Approximating the Practice of Writing the Dissertation Literature Review

Abstract

This article is an attempt to join the conversation about doctoral preparation that has been a persistent but intermittent topic of interest in educational journals. Previous articles have focused on the format of the dissertation, the purpose of the literature review, and approaches to supporting doctoral students in acquiring professional writing skills. The present article focuses on writing the literature review as an example of professional practice and uses the constructs of representation, decomposition, and approximation (Grossman et al., 2009) to analyze a seminar designed to support doctoral students in learning how to engage in the practice.

Keywords:

• writing
• adult learning
• qualitative research