The Higher Education Megathread

Trelliz wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:To the PhD sorts who have written extensive literature reviews - how do you structure them? Mine is nearly 11,000 words of rambling about various sort-of-related subjects and counting at the moment.

My supervisor said not to put in a literature review chapter on the grounds that nobody actually reads them and you end up citing the same works in the rest of the thesis anyway.

Lit review for me is absolutely integral to the thesis as it provides the rationale for the following four scientific studies. I guess there will be a huge range between subjects. Mine is likely to be 20-30,000 words.

Mini E wrote:

Trelliz wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:To the PhD sorts who have written extensive literature reviews - how do you structure them? Mine is nearly 11,000 words of rambling about various sort-of-related subjects and counting at the moment.

My supervisor said not to put in a literature review chapter on the grounds that nobody actually reads them and you end up citing the same works in the rest of the thesis anyway.

Lit review for me is absolutely integral to the thesis as it provides the rationale for the following four scientific studies. I guess there will be a huge range between subjects. Mine is likely to be 20-30,000 words.

You're in a different field from me, but I daresay mine will run into about 15,000 words. For me, it's important to recognise the sheer amount of literature on my chosen subject and show where my research fits in with that and - more crucially - where it differs. It's just been very hard to structure.

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Mini E wrote:

Trelliz wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:To the PhD sorts who have written extensive literature reviews - how do you structure them? Mine is nearly 11,000 words of rambling about various sort-of-related subjects and counting at the moment.

My supervisor said not to put in a literature review chapter on the grounds that nobody actually reads them and you end up citing the same works in the rest of the thesis anyway.

Lit review for me is absolutely integral to the thesis as it provides the rationale for the following four scientific studies. I guess there will be a huge range between subjects. Mine is likely to be 20-30,000 words.

You're in a different field from me, but I daresay mine will run into about 15,000 words. For me, it's important to recognise the sheer amount of literature on my chosen subject and show where my research fits in with that and - more crucially - where it differs. It's just been very hard to structure.

I think structure is everything to be honest. Mine is basically planned out to the most minute detail and then I essentially fill out the structure into full sentences. Going to have to be careful it doesn't come across as too blocky, but it's the only way I can make sure it keeps the structure. Actually doing this as we speak. Big Wednesday night out!

Mini E wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Mini E wrote:

Trelliz wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:To the PhD sorts who have written extensive literature reviews - how do you structure them? Mine is nearly 11,000 words of rambling about various sort-of-related subjects and counting at the moment.

My supervisor said not to put in a literature review chapter on the grounds that nobody actually reads them and you end up citing the same works in the rest of the thesis anyway.

Lit review for me is absolutely integral to the thesis as it provides the rationale for the following four scientific studies. I guess there will be a huge range between subjects. Mine is likely to be 20-30,000 words.

You're in a different field from me, but I daresay mine will run into about 15,000 words. For me, it's important to recognise the sheer amount of literature on my chosen subject and show where my research fits in with that and - more crucially - where it differs. It's just been very hard to structure.

I think structure is everything to be honest. Mine is basically planned out to the most minute detail and then I essentially fill out the structure into full sentences. Going to have to be careful it doesn't come across as too blocky, but it's the only way I can make sure it keeps the structure. Actually doing this as we speak. Big Wednesday night out!

How did you plan it so well! Mine is honestly slapdash as strawberry float, I'm constantly jumping between sections and can't quite get a handle on where I want it to go.

It's more or less the last bit I need to do - I almost have a full draft of the thesis sitting there, which is quite exciting.

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Mini E wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Mini E wrote:

Trelliz wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:To the PhD sorts who have written extensive literature reviews - how do you structure them? Mine is nearly 11,000 words of rambling about various sort-of-related subjects and counting at the moment.

My supervisor said not to put in a literature review chapter on the grounds that nobody actually reads them and you end up citing the same works in the rest of the thesis anyway.

Lit review for me is absolutely integral to the thesis as it provides the rationale for the following four scientific studies. I guess there will be a huge range between subjects. Mine is likely to be 20-30,000 words.

You're in a different field from me, but I daresay mine will run into about 15,000 words. For me, it's important to recognise the sheer amount of literature on my chosen subject and show where my research fits in with that and - more crucially - where it differs. It's just been very hard to structure.

I think structure is everything to be honest. Mine is basically planned out to the most minute detail and then I essentially fill out the structure into full sentences. Going to have to be careful it doesn't come across as too blocky, but it's the only way I can make sure it keeps the structure. Actually doing this as we speak. Big Wednesday night out!

How did you plan it so well! Mine is honestly slapdash as strawberry float, I'm constantly jumping between sections and can't quite get a handle on where I want it to go.

It's more or less the last bit I need to do - I almost have a full draft of the thesis sitting there, which is quite exciting.

I plan out every single section and subsection I'm intending on putting in (although this does of course change slightly as the PhD does) and just do a shit-ton of reading and put references and notes in under each section. Just finished for the night now. The lit review word doc now stands at 25,022 words including references and it's still not done - I'm glad it's a fascinating topic or I'd feel sorry for the external examiner.

I'm also with Mini-E in regards to planning each section out. I make an outline of each major section, and then have a point by point breakdown to keep me on track of what the hell I want to say, then I basically just convert those points to full sentences. Otherwise I totally lose focus and can't write properly.

How do you guys do your references by the way? As I write I will normally just put in a quote or paraphrase and then write (SOURCE) next to it in bold red font, or if I can remember the author I will quickly write part of the name, then at the end I use the reference manager tool in word to put in all the references proper.

