At many universities, Chapter 2 of your dissertation is the Literature Review. Usually, it’s the largest section of the dissertation, and for good reason. While writing your dissertation literature review, you will take an in-depth look at your topic by providing a critical appraisal of the current discussions occurring around your topic. Let’s start this series by taking a broad view of the literature review. Subsequent articles in this series will break down the literature review just as you would your topic when writing your Chapter 2.

During the Literature Review, colloquially it’s the “Lit Review,” you’re tasked with researching the current literature about your topic, presenting it in an organized and sensical matter, and wrapping it around the research you’re proposing. You’ll centralize the current information about your chosen topic which will help you identify any gaps that your research could fill. But for many doctoral learners, writing the Lit Review can be overwhelming which leads them to avoid starting the process. Of course, not starting won’t work. You HAVE to start. So where, where to start?

1. Start at the beginning

Start with a quick basic google search of your chosen topic. Don’t get caught up in refining your search terms, don’t get caught up in scholarly language. Just search – just like you’d do some research on your next pair of running shoes, new car, or new favorite restaurant. Throw some words related to your topic into the search bar and see what happens.

“See what happens? What does THAT mean?” Great thought. All it means is to start clicking, opening the links to the hits that come up, and reading each one. I’m going to stop here and break this down for some of you who may be wondering what some of those words I just typed mean. Yes, there are people who don’t know computer language, so for those of you who do, hold on a minute.

Thank you for holding so we could all get on the same page.

When you start clicking through the links, opening them and reading, you’ll start noticing some ideas that are repeated. Those are the things you need to take note of. My advice to start with is to bookmark EVERY link you open. How to bookmark will depend on the device you’re working on, so you’re on your own to Google or YouTube how to do that if you already don’t.

But why bookmark EVERY link? That seems a bit overzealous, right? Your bookmark links might get crowded pretty fast. Yes, they will, but it’s a great way to keep track of the articles, research, the information you’re reading. It’s a great way to start building your skills for analyzing the data you collect later in your research. That’s one of the great side-skills you get from writing a dissertation – scaffolding what you learn as you move through this process.

Keeping those early articles bookmarked is important because you’ll have many moments where you’re reading another piece of research and say to yourself, “Wait! I read something like that before. WHERE is that? What article was that again….” And off you go, looking through your saved links to find that connection. Eventually, you’ll learn what you need to keep and what you can delete from your saved list.

2. Identify what is important

Through this process, you’ll start collecting information. You’ll start seeing what you can use and what is just noise. The ones you can use are important to keep. As a beginner, knowing what you can use might seem foreign, but that’s okay. It’s all foreign; that’s why we’re here. So let me explain how you start to know what you can use.

When you find the information you can use, you see patterns crossing between what you’re reading. So while we’re on that, let’s clarify through definitions what you might be reading:

• Articles – these might be from newspapers, information written by someone, no real research or data behind it. It’s usually experiences, stories, thoughts, opinions.
  • There’s nothing wrong with this type of early reading for your Lit Review. You might visit articles in your early stages, but you will definitely not unpack and camp here.
• Research – this is data-driven, empirical-based, and peer-reviewed scientific writings that provide facts on a certain topic. These writings are where you’ll eventually unpack and live through the life of your dissertation. These are what your Lit Review will be based on and what your final dissertation will be included in.

This is the beginning of your Lit Review. Take the time and initiative first to learn what a Lit Review is, how to start searching for articles, and what kind of articles or research you’ll be using. At this point, if you’re JUST beginning to write your Chapter 2, I challenge you to take an hour at least two times per week to just sit at your computer and start searching in Google, Duck Duck Go, or whatever you choose to use as your search engine. Remember, if you come across something interesting for any reason, bookmark it. You’ll probably want it later, and if you don’t, that’s okay. It’s super easy to delete.

The next article will introduce you to organizing what you find and understanding how it all fits together. Alright, go start researching. Have fun with it! You got this!

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