Writing My Literature Review: A Messy Person's Perspective

by JoAnn Foley Markette, Ed.D.

If you're like me, you've scrolled pages of Pinterest organization, strolled the aisles of Staples, and flipped through Better Homes & Gardens desiring to be "that person". You know who I'm talking about. The one who has the perfectly tidy desk, lives by a daily routine and schedule that runs like clockwork, and doesn't even understand what paper clutter is.

Then I married "that person"! While we share core values, our default organization styles don't exactly match. I grew up with an artistic mother; he grew up in a military family. I spent my college years reading, writing, and debating literature and eventually earned my first M.A.--in theatre--while he studied finance and eventually ran technology companies. According to Myers-Briggs, I am abstract sequential, so I do have an orderliness about me, but I go about it in a messier, unorthodox way: I can only really understand what I want to say and figure out how to organize them after I spread them out / write them down, look at them, and "feel" them--be inspired by them. My husband, on the other hand, starts with the goal and the organization first and motors through his outline. Is one way better than the other? Not necessarily. He says, "yes."

If you are like him, this video is perfect for you:

APA citation:

Markette, N. & Markette., J. [Dr. Markette]. (2022, March). How to Write CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW in 1 Month || Dissertation Proposal [Video]. https://youtu.be/mCzy8oSDz_8

What do you do, if you live life a bit messier and a bit more abstractly, a bit more like me? Well, first, I want to encourage you. Life is not a one-size-fits-all, so find the organization strategy that works for you, and stick with it.

This is what I did:

• Figure out your top handful of aligned sections of the Review of Literature.

• Similar to the above video, figure out deadlines for yourself for each of those sections, and do your best to meet these self-imposed deadlines; add a couple buffer days, because we know that we don't always follow self-imposed deadlines very well.

• Write, write, write. Know that there will be whole chunks that you will need to delete because that is how we roll: We know that we process through writing so some of what we write, we actually re-evaluate later and sometime decide that is not what we want to say.

• IMPORTANT STEP: Type the page and paragraph number of every paragraph (ie. p. 5, ¶ 5) in your chapter and / or Review of Literature.

• Now, print off (one-sided) the entire Review of Literature and lay it out on a very large table or the floor.

• Have a pair of scissors and clear tape handy. Now cut, yes, cut up every page by paragraph. Then rearrange as needed and tape the new order of paragraphs together.

• Do not be afraid to eliminate paragraphs (but save them in a paper clip or envelope just in case). Also, do not shy away from drawing boxes for new paragraphs and making notes inside those boxes about what content might need to be added now that you are looking at your chapter structure and flow holistically.

• Read through your Picasso-like masterpiece again and untape / retape sections as needed.

• Now, go back to the original version living on your computer and start rearranging. It should be easy because you will just use the taped version as the guide and find each paragraph as it is labeled.

• You did it!

Without a doubt, the above machinations will sound like pure madness to those like my husband, but to those like me, this may be an eye-opening and helpful process. This is a visual and tactile way to approach the writing process that I have used on longer writing assignments since I was an undergrad. I created it out of necessity; it works for me. Maybe it will work for you too.

Personally, I love the writing process, and to some degree, I enjoy the editing / revising aspect even more than writing because it is like a puzzle, fitting the exact right piece in the exact right place.

Whichever way works for you--my husband's or mine--we wish you the best! (He still thinks his way is the best.)

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