MSc Thesis

Heather__Honey

Hi all,

I am currently starting my thesis for a psychology masters and on the literature review section. I have done a significant amount of reading so far but finding it very difficult to organise my thoughts I seem to be reading a lot but getting no where.

I was wondering if anyone could offer tips on organising readings and how they organised their thoughts when they completed their thesis?

Thanks,
Heather

Odysseus

I did a Research thesis and I organised my main chapters and tried to stick to that rather than jumping ahead. How does your litt review refer to your topic, try focusing on that rather than getting caught up into other "interesting" stuff you will come across. Try to keep your focus tight. Does that help or am I am picking you up wrong?

Heather__Honey

Ya thanks! Just wondering if you had a specific way of organising papers as you read them, like did you highlight or take notes? I'm just finding that im reading a lot and highlighting a lot and then coming back to the same papers and feeling as if I hadnt read them at all!

Odysseus

Heather__Honey wrote: »

Ya thanks! Just wondering if you had a specific way of organising papers as you read them, like did you highlight or take notes? I'm just finding that im reading a lot and highlighting a lot and then coming back to the same papers and feeling as if I hadnt read them at all!

I'm an underlining man myself. However, I find things only start to come together once you start writing.

Sardonicat

You need to take notes. Easier, I found, at first, to just do a synopsis of the papers. Type then up, don't waist time handwriting. Type them in order of reading them. The process of wording your synopsis will help clarify where you are going and when you have finshied you can see more clearly whether you can group them under headings.

Once you've done this it's easier to organise your thoughts and develop a clearer picture of the structure of your thesis. You can always change things around at at a later stage, if needs be.

But get typing, it will give you a great feeling to know you've moved on from the reading bit (anxiety inducing, as you don't know when to stop) and actually "start" to write it, even if what you write isn't included in the finished product.

This method is applicable for any subject: Get it down on paper!

Best of luck. It isn't half so daunting once you hear your keyboard tapping

krankykitty

I found it helpful to go highlighting, then review what I had highlighted and categorise it with a sub topic I thought it related to. Then I had some headings to start organising my lit review, so when writing any particular section it I went back and reviewed the relevant pieces of the literature I had categorised as being under that heading.

Velvety

A beautiful annotated bibliography is very useful to keep track of things.

http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill28.htm

When you read back on your summaries it should give you that "Oh yeah! I remember that one." kind of feeling.

Odysseus

Out of interest may I ask what your topic is? Also how long has it to be?

Heather__Honey

Thanks a lot for the tips, Im definitely gonna try some of them!

Im doing an MSc in Work and Organisational Psychology, thesis on employee silence in organisations. Has to be about 15,000 words.

Focalbhach

Heather__Honey wrote: »

I'm just finding that im reading a lot and highlighting a lot and then coming back to the same papers and feeling as if I hadnt read them at all!

The only cure for this that I've found is to get writing. Once you're committing your thoughts to paper, even if just for yourself, it forces you to concentrate on what you're really looking for in those papers rather than just 'scanning for something interesting'. Can you pinpoint exactly what it is you want to find out, or has it been a bit vague and fuzzy so far?

It also forces you to realise that there might be conflicting definitions or results in some papers you have read that you didn't pick up on at the time, which can be good material for discussion (and research)... or indeed, that maybe you haven't understood the definitions as well as you thought you did while reading the first time. As a further bonus, once you have some sort of outline on paper it will help to guide your attention when you're reading new papers.

Good luck!

Odysseus

Heather__Honey wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the tips, Im definitely gonna try some of them!

Im doing an MSc in Work and Organisational Psychology, thesis on employee silence in organisations. Has to be about 15,000 words.

Well best of luck with it. Now you have signed up I hope you continue to use the forum.

Sardonicat

15,000 is very doable, Heather! Once you get typing it'll do itsef.

Best of luck!

kitkat.3b4t

Heather__Honey wrote: »

Hi all,

I am currently starting my thesis for a psychology masters and on the literature review section. I have done a significant amount of reading so far but finding it very difficult to organise my thoughts I seem to be reading a lot but getting no where.

I was wondering if anyone could offer tips on organising readings and how they organised their thoughts when they completed their thesis?

Thanks,
Heather

I did my masters thesis recently and found the literature review the most time consuming part. We were advised to keep a log of the work reviewed, consisting of the full reference and a coment about the content. It is a good idea to continually ask yourself 'how does this relate to my research question'. It can be very easy to get distracted and start following a line that isnt relevant.

Its a good idea to highlight relevent bits then type up a synopsis and always remember to write down the full reference of everything that you might use. You will find that you wont use everything in the end, but it can be really annoying and time consuming if you make a good point which is supported by evidence and then you cant find the proper reference.

Its a good idea to have headings for sections early on in order to make sure that ideas flow into a coherent point, from which you will go on to do your methods and results chapters. It shouldnt take too long to come up with 15000 words. Have you decided how many words to allocate to each chapter? When you decide this, then you can decide how many words to allocate to each section. Dont worry if you have too many words, which you more than likley will. Its a good idea to leave a good chunk of time for editing. Good luck