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

Your literature review needs subheadings . Well, that’s a relief. If that’s all that needs doing, you’re in the home stretch. Just read over your review, locate discrete sections, label them, and Hey Presto! Done.  Sound too good to be true? Of course it is. And why is that? Subheadings help readers, not writers. And this is probably why readers give this advice so often.  When faced with long dense blocks of text, readers can feel discouraged, put off. It’s too much! I don’t have time to read all this! Subheadings break up long blocks into manageable chunks that readers can tackle one chunk at a time.  Subheadings also make the text scannable – the reader can get a sense of the whole before they dig into the details. Entering a forest of text feels much more doable when the path through is laid out and easy to follow.  'Subheadings help readers, not writers. That's probably why readers give this advice so often.' All of that is well and good, and providing subheadi...

  You slave over a draft. Months of work. Endless agonising. Finally, it’s ready. You press ‘Save’ one last time and send it off. Your job now is waiting for the feedback. And yes, you know the process is meant to be helpful and that your draft won’t be perfect and that you’re on a learning journey, and all that.   But it’s still a punch in the stomach when it comes, no matter how well prepared you thought were. Needs development here . Too descriptive. Not enough critical evaluation.   Link studies together. Don’t summarise, synthesise .   You sink into your chair and randomly thumb the pages. Needs development? Link the studies? Synthesise? What do these things even mean?! And Not enough critical engagement ?! You spent more time doing that than anything else! How could there not be enough?!   Your first instinct is to fling the whole thing in the bin and take up flower arranging. A wonderful occupation, no doubt, but is that really your drea...