This month, I have had a really tricky time (as I am sure everyone in the world has!). Alongside the global pandemic, my partner has been furloughed so we are bringing in less money than before, and over the summer, I am not paid the additional teaching wages I earn in term-time (as obviously there is no teaching and I am only paid for the teaching I do). I do receive my scholarship as I am fortunate enough to be a funded student, but this monthly amount is far less than minimum wage and I have always used the teaching hours to top up my income and make ends meet.

Hi everyone,

Hi!

I am hoping someone may be able to help me with some advice on my PhD lit review.

I'm studying for a PhD in a Media-related discipline. I've been struggling to figure out a reliable method of working through my literature review.

At the moment, I've found I'm working really well with reading the books/articles I need to read, making detailed notes on them, typing those notes up, and then translating that into my actual written lit review.

However, I'm finding this is obviously very time-consuming (reading entire books) and I am struggling with how to figure out what to read at this level of detail and what not to.

Any advice on how people personally went about completing their literature reviews would be amazing, plus any guidance on this specific situation. I've obviously trawled through loads of online blogs about the subject, and some have been helpful. Others, however, talk about fully reading and skimming some stuff, without really getting into how you figure out what to fully read or what to skim.

I'm feeling frustrated with myself, because, on one hand, I have been using the literature reviews of the books I'm already including to help indicate what else to read, which feels right. On the other, I feel this method is going to just mean I literally write the same review as these books have already written, which doesn't feel right.

Any advice would be helpful, and thank you!

Stay safe out there.