PhD Thesis Qustion

deegs

Quick q please!

I've just completed a first draft of my phd in HCI (computer science / psychology mix). Viva should be around June-ish...

So its about 170pages in lenght and about 50,000 words so far.

This seems a little short, but not terribly so, its not a huge concern right now...

Now my real question is about, primarily, the structure.
Is my lit review lenght ok? Should it be cut, or the rest of thesis bulked up?
The Lit review is approx 20-25000 words.

From what I've read this seems a large chunk to dedicate to the lit review.

However I'm not really sure I can condense it... The problem is a theoretical one and I feel I need all of the Lit review to justify my discussions and conclusions.

I could try to balance it up a bit more (moving closer to 20% Lit review) but I feel I would be adding superflous waste to the phd itself...

Dunno, my superviser is unsure also and is seeking further clarification...

Any thoughts?

Ostrom

deegs wrote: »

Quick q please!

I've just completed a first draft of my phd in HCI (computer science / psychology mix). Viva should be around June-ish...

So its about 170pages in lenght and about 50,000 words so far.

This seems a little short, but not terribly so, its not a huge concern right now...

Now my real question is about, primarily, the structure.
Is my lit review lenght ok? Should it be cut, or the rest of thesis bulked up?
The Lit review is approx 20-25000 words.

From what I've read this seems a large chunk to dedicate to the lit review.

However I'm not really sure I can condense it... The problem is a theoretical one and I feel I need all of the Lit review to justify my discussions and conclusions.

I could try to balance it up a bit more (moving closer to 20% Lit review) but I feel I would be adding superflous waste to the phd itself...

Dunno, my superviser is unsure also and is seeking further clarification...

Any thoughts?

I'm not working in your area, but I've seen immense variability across theses in terms of structure, content and length in my own discipline. As you imply, it depends on the nature and requirements of your research question, conventions within subjects etc - but this really sounds like something your supervisor should be able to pin down.

Black Swan

deegs wrote: »

Now my real question is about, primarily, the structure.
Is my lit review lenght ok? Should it be cut, or the rest of thesis bulked up?
The Lit review is approx 20-25000 words.

From what I've read this seems a large chunk to dedicate to the lit review.

There are a host of considerations that pertain to what constitutes the necessary and sufficient conditions for a literature review not given in this thread OP, consequently giving advice at this point may be problematic.

Given this caution, you mentioned that theory was an important part of your literature review. Are you merely reviewing theories that pertain to your research, in addition to prior empirical studies, etc., or are you also theory constructing? If theory constructing within your literature review that goes way beyond building a model for testing (see Robert K Merton's theories of the middle range), perhaps your supervisor will allow you to separate the bulk of theory from the literature review and create a separate theory chapter?

deegs

Black Swan wrote: »

Are you merely reviewing theories that pertain to your research, in addition to prior empirical studies, etc., or are you also theory constructing?

Review of theory, deconstruction of it and similiar, testing with empirical studies, reconstrcting with minor changes (or in this case given reason to why it cannot be reconstrcuted).

Sounds a bit wishy washy when I put it like that ^^

perhaps your supervisor will allow you to separate the bulk of theory from the literature review and create a separate theory chapter?

Yep, I've already done that and that is a further chapter of about 6000 words not included in the above limit.

Hmmmm...

I'll have to see what my supervisor comes back with... still plenty of time to fiddle around with it.

Thanks!

Black Swan

deegs wrote: »

Review of theory, deconstruction of it and similiar, testing with empirical studies, reconstrcting with minor changes (or in this case given reason to why it cannot be reconstrcuted).

Just curious. For deconstruction are you referencing Jacques Derrida's methods, along with others of the post-modern era?

deegs

No afraid not, nothing so formal, hadn't even heard of such techniques tbh.
No, the theory is based on certain concepts and assumptions.
The theory is relevant to one field (Psych) and I want to bring it in to another (Comp science).
There is a similar theory in comp science based on similar concepts and assumptions (but a noticeable difference between both).
I attempted to strip both down to their common denominator and rebuild them integrated…

Sounds very grand when I explain it like that… It’s not!!

djpbarry

deegs wrote: »

Now my real question is about, primarily, the structure.
Is my lit review lenght ok? Should it be cut, or the rest of thesis bulked up?
The Lit review is approx 20-25000 words.

From what I've read this seems a large chunk to dedicate to the lit review.

I've just had a glance at my thesis (engineering/biotech) and found that my intro/lit review takes up about one third of the total thesis (80 pages out of a total of about 260, not sure about word count). In my case, this probably could have been trimmed down a bit of necessary (and indeed it was when the intro was later re-drafted into a review paper), but every case is different. For almost half of a thesis to be taken up reviewing other people's work does seem like a lot, but I hesitate to state that with any degree of authority, because every thesis is different!

At the end of the day, you know your work better than anyone - if you feel it's necessary, then it's necessary.

Black Swan

deegs wrote: »

The theory is relevant to one field (Psych) and I want to bring it in to another (Comp science).

If I recall correctly, the process of borrowing concepts from one discipline and using it in another is called decontextualization. Richard E Clark, a cognitive educational psychologist at the University of Southern California, has researched and published extensively in this area, and has borrowed concepts from psychology and used them in computer science, specifically in serious gaming programme development.

deegs

Thanks all, supervisor has sough clarification and the word is its fine. Its relevent to my work so it makes sense.

Only problem now is there was confusion about the dates and the work is due begining of May not June so 4 weeks got wiped of my write up time....

Ostrom

deegs wrote: »

Thanks all, supervisor has sough clarification and the word is its fine. Its relevent to my work so it makes sense.

Only problem now is there was confusion about the dates and the work is due begining of May not June so 4 weeks got wiped of my write up time....

The fear will see you through.

I'm under the gun to finish too, and I've produced more in the last two months than I have in the past four years.

deegs

efla wrote: »

The fear will see you through.

I'm under the gun to finish too, and I've produced more in the last two months than I have in the past four years.

Yep that sure does seem to be the case...:D