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

Summer is here. Teaching is over, the marking is finally finished, and there are no meetings in the diary. You’ve got what we all crave: two months, maybe even three, of clear writing time. Hurrah! You’ve got a rock-star question, an outline of your methods, and you sit down to write, committed, passionate about your subject, and eager to get into it and make some real progress.   But you hit a snag. Your literature review.   You’ve done the recommended reading in the how-to books, sat through the self-study tutorials, and studied the step-by-step guides. They tell you about the broad purpose of your review. It should: Demonstrate professional mastery of your field Identify tensions and debates Position your work in the ongoing ‘conversation’ about your subject  Excellent. But how do you do these things, exactly? The guidance documentation falls oddly silent here. You dig in and painstakingly start accounting for every study you’ve read, but is that what ‘demon...

The Holiday Season Is Approaching Fast! The winter break is nearly here. Classes finish soon, the marking will eventually be completed – if you’re doing any – your admin tasks will stay done for a while, and the meeting invites will slow to a trickle. At least for a bit (!!)  And you’ll have what every research writer wants: clear, unbroken time to sit down and finally make some progress. It's the perfect opportunity to dig into your literature review, to ‘locate your work in the context of your field’ and all that.  “There’s plenty of training for methodology and methods. But for the literature review? Somehow, you’re just supposed to know about that, without much training.”  Excellent! But how will you go about doing that, exactly? You start going through your notes. You’ve got piles of stuff on methodology and methods, pages and pages on analysis, and a whole separate notebook on ethics. But for your literature review? Hmm. There was an assigned chapter from one of the...

  A Blog for the New Academic Year 2025-2026 It can easily happen when we’re new to this whole business of enquiry. Maybe you’re a PhD candidate or a professional moving from practice into research. You’re committed, passionate about your subject, and excited about making a contribution to knowledge. You’ve got a rock-star question and an outline of your methods. But you've hit a snag. Your literature review.  You have a gigantic pile of studies stacked around your desk -- or a file full to bursting on your computer, depending on how you prefer to do these things. You’ve done the recommended reading in the how-to books, sat through the self-study tutorials, and followed the easy-step guides. It’s still not entirely clear from all this what you are expected to do, exactly, but you give it your best shot.  "You love your research. You can’t wait to dig in. But you’ve hit a snag. Your literature review." You sink months into a draft -- frustrating, hair-tearing, pen-chewing ...

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 ...