Challenges and expectations: Preparing postgraduate students to write literature reviews

Abstract

A number of recent studies have focused on the discourse of theses and research articles; however, less attention has been paid to the writers’ engagement with their developing texts and disciplinary voices. This paper will present case studies of Chinese students attending thesis writing courses which are required for all postgraduate research students across ten faculties in an English medium university. Students are taught in two cognate disciplinary groups: (1) Sciences and related disciplines (2) Humanities and related disciplines. The literature review is an important key to success in publication and academic life, and one of the earliest types of writing in which postgraduates engage, however, it represents a major difficulty for students as it implies knowledge in the academic conventions and rhetorical structure of texts and the context where texts are constructed. In this presentation, I focus our attention on the challenges postgraduate students face in writing literature reviews in their disciplines and discuss how a thesis writing course prepares them to write literature reviews. Interviews with students from the thesis writing courses were conducted to find out challenges they faced in writing literature reviews and their perspective on disciplinary requirements and their supervisors’ expectations. Literature review drafts (first and final) were analyzed to identify difficulties and improvements in writing. Major challenges identified include use of voice, verb choices, citation and attribution, structure of the review, and creation of the research space/gap. By comparing and contrasting drafts and students’ perceptions of disciplinary expectations, the results demonstrate common and contrasting features between the two cognate disciplinary groups. This in turn informs development of teaching and materials writing in thesis writing courses that better align with disciplinary expectations and students’ needs. Sample materials preparing students to write literature reviews will be presented and discussed.