Hey guys,

I'm actually thinking about how to write my introduction and the literature review

- review the literature
- Structure your review and develop a table of contents
- Align your sources to the chapters
- Define the aim of the chapter
- Write a storyboard ("First introducing x, then y and then z ... and thats the way how I achive the aim"). The storyboard includes the literature sources.
- Take your storyboard and WRITE (maybe search for further resources)

what do you think. a good approach? what techniques are you using?

Cheers
Thorsten

Not sure if such a structured approach is really necessary. It might be useful to read a few papers and student textbooks so you get an overview and have enough shallow knowledge to be able to compile a list with basic sub-topics which need to be included. So you start with the broad subject area and then narrow down in the course of your literature review.

I wrote my literature review differently though: I went to an academic database (keyword search), printed out about 100 articles which appeared to be remotely related with the broad area of my thesis; then I put these sources in Endnote and just started writing. In the beginning, this approach was a bit chaotic as I hadn't read the articles yet, but after a while you will get an overview and can fill in the missing pieces. Obviously, different people have different approaches, so I guess it's up to your personal style.

Some people write the lit review at the end as they know what the rest of the thesis says first and how to introduce it.
It sounds like a good approach for results chapters particularly, I like the storyboard idea as I've got lost on what I've been trying to say a lot.
I bought a book on writing a thesis. They aren't aimed at sciences but I don't know what your subject is.