PhD literature review structure, how to tidy it up!
Your PhD literature review is a mess, right? There’s not a lot of structure, and every time you try to tidy it up, you somehow make things even worse!
Maybe it’s become so bad that you’d just rather not look at it? Yup?!
Don’t worry, because in this blogpost, I’m going to walk you through how to start turning that messy literature review into something you can actually work with.
Why literature reviews are such a headache
Literature reviews can be a real stumbling block for PhD students, because they’re constantly evolving throughout the doctoral journey.
As you learn more about your topic, your focus shifts, so the literature review you begin with might not be the one you finish with.
That bit in between the two – the messy middle - that’s probably where you are now, so let’s see what we can do about that!
Before we get into it, if you’re here to sort your literature review out, you might find this helpful, it’s my free how to fix a messy literature review guide.
It’s a step by step process to begin sorting the good from the not so good. It covers what we’ll be going through in this video, plus a bit more, so go grab it, click the image below to get yours!
“Messiness at this stage is completely normal”
Learn to love the mess!
First thing you need to know - messiness at this stage is completely normal.
In fact, it’s actually a sign that you're doing the hard work of grappling with the ideas and really getting into the meat of your research.
You’re figuring things out, and that’s great.
One of the most common mistakes is thinking that your literature review needs to be perfect from the get-go. It doesn’t.
Your first draft - or maybe even your second or third, fourth, fifth - can look messy.
This is all part of the research journey.
What matters is that you're identifying the key ideas and connecting the dots between them. You’re learning from what you read, taking notes, and starting to think about how it all fits together.
This is a process, and it’s about making sense of the chaos over time. Sometimes you need to look at 20 different ideas to discount 18 of them, to figure out that those 18 aren’t relevant, so don’t feel bad about it, it’s all a process.
Okay, so what can you do when you want to tidy up your literature review?
Step 1 – Identify what you’ve got
The first step in tidying up your literature review is to figure out what you’re working with. Grab a blank sheet of paper, open a new document, or even grab a flipchart and some sticky notes - whatever works for you - and start jotting down everything you’ve been reading and thinking about.
What exactly do you need to write down? Just the high level stuff – the main categories, ideas, concepts, keywords – that kind of thing.
Don’t worry if some of it seems vague or repetitive at this stage; this is just about getting everything out of your head and onto the page.
For example, if you’re researching stress and burnout among working professionals balancing study and career, your list might include themes like ‘workplace stress,’ ‘burnout,’ ‘work-life conflict,’ and ‘resilience strategies.’
Let’s take another example: if you’re studying early career lawyer’s experiences of promotion in big city law firms, your list might include themes like ‘workplace hierarchy,’ ‘career progression,’ ‘gender inequality,’ and ‘workplace culture.’
Don’t worry if your ideas seem all over the place. Just get everything down, even if it feels scattered. You’ll organise it later, but for now, focus on getting it all out of your head.
Step 2 – Group similar ideas together
Once you’ve got everything listed out, it’s time to start grouping similar ideas together.
Look for connections, overlaps, or patterns between the topics you’ve noted down.
Maybe 'workplace stress' and 'burnout' fit together under a broader theme like ‘challenges of professional life.’ ‘Gender inequality’ and ‘workplace culture’ could form a theme like ‘barriers to career progression for solicitors.’
As you start grouping, it’s okay if you feel like some things don’t fit perfectly. The goal isn’t to get everything perfect now, but to organise your thoughts into something more manageable. This will give you the foundation for the next step.
In other words, look for patterns and similarities in your themes. You might find that a couple of ideas naturally fit together. This step helps simplify everything so you’re not overwhelmed by a massive, unorganised list of concepts.
Step 3 - Narrow it down to three, four, five core themes
Now comes the fun part - narrowing everything down into three, four or five core themes. Why these numbers? Well, it’s the sweet spot. Three, four or five key themes will be enough to cover major ideas, but aren’t so many that your literature review feels scattered and unfocused.
Using the first example we’ve been working with - early career solicitors’ experiences of promotion in big city law firms, you might end up with these five themes to organise your literature review:
Factors influencing promotion in law firms (literature on workplace hierarchy, career progression).
Barriers to career progression for lawyers (literature on workplace culture, gender inequality, etc).
Solutions and interventions (literature on mentorship, institutional support)
Impact of work-life balance on career advancement (literature on work-life conflict, flexible working).
The role of networking and professional development (literature on building relationships, career visibility)
We want to keep it simple but thorough.
Three to five key themes will give you enough material to work with while keeping things focused and clear.
By the time you’ve narrowed everything down into these core themes, you’ll have a much clearer structure for your literature review. And trust me, that messy, chaotic draft will start to feel much more manageable!
“Three, four or five key themes will be enough to cover major ideas, but aren’t so many that your literature review will feel scattered and unfocused.”
At this stage, your literature review won’t be perfect, and that’s okay! It’s progress, not perfection, that matters. You’ll continue to refine and evolve your themes as you read more and develop your argument.
These themes might not be the ones you end up with, but they’re going to help you get to that final structure. They are a step along the journey.
As I said at the beginning, if you want a more detailed break down of this process and some extra tips, go and grab my free guide to fixing your messy literature review - click on the image below to grab yours!
