Hi all,

My sup has asked for a plan of my literature review, but as I only started my PhD two months ago, I'm finding this incredibly difficult. Since I started in October, I've been focusing on other work rather than actually reading any literature in my area- such as worrying about ethics/thinking about why I'm actually doing my study/considering research questions (which I was able to do as my PhD relates to my MA dissertation).

So basically, what an earth an I meant to write in my plan?! I intend to investigate three specific areas, so obviously they need to go in there, but because I haven't had time to read much literature, that's all I have to write! I presume sup is making me do this so I actually think about where my research is going, but I really don't want to send her a plan of my lit review which is only half a page long!

Any thoughts are much appreciated :)

Hi Button

I had a similar problem when my supervisor asked me (after 4 months of part-time) for a structure of the thesis - I basically sent him something that was Chapter 1 introduction, chapter 2 literature review, chapter 3 methodology etc - is I ticked the box but is wasn't much help when i tcame to doing the lit review.. 

What I did do then was break down the literature review into small chunks - current research in my area (very little), research in similar areas (lots more) so that was broken down into theory of some aspects, application to a similar context (almost none in my specific context hence I had identified my gap). What I did then was look at some other theses (only the contents page) to get ideas for the level of detail and structure of the lit review.  I then made my plan more detailed as I read more stuff (I use mindmaps which I can then translate into a word document as heading) now all I have to do it fill in something under each heading (which i am doing now). I had a conversation last week with my head of department (at the work uni not the phd uni) about my progress on the phd and he said that there is no reason why you have to have one literature review chapter and that he had several.  That would fit much better for mine so I am now looking at 3 or 4 7,000 word chapters rather than one 20,000 word chapter which somehow feels much more manageable.

Not sure if this is just rambling or if it helps but I would start with some key themes and make those sections in your review (and as you are leading on form you masters you have an advantage in that you know a lot of the literature already)

Thanks Jepson, that's really helpful!

I've actually managed to get something down on paper. I'm glad my sup asked me to do a plan, because it really made me think about it, so even if it is no use in the long run at least it makes sense now!