I have 'readitis'

This is the realisation that I had today during a workshop presented by Hugh Kearns. 'Readitis' is where I read and read and find more wonderful things to read from what i just read that I don't actually give myself a chance to write.

You may remember from my 'PhD must-reads' post that I recently added a series of books by Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner. Today's workshop was based on one of their books, The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Students. 

Kearns presents an engaging workshop that provides a real and doable guide to successfully complete a Higher Degree by Research. Check out his website www.ithinkwell.com.au for free tools and resources.

Is the literature the most important part of the thesis?

Simple terms. Yes.

Without a well researched and constructed literature review to base your own research project, it would be difficult to show a number of things including:

The reason your research is needed;

The basis for your research and;

Where your research is placed in the current field of knowledge.

A strong literature review needs to be presented in a logical manner. This provides the reader, who may or may not be a leader in the field of knowledge, to understand the context which may include the political and historical background of where your research fits within the topic being examined.

There are a number of ways to structure a literature. I suggest ensuring that it flows. There are many hint sheets on how to start paragraphs, connect ideas and themes as well as critically analyse the work you are including. I found that reading theses front TROVE closely related to your topic and methodology will give you an idea how you would like your thesis structured. 

TROVE is created and maintained by the National Library of Australia and holds a variety of content sources including theses completed at Australian Universities. I suggest choosing three theses you think are close to your style of writing, read them in full (not all at once!) and then work out how you would begin to structure your thesis. There's no one right way. Remember the authors of the theses found on TROVE have all been conferred to PhDs.

When reading through the theses, take notes. In my note taking I included, at minimum, the following:

Title

Date

University

Methodology

Methods

No. Of pages

Number of themes or sections within the literature review and

Any ideas that came to mind for my own research.

Working with your notes, place your  headings in to your own thesis template.

This is your starting point. Now on to sorting all those articles you've collected over time, selecting crucial pieces, rereading them and writing your own notes within your literature storage software, which in my case is Endnote.

Where to start with the literature review?

I have written and re-written a couple of literature reviews and now that I am embarking on my PhD journey, I know it is an area that I need to further develop.

My first port of call I recommend is your university's faculty librarian. They are a wealth of knowledge. I already know my librarian from my Master's degree- she taught me how to use Endnote! I have improved my search technique and I have set up alerts for my search 'strings'- a list of key words related to my topic. I have also saved the search strings to use again later in my research.

I will develop a mind map or as my Librarian calls it- semantic mapping.  A map of key words that shows my main themes, related and similar key words and how they are connected. This provides a base for sorting and structuring the literature. When I finish my map I will be happy to share on Twitter - look up @studybreak.

For alternate terms and further literature, I will take a look at other articles that have cited the work that is relevant to my topic. This will add to my semantic map and provide further search strings to work with.

Another approach I will take is to look through theses online. Your University will have a repository of their theses and publications or you can have a look at TROVE that was formally known as the Australasian Digital Theses. This is a great way to see how literature reviews can be structured and how how they differ between the types of theses and methodology. I will be looking for theses that have a literature review that I believe is structured in a way that I believe suits my style of writing and chosen methodology.

Do you have any literature review tips to share?

My newest research tool: using a livescribe smart pen in research

I have spent the last two hours playing with my latest research tool: a livescribe wifi smart pen. I have used the livescribe echo smart pen previously for my master's research. It made data collection and the transcribing of interviews much easier and it was also a fun way to integrate technology into my research.

The difference between the Echo and the Wifi version is in the name itself. To retrieve the audio and writing, the Echo needed to be connected to a computer whereas the wifi version syncs wirelessly to the application Endnote. I already had an Endnote account and the application on my ipad and now my laptop. But it is easy to set up Endnote if you haven't done this yet.

I realise not only is this tool going to come in handy for my qualitative data collection for my current research product but also for meetings and seminars as writing without recording audio is an option as my notes will be synced and can be transformed to readable text. 

Have you used a Livescribe smartpen in your research?

The elusive scholarship

I attended a seminar on how to obtain a HDR scholarship at my University yesterday. Last round, only 8 out of around 100 applications received a scholarship. However, I do believe in the old adage 'you have to be in it to win it'. 

Scholarships are awarded based on a point system. What I have realised is that I need to get an article published in a peer-reviewed article (or a book chapter!) to be in with a good chance. My goal is to get at least one article published in the next 12 months. So even if I am not successful this round, I will continue to apply each round until I do obtain that elusive scholarship or I am awarded my PhD! A $26k stipend would help quite a bit! It would also mean I could go full -time instead of part-time.

Have you received a HDR scholarship? What are your tips for gaining that elusive scholarship?

Completing the first milestone

Already in week 2 and preparing my first milestone- the Research Plan. The Research Plan includes milestone dates and deadlines, training I'm intending to undertake, a supervisor- student role perspectives survey, plans to publish, terms of agreement and schedule of meetings. I also included a project overview on a Gantt chart, a year long project planner and my intended research design in a flow chart.This Research Plan will form part of my progress report required bi- annually.

My first milestone should be complete in the next two weeks. Then I look to the next item on the agenda- the Literature Review.