Literature Reviews: A Blog for the Exasperated from Writing Works Consulting

As I look back on my writing about writing, I realise there is something I sometimes say without much explanation: we need to know how to listen to our drafts. So in this blog, I am going to tell you a bit more about what I mean by that.  If you are currently working on your literature review, the practical examples I give here may help you develop your own listening process. If you are supporting other researchers with their literature reviews, these insights may help you when it comes to giving feedback, as this technique is useful whether we are listening to our own draft or someone else's.   First, let's quickly review Huff's (1983)* three phases of drafting. Phase 1 is the generative phase, when you get your ideas down on paper in whatever way works for you. This is a relatively unmonitored phase when you actively want to encourage your ideas to tumble out, one after the other. In this phase, you can give your stream of consciousness free reign without worrying about...

Hello Readers 😊 I am delighted to announce that I can now bring you this blog as an independent writing and language consultant and founder of Writing Works Consulting! My mission at Writing Works is to help you achieve your highest level of achievement and professional fulfilment through more effective writing and thinking.  For many years an academic at the University of Sunderland (UK), I had the opportunity to work with students and research staff in my capacity as a lecturer, associate professor, and research writing mentor. As I taught, mentored, and led seminars, I realised the work of greatest and lasting value – and most pressing need across a range of disciplines and subject areas – was all about writing, thinking, and drafting.  How do you take a pile of random notes and turn it into a persuasive argument?  How do you sort and sift through all your material to know what you should say first, and then next, and so on, until your conclusion? How do you evaluate ...

It is that time of year again. August has drawn to a close and we are now into September. The shops have their school stationary front and centre – pens of all kinds, piles of printer paper, shiny new notebooks in all manner of designs, just waiting for your brilliant ideas. Ah, yes – the start of the academic year.  If you’re an MA student or a doctoral candidate, these golden days on the cusp of autumn may find you embarking on your dissertation, which typically starts with your literature review. What’s out there on your topic? What do we already know, or think we know? What is the lay of the land in your subject? As the autumn sunshine streams through your window, you’ll be digging into a stack of research articles and filling up one of your shiny new notebooks or its electronic equivalent.  So what do you do with all this material you are collecting – all the findings, all the quotes, all the conclusions, and all the thoughts you have about these things? How do you turn t...