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A couple of things stood out for me after listening to George Veletsianos’ (2021) audiocast where he answered some questions posed to him by our cohort. The first thing was George’s response to the question about what he would have liked to have known when he was just starting in research. Hearing George share that he wished that someone had told him to spend time focusing on what interested him served as a good reminder for me and is a beneficial piece of advice. This will help me in the future as I prepare to make some big decisions regarding my MALAT research project. I anticipate this research project will require a lot of time, work and commitment. For this reason, I should ensure that it is something that I am passionate or very interested in conducting research otherwise it is likely that I will have an unpleasant first experience with a research project.
The second takeaway for me was George’s response to the question about how to approach conducting a literature review. After watching Leary et al.’s (2017) YouTube video, I was under the impression that I would have to review ALL relevant literature as part of my MALAT program completion. After listening to George, I am pleased to learn this is not the case. Instead, George suggests that we should think of a literature review as a “review of relevant literature”. Just adding the word “relevant” into the phrase will ensure that I remain on task and not get overwhelmed by all the available research and knowing that is an “a-ha” moment for me.
References:
Leary, T., Childs, E., & Zornes, D. (2017, May 24). Conducting a Systematic Literature Review. [YouTube]. Research Shorts.
Veletsianos, G. (2021, August 11). Personal interview. [Personal interview]
Gail, I think that’s an important learning about the literature review. When I work with students doing a thesis, I am more often coaching them to cut down the number of articles they have assembled.