To organize research data, what shall I do?
I am pursuing PhD in English literature. And it’s my 3rd year when I have started writing dissertation. But I think I should have started doing it earlier, since literature is very broad and I’m all trapped here. Please advise me what shall I do to not to lose my important notes and all those things which I’m thinking to do in my dissertation writing?
louis Herry, 
Brad Grey, 
danny54460, and 1 other are discussing. 
Discuss your Dissertation 
louis Herry 5:41 am on December 5, 2016 Permalink |
You never heard of Mendeley? To keep soft copies of all of academic notes and journals, Mendeley app is perfect. It will make your systematic research organized. I have been using it for two years and found it helpful for researchers like us.
Robert Hughes 5:42 am on December 5, 2016 Permalink |
Hi. You should draft a plan of writing dissertation first like how much time you shall take for writing the introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, evaluation, conclusion etc based on type of your research. It will also save your time since. It’s an old advice but helping.
danny54460 5:44 am on December 5, 2016 Permalink |
It’s not easy to draft a writing plan. I don’t think any researcher can follow it easily as it take a lot of time and the whole scheduled plan becomes a mess. We can’t predict if we would be able to complete introduction or literature review within 3 months or 6 months. But since you advised me. Thanks.
Brad Grey 5:44 am on December 5, 2016 Permalink |
Always ask yourself some chief questions like how long the dissertation should be? What my title of dissertation demands? What should I do to justify arguments? Middle, beginning are clear and content is in flow or not? And many more questions that can be raised. Try to answer them with your writing. Avoid writing anything manually; instead type even the small hints or important points.
danny54460 5:46 am on December 5, 2016 Permalink |
@ brad grey But why? I have a habit of pen and paper. I’m writing important points first on paper then will type it over. Otherwise I might get lost in typing and so. Also, when typing it later, there is a possibility of getting improved every time.
Brad Grey 5:47 am on December 5, 2016 Permalink |
@Danny Avoid it because each chapter of Humanities dissertation generally consist 40-50 double spaced pages. Do not make it more hectic for you to write and type simultaneously. As you said, English literature is already very broad; it involves theories and criticism. I would recommend the same I said earlier.
louis herry 5:48 am on December 5, 2016 Permalink
Just adding another point here which may sound drastic but is effective. Always write your introduction at last when you are done with your entire dissertation because till then you will get a clear cut idea of what your dissertation targets and what you must introduce first.