Writing a Literature Review

This week I submitted my first draft of the literature review.  It wasn’t easy, I have to say and what I initially thought to be a lot of reading has turned out to be quite thin.  I divided it into about 6 sections, each with their own discussion point, all trying to justify my research questions and all trying to feed into the over-arching theme of the chapter and thesis. 

All of this might seem quite reasonable; I might have covered all the major arguments & authors in the fields.  I somewhat doubt it and  I certainly lack confidence in it.  And it made me suddenly realise that I am still quite a way off completing the PhD.  A significant part of the PhD is not what you know or what you uncover but how you argue it.  Now, I am relatively confident & able to argue my point in discussion, when looking at applications or in politics.  However, this confidence does not extend to my research.  So the level of work needed and engagement needs to continue.  But there will be a day – hopefully in the not too distant future – when I will be able to do this.  Then I will be confident I can add some letters before and after my name.