For many PhD candidates, writing the literature review is a nightmare. How should I order the literature? How should I integrate it into my review? Why am I asked to write a literature review?

The task is even more challenging if the literature review is seen as an exhaustive catalogue of the existing literature - or as a patchwork of citations.

However, a literature review has a specific architecture.

When you understand the logic of this architecture, you understand the logic of
the literature review and ordering your ideas is not that challenging anymore:

you see the structure of your text.

However, if properly done, the literature review exercise is beneficial in many ways:

You get an overview of the current scientific issues in your field

You know how to select and order the literature

You find your position
in your scientific community

You know how to exploit others’ works to show the scientific necessity of your own research

Writing a good literature review is a matter of organisation.

This workshop aims to help you build your literature review. It is project-based: you work constantly on your own literature review, writing your text step by step.

You don't just learn what to do - you do it.

This course helps you lay the foundation of your literature review. More concretely, it shows you how to...

Structure your literature review.
Write the main parts of your review.
Select the literature you need.
Exploit the scientific literature to write a good literature review.
Critically engage with the position of different authors.
Use the literature review to show the necessity of your own research.

Objectives

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, you will have gone beyond the critical stage at the beginning - you will have started your literature review.

You know how to classify the relevant literature.
You know how to critically and analytically engage with the positions of others – and how to critically position your own work
You have elaborated your own writing strategy : you know writing techniques to generate and structure ideas
You know how to overcome writer’s block
You know how to organize your time in order to curb procrastination
You know writing tools you can apply for your other writing projects
You know how to use efficiently the time available for your writing projects