I know this sounds really silly but I'm not sure what section of my 'thesis' (only 6 months started!!) I'm writing up at the moment. I'm doing a science-based PhD and for the past few months have been jotting down bits and pieces about what previous researchers have done and why (in pretty fine detail) in order to make decisions about how to set up some experiments. So now, experiments are designed and I want my supervisors to be able to read what I've written and understand the logic (hopefully) of the decisions I've made. At the moment I have on 30 page document that is just a bit all over the place so I'm trying to put some order to it. So what I'm wondering is have I got the idea right, in the lit review you just say what other people have done in your area, why they did it, the results they got, if you think they did a good job and then in the methodology part you say what you're going to do??

The reason I'm confused is because I'm wondering how you link the two i.e. where do I put for example

"previous studies have shown that 'x' has affected experiment accuracy therefore the current study will use 'y' instead, (Joe Bloggs, 2009) found that 'y' is a suitable replacement for 'x'.

You get the idea (I hope!). At the moment the bulk of my lit review contains my justifications for making the decision that I have about the experiments ( kinda as above nut better!!!!) so by the time you get to the methodology section I've already said what I'm going to do. So is the methodology supposed to be a blow-by-blow account of what I'll do ii the lab?

All input welcome - sorry for such a boring topic on a Friday night!

Hi Ev,

it is a good question. In my opinion is the connection between different parts one of the most difficult issues to achieve.

Perhaps the following may be helpful.

The literature should provide information regarding what is already known and what has been done. I think it is best to provide a brief summary of what you have come accross. Think of a few pages only.

The literature review is followed by an "however": The literature review has shown that.......however, little is known regarding ..... In this project we try to tackle this issue. We set the following research question.... We will use the following method. This method is chosen based on...... etc.

Try and keep everything concise.


:-)