You have a great hypothesis in mind. You have a brilliant theological or missiological or hermeneutical breakthrough in your head that you wish to convey. You have a compelling argument to support your hypothesis and build the conceptual understanding in your head. Now, you have to commit all of this to paper. You sit down purposefully to do it. And then boink! Things simply don’t go according to those lofty plans in your head!
Those of you who have laboured through long hours working on a Master’s level thesis/dissertation within theological education in India will be familiar with this feeling of being in limbo while you are in the process of writing each section or chapter. Trying to translate all your ideas into the required thesis format leaves you feeling confused and alienated. Sounds familiar?
In this post, I handle one part of the required format, namely, ‘Literature Review’ or the ‘Previous Research’ section, and some tips to hopefully help you feel less alienated from what you are required to do in a literature review as a Master’s student.
Tip: If you could be a bit more organised about this ‘Literature Review,’ it will immensely simplify the not- very-inviting task of compiling your bibliography and footnotes sections as well. But more about this at the end of this post!
Before we get into it, let me share with you what my awesome Masters’ Supervisor told me when I was whining to her about why she wanted me to add footnotes for everything that I had said in my first draft submitted to her, which, according to me, was all my own thoughts and ideas!
She said, “Your first draft is beautiful and I know it’s all coming from your head. But my dear girl, someone has most likely already said what you want to say. So just find those to quote. Your time will come when you can write your own book without footnotes. But this is not yet that time. When you write a dissertation, this is the academic requirement.” Keeping this wisdom in mind helped me to cope with some of the rigour required in academic writing ever since.
On that note, let me dive straight into the purpose of a literature review section. It needs to show that you have done three things as a Master’s level student:
1) read enough about the broad area of research in which you are situating your specific topic/study;
2) know how to answer critical questions in existing research on your specific topic, be familiar with questions that have been asked and answered, and have a grip on which aspects have received more attention and which ones have not; and
3) identified which areas have not been addressed and why, and show how you are going to address these gaps in your research/study, and/or also specify if your study does not address said gaps, but how the literature helps ground your own thesis.
What it is NOT and what it IS?
A literature review cannot be just a list of books/articles you read while you were zeroing in on your thesis title and specific area of research.
A literature review should be written in a narrative form, and be organised chronologically or thematically, grouping together similar arguments, identifying significant trends in the research area, and interlacing all of this with what these arguments are missing or lacking, that your research will address. You can read more about this in this helpful article put together by St. Mary’s University, California.
How to organise a literature review?
Shona Mc Combes lists five steps in the process of putting together a literature review that you may find helpful, and I quote them here as it affords repeating:
1) Search for relevant literature
2) Evaluate sources
3) Identify themes, debates, and gaps
4) Outline the structure
5) Write your literature review
A rather more detailed article on how to go about these five steps has also been put together by the University of Pennsylvania if you have time for a heavier read.
Tip: In your enthusiasm to show ALL that you have read, don’t forget to always connect each work you talk about with how it relates to your own thesis/research idea or research question.
How long should a literature review section be?
Depending on your chosen area of research, a literature review could be a full chapter by itself in a Master’s Thesis, or it could be a few pages long if it is for a research paper.
Warning: One paragraph citing three titles or articles with a line about who wrote each, and enumerating the three titles cannot be considered a ‘literature review’ and will reflect badly on your capabilities as a Master’s student.
Finally, a tip about something that will add many gainful hours to your life as a student! From year one of your Master’s course, before you zero in on your thesis title and specific area of research, you are required to be reading existing literature. Each time you have the feeling that there are resonances in something you are reading, to the research idea/question that you have in mind, insert the bibliographic details of the book/article using existing free or reasonably priced software like Mendeley or some such.
This will save you many hours of trying to remember and find the books later when you sit down to the actual task of writing and need to insert footnotes and compile the bibliography. And you will also save time trying to manually follow the particular referencing style your seminary/ university requires you to follow (In the Senate of Serampore University system, Hunter Mabry’s Guide based on the Chicago Manual of Style or the Turabian citation style is followed). Try some of the existing software from year one of your course, until you find one that is user-friendly, and doesn’t pinch your pocket. Believe me, you will not regret it!
So that’s all there is to it – don’t let it overwhelm you; be organised, and your well-written literature review will give you clarity of thought and become a solid launchpad for the rest of your chapters.
