Doing a literature review can take forever! In the broadest sense of reviewing “the literature” it should take forever, “the literature” is massive! At the very beginning, my idea of doing a literature review was like this;
Read some literature,
read some more literature,
ponder,
read some more literature,
read some more literature,
think,
read some more literature,
discuss,
read some more literature,
read some more literature,
muse,
read some more literature,
read some more literature,
read the last bit of literature,
become an expert,
write something awesome based on my expert opinion.
read some more literature,
ponder,
read some more literature,
read some more literature,
think,
read some more literature,
discuss,
read some more literature,
read some more literature,
muse,
read some more literature,
read some more literature,
read the last bit of literature,
become an expert,
write something awesome based on my expert opinion.
Does that sound ridiculous? We’ll it’s not. This is how many people do literature reviews. However, you have to have been in a subject area a very long time for this to work. Seasoned academics who appear to have all the information on a topic at their fingertips can do a literature review in this way. They can do this because they started the very first stage at the beginning of their career! That’s right, this method works but it takes a long time. For anyone new to a subject this method is not very effectual!
Effectual?
Effectual is producing the intended or adequate effect. So if your ultimate desired effect is to write a literature review, reading for days and days on end will not go very far to achieving that goal – for that you must write!
Now don’t get me wrong, I not saying you shouldn’t read – far from it in fact. However, to read more effectually, you should read with some targets in mind. When you read, you should have a reason for reading an article, and know roughly where it fits in to your literature review theme, if not, you are being ineffectual because reading that article probably won’t result in the production of your literature review.
It is important to be effectual in you literature review. Sometimes with reading, enough is enough and there is simply no more that can be gleaned from reading a few more papers. Also, you can suffocate your writing by including too many references so that it is impossible for the text to flow.
It is important to be effectual in you literature review. Sometimes with reading, enough is enough and there is simply no more that can be gleaned from reading a few more papers. Also, you can suffocate your writing by including too many references so that it is impossible for the text to flow.
Some tips to help you be effectual
1. Write a sentence or two after reading an article that could fit into your literature review. This is not a summary, but how the article relates to your literature review theme
2. Aim to write something every day. Set a writing goal, whether it’s a paragraphe or a page. Only do reading so that you can achieve your writing goal.
3. Ask yourself why should you read this paper. Before you read anything, think about how it should contribute to your literature review and look for that information in the article.
4. Narrow down your search terms. Only search for things that return a manageable number of search results.
5. Set regular, strict deadlines. Decide that you must complete a certain quantity of writing by a certain date and stick to it.
2. Aim to write something every day. Set a writing goal, whether it’s a paragraphe or a page. Only do reading so that you can achieve your writing goal.
3. Ask yourself why should you read this paper. Before you read anything, think about how it should contribute to your literature review and look for that information in the article.
4. Narrow down your search terms. Only search for things that return a manageable number of search results.
5. Set regular, strict deadlines. Decide that you must complete a certain quantity of writing by a certain date and stick to it.
Sometimes being effectual is important. However, it is also quite dangerous to be effectual all of the time. Sometimes you need to be ineffectual, in order to give yourself the freedom and creativity to properly explore all of the literature. Sometimes you need to just read a paper for the sake of reading it, sometimes you should allow yourself to get lost in a sea of literature – You never know what you might find. However, you should plan this ineffectual time and block it off right at the start of you literature review. You should also allow yourself to read like this regularly as part of your academic development.
Reading ineffectually is a luxury and it’s important we indulge it from time to time. However, when our back is against the wall and we have to “produce”, it’s important to ditch this approach and become effectual, literature review writing machines.
I hope you found this article useful, if you like it or not, I would love to hear your opinion in the comments below. Also, please sign up to the email newsletter to receive regular updates.
