Numbers: 10, 56, 94, and 17,660

Here are the numbers for my literature review - though not final as hubby is proof-reading the latter half.

10 separate versions
56 pages
94 different citations
17,660 words

My back feels every one of those words, too.  Please note, however, that the literature review is done!

The Literature Review: Knowing When to Quit

My research companion, Practical Research by Leedy and Ormrod, has a section in the literature review chapter entitled, "Knowing When to Quit."  They say that the novice researcher (me) often asks, "When do I know that I have completed the review of the literature?"  

Their answer:  "In theory, the answer might be 'Never.' "

Lovely.

Risk! Risk is our business!

Could it be that, after 80,000 words on risk and risk management, the simple yet overly dramatic words of Captain Kirk in Star Trek say it all? 

"They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings, but he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this, but I'm not because Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this, but I must point out that the possibilities - the potential for knowledge and advancement - is equally great. Risk! Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her. You may dissent without prejudice. Do I hear a negative vote?"

Captain James Tiberius Kirk

Starship Enterprise

Stardate 4768.3

Link:   Risk! Risk is our business.

(or does it reflect that in efforts to overcome the boredom of writing a literature review, one becomes a trekkie?)

Three of Five

Just finished up three of five chapters...only the literature review and the conclusions remain.

As soon as I clean up my Methodology and Results chapters, I'm going to send the three on to Dr. Z for his review.  While waiting for him, I'll try to crank out that lit review - the current bane of my existence.

Getting close!

Am I into this or what?

It's only 8:00 a.m., and I'm already thinking about what I want for lunch.

More on the Literature Review

I recently found this lecture on the literature review from Texas A&M.  Wish I had seen this a year ago - it would have saved me countless hours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1hG99HUaOk

It's by Candace Schaefer at Texas A&M's Writing Center.  She cites a very good literature review for business that is also helpful:

Allen, R. C. (1996). Socioeconomic Conditions and Property Crime: A Comprehensive Review and Test of the Professional Literature. American Journal Of Economics & Sociology, 55(3), 293.

Journal Quality

Dr. Z spent a lot of time yesterday on my article selection and short-version proposal.  He said that version 2 was better, but I wasn't working with the best articles.  So far in my literature search, I've found 317 different pieces of literature - and have felt overwhelmed by that number.

So I asked him what "best articles" meant.  He sent me the "Academic Journal Quality Guide, version 4" by the Association of Business Schools (UK).  It grades all the academic journals from Grade 4 (the best) to Grade 1 (the not-as-good).

Last night and continued this morning, I went through my list of 317 and put the ABS's grades next to each journal in my EndNote library.  Then I saved a copy of my EndNote library and deleted all non-graded articles.  

The result?  I had only 112 graded articles in my library - much more manageable than 317 (duh!).  


Next steps:

1. Start version 3 of the proposal.
2. Review the better articles for this next version.
3. Revisit title and purpose statement - which will probably mean adjusting/tweaking research problems and hypotheses, but probably not too much (at least, I hope so!).
4. Then, do another literature search.

It's moving along.

Adjusting to Glacial Speed

I must admit that the revelation of "Glacial Speed" in the proposal process threw me for a loop yesterday.  A classmate who is ahead of me in the process told me yesterday that proposal versionS have a three to six week turn-around time.  Yes, that's "versions" with an "s"--plural.  

Therefore, I have to anticipate that the May 14th call will result in submitting version 2 of the proposal.  Say that I turn that around by Memorial Day, we are probably looking at mid-July for feedback on it.  When I expected to be turning in the final draft of entire dissertation, I'll probably be turning in version 3 of the proposal.

Add to that revelation the pollen count, and it proved to be a rather sucky Monday.  But after a good night's rest last night, I'm realizing that balance in life facets cannot be accomplished (without stress) if I work three hours a day (Monday through Friday, that is) on the dissertation...particularly in light of the latest developments.  Accepting that reality, I will continue with the literature review - it clearly is the most work out of everything.  And even if Dr. S poo-poohs some of the sections I've outlined in the proposal, I can always use that research and write-up for future academic papers.  So really, nothing lost here. 

Literature Reviews and Elephants

When looking at this stack of articles/works found in my literature search (to date: 297, down from 302 yesterday), I wonder how on earth I can get through it all.  This morning, I am reminded of the old joke/riddle:

Q:  How do you eat an elephant?

A:  One bite at a time.

Mini-Lit Review

I've put in about six hours today and only halfway through the mini (5-page) literature review.  I'm finding it quite difficult to keep my own personal biases out of it.

The purpose of the review is to simply get up-to-date with all related literature and to compare one scholar's ideas and research with another.  Where I need to write, "Jayara concurs with Mann...," I need to resist writing "both Jayara and Mann are idiots."

Are you smiling yet?

Proposal Part 5 (REDUX): Mini-Literature Review

I found a few items on the literature review previously (see blog post from March 31st).  This is the only part of the Proposal I haven't completed yet.  I've struggled with this one for several reasons:

1. I have nearly 300 scholarly works in the literature search I did over the holidays, including those that I have picked up while writing the proposal.  So much material!  Where to find the time to read then synthesize it all?!  
2. The real literature review for the dissertation will be 40 to 50 pages long; the one for the proposal is to be only 5 pages long.  I find myself venturing on the all-or-nothing precipice. Where to begin a mini-review?
3. As you can probably tell from my blog entries, I suffer a bit from "scope creep."  I like to write, so I find myself going down various rabbit trails with particular works - whether they have any merit on the topic at hand or not.

I spoke with a colleague of mine the other day (Susan K.) who earned her PhD some time ago.  She suggested that I organize my review around the research questions.

Well...duh.  That's so obvious!  I didn't see that at all until she mentioned it.  Thank you, Susan!

Proposal Part 5: Literature Review (and Outline for Lit Review)

The Proposal requires a five-page Literature Review rather than an Outline for a Literature Review.  But an outline may make the task a bit easier.

Found this outline from Western Oregon University.  I also found these videos by David Taylor at the University of Maryland University College for a straight-forward explanation of how to do a literature review:  Part 1 and Part 2.  Taylor also has a Part 3, but it is designed specifically for his students (the dog entering the video provides a little comic relief).  But he does provided a little insight on a literature review outline in this one.

I wrote a few pages of the literature review over the holidays.  I've got over 200 pieces of literature to plow through, however, as the actual dissertation will have 40 to 50 pages devoted solely to the review of the literature.  Dr. S says that this will make me the foremost expert on the topic.  I think that's pretty cool.

I think that I will have all of the sections completed - except for the 5-page literature review - done by April 1st.  The review is going to take a little extra time.  Plus, it's been two months since I tried to tackle that, so I've got to go back to my notes and David Taylor's YouTube videos for a bit of a refresh.