Hi!

I am fairly a new person on this forum and as usual I wish if I would have found it before.

My doctoral thesis is in Social Science discipline. I have been involved in Literature Review and so far I have pulled to write only 12000 words, a long way to go. But that is not my question. I find myself redoing the Literature Review again and again. By this I do not mean to say adding more stuff or editing in a different way but making it a fairly new chapter keeping only 50 percent stuff I have already written. This is taking too much time and I do not seem to finish it ever. The problem is my research is in fairly new topic and every time I brainstorm and ask myself WHY it always lead me to something new.

I have taken help of my supervisors in the past but none of them belong to this specific field and their knowledge is somewhat limited. They ask me to make a conceptual framework but unable to suggest anything. Anyways I lost hope in them.

The point is is anybody has to do the same? Please help it would take me out from this cycle of rewriting again and again and it is SO STRESSFUL :(

If each time you rewrite it, the piece improves, then this is no bad thing. If you're worried about time getting away from you, then the thing to do is work to a timetable. Of course there is nearly always room for improvement with any piece, but you have to move on eventually. Peers may be helpful in reassuring you.
Also sometimes it is better to do something else and come back to a particular section - you can then look at ti a bit more objectively or at least with a fresh perspective.

Hi, I do EXACTLY the same thing - I feel like I've written my first chapter about 3 times. The key is that it is getting better and the research is moving on. Also, remember not to be too attached to anything you (cont..)

Have you done your studies? What type of a PhD are you doing?

If you haven't done your studies, I would wait until you have written up all your studies, then come back to the literature review. This way you will have a much better idea of what exactly needs to stay in the literature review, and what isn't that important.

(Cont) write until your third year, because you will probably re-write most of it again anyway. So long as what you write is moving you forward toward the end you'll get there.

(Deleted - double post)

It would help if you have a clear structure.

Also, summarise the studies in tables, it is easier to compare and you don't have to describe each study. A lit review is one of the hardest chapters to write well, I was probably working on it for a good 9 months...

This is not at all unusual. Most of my chapters went through at least 5 rounds of revision. A suggestion to you - you should have a system to keep those deleted parts because a few years later you might find some of them useful!

Oh yes, the literature review can be difficult. I agree with drkl, revisions are the normal process. I found it helpful to let the variables of the research questions drive the literature review. That worked for me.