I came across the University of Queensland’s PhD writing guide, which is quite an impressive resource for academic strategies, research and topic exploration. It branches out into many different areas including working with supervisors, designing a topic, finding resources, the ‘literature cycle’, getting useful feedback, and writing a ‘unified thesis’ with a clear and effective ‘plot’.
I’ve summarized the elements of the guide that I found most interesting and relevant to my studies -
Approach reading literature at the beginning as an opportunity to explore the general topic area, and ask questions about your research plans.
Ask about your intended idea:
- Why is it important?
- What is interesting about this?
- What use is it?
- Can it be formalised?
- Are there other examples of this happening elsewhere?Keep in mind about the general topic area:
- What aspects have been exhausted?
- What’s been neglected?
- What are the most important ideas, issues and controversies?
- What has been done in the past that is similar/relevant?
- Where/what might my idea have evolved from?Consider what problems lie within your topic, and try to see relationships between sub-areas of the topic. It is by investigating relationships between things that you find solutions, because you avoid either thinking too broadly about one big idea, or too closely on any one detail, and instead look at the problems and idea combinations that are at the heart of your topic.
Literature Passes (3 phases of research)
First Pass) Filling in the background in a general way
Second Pass) Focus more on your specific research & topic
- pay attention to how others have arrived at their findings
- look for indications of why the field developed the way it did
- try to gain a sense of where the field might be going
- compare different definitions or concepts, and compare them in detail - this is essential before a synthesis of the ideas can occur
Third Pass) Look back and place your your own work in the field
- identify points or issues that lead directly to your research
- more confidently assess previous research that’s been done in the field
There’s a lot more information on these ideas and others, so check out the University of Queensland’s PhD “First Thoughts to Finished Writing” site here.
Also, there’s some related information of interest at the ANU’s own Skills and Learning Centre here.
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