should always depend on their advice to select readings, as this ability will improve with your continuous understanding of a research topic. This advice should be an initial push to create a raw idea of what the map looks like. Don’ t worry, even experienced academics ask for advice from their peers when traveling new roads.
Previous reviews are a bit easier to find than seminal papers. Use your favorite search tools and reference managers with keywords( e. g. Mendeley, EndNote, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Google Scholar) and look only for the most recent reviews – if possible, not older than 10 years, but it really depends on the field.
After finishing the initial reading list and taking good notes on those – always take notes of the articles you read, I bet you will forget most of what you read – create your first outline. This outline should contain topics that will guide you to select the next round of readings.
At some point, it will be better to start outlining each sub-section of your literature review independently as those gain higher and higher resolution. It is as if you are planning your activities in each site that should be visited. When doing this, it is hard to look both at the low-level resolution map – main topics – and to start increasing the level of detail in each of them. In this case, I believe it is easier and less overwhelming to plan, read and write each sub-chapter at a time. Divide and conquer! By doing this, planning won’ t only be part of your literature review at the beginning, but rather develop along the way as the map resolution increases. Every once in a while take some time to re-evaluate your outline.
Notice though that an outline is not set in stone.
It can change while writing your literature review. Umberto Eco reminds us that when actually taking a road trip, we may realize that there are some sites worth spending more time on and others less. Another possibility is to visit a site that is outside of the initial plan. This is part of the iterative process. You will only realize some things when actually reading and writing, not planning. Allow yourself to change and don’ t be too attached to the initial plan. As William Zinsser says,“ Fondness of material you’ ve gone to a lot of trouble to gather isn’ t a good enough reason to include it if it’ s not central to the story you’ ve chosen to tell.”
Creating the map feels like an overwhelming task at the beginning: how can you sketch a map of a place you have never seen before?
With this piece, I hope I have encouraged you to start reading and planning as soon as you can. Start broad and then focus as you build a more detailed high-resolution map. Create the map and get some feedback on it. It should be motivating to write for someone to read and give you some constructive critiques, point you in directions you have not explored, or help to drop some extra weight you should not be carrying around. The actual writing should only be done when the map is in high-resolution; at least that is my opinion. However, you should never stop taking notes – lots of notes – and maybe a small draft of what you think would be a potential paragraph when the thought strikes you. Most important of all, never stop reading and taking notes to record places you have already visited. As my father often reminds me“ É caminhando que se constrói o caminho” – it is only by walking that you build your path.
References: 1. Eco, U( 2015) How to write a thesis. 2. Zinsser, W.( 2006) On writing well
Raymundo Machado de Azevedo Neto investigates how contextual factors modulate visuomotor control by combining psychophysics, fMRI and TMS at the Institute of Radiology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil and the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience of the University of Tübingen, Germany.
Foggy Tübingen captured by Raymundo
12 | NEUROMAG | November 2017