Rightey wrote:I'm also with Mini-E in regards to planning each section out. I make an outline of each major section, and then have a point by point breakdown to keep me on track of what the hell I want to say, then I basically just convert those points to full sentences. Otherwise I totally lose focus and can't write properly.

How do you guys do your references by the way? As I write I will normally just put in a quote or paraphrase and then write (SOURCE) next to it in bold red font, or if I can remember the author I will quickly write part of the name, then at the end I use the reference manager tool in word to put in all the references proper.

I thought I was the only person to do this - if I'm writing a statement I know to be true, I'll throw SOURCE next to it highlighted bright yellow and keep going, knowing I can come back and find a reference to support my statement.

At the moment I write references long-form myself but so far I've used 390 in my lit review alone so that probably isn't sustainable. I really need to sort my EndNote game out.

What are you guys writing your Thesis using? My PhD was Computer Science related so everyone favoured using LaTeX - it's quite handy for managing referencing, layouts etc. But I know a lot of people prefer using WYSIWYG editors like Word for doing things.

Mini E wrote:

Trelliz wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:To the PhD sorts who have written extensive literature reviews - how do you structure them? Mine is nearly 11,000 words of rambling about various sort-of-related subjects and counting at the moment.

My supervisor said not to put in a literature review chapter on the grounds that nobody actually reads them and you end up citing the same works in the rest of the thesis anyway.

Lit review for me is absolutely integral to the thesis as it provides the rationale for the following four scientific studies. I guess there will be a huge range between subjects. Mine is likely to be 20-30,000 words.

I can't recall how long my Lit review was now (generally tried to burn from my memory the many hours I spent laboring over the whole write-up now!) but the general thrust was to establish the state of the art in my field, spend a bit of time on where work from other related fields has an impact on things, and demonstrate that the problem I'm addressing in my work is A) something which has not already been solved, and B) something which those working in the field generally agree to be a problem.

This is all bringing back such wonderful memories of the joyous time that is writing up! To be fair I enjoyed writing the first draft, it was the revisions and re-writes which really wore me down!

I come from a physics & compsci background so I'll be using LaTeX, but my supervisor is from a biology background and only deals with Word documents (for drafts etc.), so that'll be an 'interesting' problem in about 6 months time when I start drafting.

390 references! What the strawberry float. Mine is at about 80 from 60 different sources in 11,000 words - I'd estimate that it'll be around 100 by the end of it but primary source material doesn't really come into the lit review so I'm a bit hamstrung as they make up the vast majority of the sources in the main body of writing.

I know I shouldn't compare myself to CompSci guys as I'm humanities and we work differently/reference differently but...gooseberry fool I'm feeling insecure now.

Referencing requirements are slightly different between our subjects I can't really say a statement of fact (unless glaringly obvious) without a reference in general.

Mini E wrote:Referencing requirements are slightly different between our subjects I can't really say a statement of fact (unless glaringly obvious) without a reference in general.

Isn't it just standard in any subject?

I don't think so - I've proof read/helped out with a few dissertations in different subjects and there are always different referencing requirements and systems between subjects. Even in ones that fall under the same faculty umbrella.

Rightey wrote:

Mini E wrote:Referencing requirements are slightly different between our subjects I can't really say a statement of fact (unless glaringly obvious) without a reference in general.

Isn't it just standard in any subject?

Apparently not if Cora only needs to use 60 or 80 in 11,000 words. I guess there are different expectations on what can be taken as read without evidence in different fields.

Today's PhD thought for the day:

I strawberry floating hate stats.

It annoys me that so many institutions use Harvard when British footnotes are easier to add as you go as well as read. Plus the system of stuff like A, James (2011 A); A, James (2011 B) for more than 1 thing said in the same year is dumb, as if decent sources actually move that slow. I felt like everything I did was perpetually locked in the past, a load of gooseberry fool.

Mini E wrote:

Rightey wrote:

Mini E wrote:Referencing requirements are slightly different between our subjects I can't really say a statement of fact (unless glaringly obvious) without a reference in general.

Isn't it just standard in any subject?

Apparently not if Cora only needs to use 60 or 80 in 11,000 words. I guess there are different expectations on what can be taken as read without evidence in different fields.

Today's PhD thought for the day:

I strawberry floating hate stats.

A lot of my work is descriptive, and involves direct quotes; I only need to reference when I'm using a quote or an idea from another author or article, archival source etc etc. So if I'm saying something like; "Robert Dallek believes that Johnson promised more than he could deliver as President," I'd need to provide proof that he said that, preferably with a source monograph and page reference. Whereas if I were saying that "Johnson attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention," I wouldn't need to reference that because it's not sourcing someone else's work and is something that can be checked very easily by the reader as a material fact.

My understanding of the referencing in Mini E's subject is that *everything* needs to be backed up, so if he wants to say the sky is blue he'd damn well better have a scientific journal to back up his outlandish statement.

(It's more like 110 in 11,000 words now, 80 is far too low )

I'm half way done to finishing writing my portfolio for my comprehensive exams. Now I just need to research and write my 10-15 page original paper by this Friday and I will be good

Fukken saved! Reading the fine print pays off yet again!

The due date for my comps portfolio was stated as Feb. 24th in an email from the program coordinator, but I read the info on the website and it said it needs to be in 2 weeks before the exam date, which would mean March 7th. I emailed them and asked what was going on and they just confirmed it is the 7th.

Now I can actually read some of the articles I am citing rather than just reading the abstract and pretending I read them

Urgh. OK. So my PhD thesis is now at a glorious 79,421 words/250 pages long. The draft is done. Now for the month upon month of re-writes.

And after staying up till after 2am to finish, I have a 9am start at work tomorrow. Curses.