Developing Your Voice
Some years ago, I was the examiner at a mock viva. The PhD had many strengths and the student, earnest and hard-working, was very clearly knowledgeable and had a good grasp of methodology and methods. I was therefore struck by how little analysis there was in the literature review. I read it several times in advance of the viva, seeking to be generous, but there was no escaping the conclusion: the literature review had not done its job. It was not an argument that established why the research question needed to be asked but a series of randomly ordered encyclopedia entries on topics that related, in greater or lesser degrees, to the student's subject. My recommendation would be that there was still another 3-6 months of work to do in order to redeem the literature review. The other reviewer picked up on the same issue, and I have always remembered her comments: Where are you in this literature review? Where is your critical voice? That got me to...