I've been trying to write up a literature review for weeks now and there's still endless bits of paper and notes everywhere (ok, so I realise that bad organisation may play a part in this!!) and I am nowhere nearer to handing anything in - so how long does it take other people to get something decent written and hand it in (say 5k words?) because I feel like I'm taking way too long here! :( Feels like it will never get done!

Something like that would take me a week.. that being the week before handing it in lol.

Regardless of how early I start a piece of work like a lit review or abstract submisson etc, my productivity is terrible untill the week before the deadline then i go into overdrive and get it done..

My advice if you are struggling is to have an overview of each part of your lit review and organise all your notes/papers into these areas and then tackle them one bit at a time, then once they are done fit them all together. Say you have 1000 words a section then that is less daunting than doing the whole thing. Plus if you get fed up of a particular section you can just move onto another. In my experience I can comfortably do about 1000 words a day if I put my mind to it.

Oh dear, only a week!!
I think I might be overcomplicating things as this is my first thing I am handing in and I don't want them to think I did a bad job on it, I feel like I need to prove my worth with it.
I am trying to break it into sections and then having trouble linking it up, but I will persevere! This is my first stab at academic writing in about 2 years hence the snails pace...

Mokey, I was in the same situation as you a few weeks back. I just felt overwhelmed with all the info I had for my lit review and got no help or advice from my supervisor (who didn't even know I had to write one). Anyway I struggled on and produced 10k words but missed the deadline, had my review panel cancelled because of this, and when it was re-arranged had my writing criticised. OK this is not a very positive thing to say to you. But the outcome is that I managed to do it and got feedback, eventually and am now in the process of redoing it with two months until I need to hand it in again. Plus I am getting much better advice from a new supervisor. What I am trying to say is nothing is ever as bad as it seems but even if it is there are ways forward and everything you do in a PhD is part of a learning curve.

Mokey. For me 5k words would also take me longer than a week (probably 2 or 3 weeks to be honest) so try not to worry. My supervisors often say you should aim to write 500 words per day so if you don't work the weekends then 2 weeks is about right. I scatter stuff everywhere, plan and scribble things down...bit disorganized really but I get it all done eventually and put this down to being a perfectionist Try not to worry. I'm missing deadlines very regularly at the moment - I couldn't be a journalist hehe.

Grey, I was a journalist for 12 years but am missing deadlines in PhD. As a journalist I always worked on the premise that there were deadlines and there were real deadlines. Most deadlines can be extended and I always work till the last minute.

Hi Mokey, I've got a feeling you started around the same time as me in September? If so, I'm impressed that you're anywhere near writing something up! I keep asking if I should have written something by now, but no-one seems in any particular rush to see anything. Consequently all I've got are a few jottings written as I read through papers. I know from experience it can take me a week to write 1000 words, so when should I start writing a lit review?

Hey ericonrhicam, yeah I think we did start the same at the time! :) This lit review is nothing formal but just really to let my sup know what I have been up to in all these months (which feels like nothing to be honest - maybe that's the problem?!). I was supposed to have this done before the new year and I am still pouring over it with little progress. I am worried that it will show my inadequacies!
Normally it would take me about a week to write out 1000 words, but I am over-obsessing with it and I just can't get it all into a coherent order! I have read so much which I now think is irrelevant and therefore I don't know what to do with it - my mind seems to be moving faster than what I am writing or reading about (if that makes sense!).
Another problem is that I don't have a definite deadline, and preparation for teaching is taking up way more time than I thought it would. Oh, and suffering a huge bout of de-motivation since Jan! I'm just full of excuses!!

I have 5,000 words to hand in, in around 10 days. I reckon I can do it. Good luck.

I'm finding it impossible to write! I wonder if this has something to do with my note taking as I'm reading. When I try to sit down and write, I look at my notes and don't know where in the world to start! I realise that maybe when I finished reading a piece, I should have written a 500 word synopsis of it, which is what I'm going to start doing in order to get some clarity and see how everything fits together.

I just got a piece of writing back, and my heart sank when I saw all the corrections It's absolutely covered in them, don't seem to have done anything right. The worrying thing is, that when I handed it in, I thought it was okay, not brilliant, but not dreadful. Now I'm terrified to write anything else! I don't think I've ever felt so uptight about writing. It's only since I started the PhD that I dread it so much. I think my fear is putting major blocks on my writing. I wish I was one of those people that just types away furiously, full of energy and confident about what I was trying to say!

From what people have been saying, I feel even less keen on handing this in now!!

Corrections!! When I submitted my lit review to my supervisors for comments before handing in the corrections were driving me mad. The thing is that they all have slightly different opinions on the topic ,this may just be because my PhD covers engineering and biology and therefore it is difficult to find a happy medium.

Writing lit reviews aren't easy when new to a topic. First: Lots of reading of things you don't understand Second: More reading Third: More reading Fourth: The moment of clarity where it suddenly starts to make sense Fifth: Reread everything and begin to get a grip of the topic. The last bit is writing, getting a good outline and headings (even if general) is the key. The end is cutting and pasting everything you have written so it becomes coherent. Then the edits and finally the 'just one last reference' which can be the most annoying as you start discovering what you think are better refernces.

Nobody is truly happy with what they write but without deadlines nothing would be finished. Good luck and stay focused (never easy I know)!

Studentken - I think you have made a very good point... I don't understand what I am reading, therefore I am finding it nearly impossible to put together a literature review where I 'review' things I don't get!!

I have decided today to abandon the mess I was in previously and start afresh, go through all my notes again and just write about 500 words on each book without trying to see where it fits in to everything else. Before I was just picking at bits which seemed to make the task impossible... thanks for your suggestions everyone