Hi,

I was wondering if anyone else approaching the end of their second year at the end of the summer is similarly lost in everything they've gathered with no idea how to even start managing the information? My PhD is in the social sciences and what I have is a lot of interview notes (taking from recordings), piles of papers/speeches/other literature and a title (amazingly) which captures exactly what I want to say. The problem is the volumes of the material and the need to structure it in such a way that I know what I have and where it fits into the big picture (I've tried different ways of structuring it digitally into folders etc but always end up with things that can end up in multiple places, getting frustrated and given up before the job is even half done). The biggest piece I've written was my Masters dissertation 20,000 words which no longer seems like an epic achievement and the idea of doing something 5 times the size has started to cause a few panicky moments . I'd really love to hear some thoughts on where to go from here. Pick a chapter and dive straight in or be more methodical about data management. The best idea ive come up with so far is to try a write out a list of claims/hypotheses that I want to test and then to go through all my material and see what stands up and what doesnt....

I can tell you whet I did.....

When I trasncribed and translated all my interviews (I did them in Greek and then I transleted them in English), I then found the themes that emerged from my data.
Then I divided (I don't think it's the correct word, but it's the best I can come up with now) the themes into three broader themes that became my chapters and decided on the order that I would put them into my thesis.
Then I started writing one chapter at a time....

Now I am writing my third and last analysis chapter and I think it's coming up pretty good......

While I am writing I have next to me all of the material (books, papers etc) that I think I will need and that makes it easier for me.

This is the way I am working and I am not famous for being organised....but that's working for me so far!

Good luck!

Hi,

I'm in the social sciences too, and like you I ended up with lots of data and not really much of a clue as to how to organise it. You've said that you know what you want to say, so this should be helpful. Can you break down your message into chunks as suggested by Emmaki?

I used NVivo which definitely made everything a lot easier when it came to organising my data, but there are other tools out there and some free ones online apparently. Don't just start writing yet - you need to get your structure sorted then start writing. What is each chapter going to say? What contribution does it make to knowledge? Once you know that, then you can start writing.

Also, depending on your approach, I don't think you should be testing claims, you should be looking at the data and seeing what that says then build up claims based on your data. If you're using a positivistic approach then what you've suggested is fine, however if you're using any other approach then you might get criticised for testing hypotheses against your data.

I hope that's somewhat helpful - sorry if it's a bit jumbled, I'm in the middle of writing analysis chapters myself and it's muddling my brain!

Same here!

I have a massive problem structuring and organising information I collected from literature/ fieldwork. I am also at the end of my 2nd year and dyslexic too which I believe affects the lack of structure. There is not an easy answer, not an easy solution to the problem. Some people just don't think in a linear way.

One advice I got but never tried it is to make a mind map. I generally write everything I know about everyhting :) down. It makes me feel better as at least my thoughts are on paper not in my head !! In the beginning it is a real mess but then I edit heavily. When I ve done everything I could, only then sent it to my supervisors for comments and they always improve the structure further.

A good way to think the writing process is like telling a story, start with the general and guide the reader to the end. Easier said than done, it can be helpful at a later stage. I write questions and try to answer them in each paragraph. Why this subject? Why is this important? What do I know about x?

DON'T get panicky, just start writing paragraph by paragraph. Good luck !

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Hi Thephder,

I am struggling with this issue literally at this very moment! I am currently writing my results and discussion chapters, and in preparation I downloaded and saved a lot of literature that I wanted to refer to, but I now have so many papers I don't know what I have! Like you I had papers saved in different folders, but it just wasn't working for me (my memory isn't the strongest). So what I done is create a table in Word; I skim read each paper and assigned it a general 'theme', i.e. policy, education, etc., and assigned this information to the first column in my table. I then recorded the author's name and year of publication, title of the paper and any findings that are significant to my study (this helps if you have already completed your initial analysis of the data or know what you are going to report). I now have a table that runs over 20+ pages, but it will make the task SO much easier when I'm writing about, say confidence or communication, as I can do a simple CTRL & F search and find all the literature relating to that area! It has taken me days to complete, but I feel it will so be worth my time. 

In regards to my data, I too have used NVivo and it has been brilliant. If you're doing qualitative research, which is sounds like you are by your comment regarding interview notes, I would thoroughly recommend it.

Please keep us updated as to how you decide to proceed. We could end up learning a thing or two from you!

Good luck, RLD

A good piece of advice which I was given at the beginning of my PhD by my supervisor was to write almost from the get-go. Writing helps formulate ideas, begins to give you the outline of a structure, and can even be handy for incorporating in to later chapters even if most of what you write early on never sees the light of day as it is.

That is of course retrospective advice, so apologies to you guys, but perhaps it can help others who are just starting!

The feedback is appreciated guys - I'll let you know what I finally come up with!