Category Archives: literature review

orientations to reading – the literature as ‘resources’

Posted on August 26, 2019 by

Everyone knows that doing research means doing lots of reading. And that Reading leads to literature reviews which are crucial to research proposals, theses and papers. The most common way to think about working with the literatures is to use … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, literature a resource, literature review, literature reviews, literature themes | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

writing a journal article – how many references?

Posted on July 1, 2019 by

I’ve been asked about how many references go in the literature section of a journal article. A supervisor had offered a view – one reference per sentence is best, perhaps two. But, the person asking me said, they had seen papers … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, citation, citations, journal article, literature review | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

getting ready to write about “the literature”

Posted on February 4, 2019 by

You’ve all heard that the doctorate is about making an original contribution To the literature. Well, that’s right, although what that means is not nearly as scary as it sounds. What you may not be told is that doing a … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, literature mapping, literature review, literature reviews, preparation | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

why​ is writing a literature review such hard work? part two

Posted on July 2, 2018 by

Yes, some examiners do ask doctoral researchers to change their literature review to show how they are “located” in the text. OK, let’s pretend this is you. What do those pesky examiners mean exactly? At one level this is a … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, Joseph Harris, literature review, text work/identity work, transforming knowledge | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

why is writing a literature review such hard work? part one

Posted on June 11, 2018 by

Yes, a literature review means reading a lot. Yes, a literature review means sorting out how to bring the texts all together, summarising and synthesising them. And yes, there are lots of ways to do this. But this post is … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, knowledge domains, literature review, literature reviews | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

quick lit – rapid evidence reviewing

Posted on May 14, 2018 by

This is one of a very occasional set of posts about some of my own academic work that you might find useful. A colleague and I have just undertaken what is called in the (academic) trade a Rapid Evidence Review. … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, literature mapping, literature review, literature reviews, Rapid Evidence Review | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

starting the PhD – digging in to the reading

Posted on November 20, 2017 by

Most people begin their PhDs by reading. That’s because planned research needs to build on what’s already out there, using what’s been done in order to spell out the expected contribution to knowledge. There are various ways to start getting … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, literature review, reading, starting the PhD | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments