where particular articles or book could be improved.
The review will broadly follow the key debates you have spotted in step five above. As you write, focus on putting in more detail how to write a literature review for a doctoral dissertation particular sources i. flesh out steps six and seven. The focus when writing is to elaborate upon the key patterns and themes that have emerged. However, you need to include your own synthesis of the material. Instead you should write critically. You should clearly and precisely present your argument.
So, write early and write that first draft quickly. The earlier you start writing your literature review the better. You must accept that your first draft is going to be just that: a draft. When you write the first draft, focus on the broad structure first. This means focus on the broad themes you want to discuss in the review.
Something you need to consider is how to structure the chapter. The simple answer is that you can either structure it chronologically or thematically. The long answer is that chronological literature reviews are restrictive and over-simplify the field.
They are useful for very early drafts of the review and can help you to arrange the literature and trace threads and connections within it, how to write a literature review for a doctoral dissertation. However, your supervisors and examiners are looking for thematic reviews unless they have told you otherwisewhere you discuss the literature with reference to the themes that have emerged.
The sooner you go out and do your fieldwork, the better. To conduct one, you have to read, process and synthesise hundreds of thousands of words. Keep this guide to hand and refer to it when you feel yourself getting lost. Share it with your colleagues so they too can conquer their fear of the literature review. And if you need a little extra support, check out our one-on-one PhD coaching. Be able to call yourself Doctor sooner with our five-star rated How to Write A PhD email-course.
Learn everything your supervisor should have taught you about planning and completing a PhD. Now half price. Join hundreds of other students and become a better thesis writer, how to write a literature review for a doctoral dissertation, or your money back.
I have read the guidelines how to write a literature review for a doctoral dissertation noted numerous tricks of writing a thesis. My understanding of writing literature review has improved a lot. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much for your clear advice. I am beginning to see where my early literature review drafts were lacking and my feelings of panic are reducing!
Broadly speaking, yes. Your email address will not be published. Wrestling an elephant into a cupboard: how to write a PhD literature review in nine easy steps by Dr. What a PhD literature review is A PhD literature review is a critical assessment of the literature in your field and related to your specific research topic.
The literature review is the same. Click the image to download how to write a literature review for a doctoral dissertation. Step One: Pick a Broad Topic You will be reviewing literature on a particular topic, so knowing what your topic is beforehand means you can narrow down your search.
This is not a normal blog subscription. So where do you start? Easy: choose the biggest names in your field. There are three ways to find these: 1.
Textbooks 2. Review articles 3. Who is making the most significant contribution? What are they saying? How are they saying it? Step Four: Notes, Notes, Notes. These need to cover the following points: What is the author saying? How is it relevant to your research? What are the key references that you should read? Step Five: Narrow Down the Field As you read the key texts, you will begin to see what the key debates are in your field. Your PhD thesis. All on one page. Use our free PhD structure template to quickly visualise every element of your thesis.
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How to Organize Your Literature Review in Your Doctoral Dissertation
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Doctoral Dissertation Writing Help & Services by Doctoral February 25, Unless a writing service has graduate-degreed writers with plenty of experience in writing dissertations, it cannot produce what students need. Improve your own writing and grades. Wowessays is a trusted dissertation writing service you can rely on. February 20, Though we are mostly an essay writing service, this still doesn’t mean that we specialize on essays only. Sure, we can write you a top-quality essay, be it admission, persuasive or Writing Your Phd Literature Review description one, but if you have a more challenging paper to write, don't worry. We can help with that too, crafting a course paper, a dissertation, etc Feb 22, · Identify themes, debates and gaps. Outline the structure. Write your literature review. A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject
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