The Oral
Nearing the final deadline, you will also be tasked to summarise and present your chosen topic through PowerPoint to your module leader and advisor, either by recorded annotations or in-person.
If you’re like me and struggle with structuring, then this presentation is just what you need. PowerPoint has a specific layout called ‘Outline View’ that indexes your content nicely. This feature and having to allocate my collated Intel into slides really propelled the writing process for me. It helped me rationalise the sequence of my main points, which then became the true framework for my actual Literature Review. The presentation is a great way in visualising your final product, along with ensuring that, at the very least, you have a superficial understanding of your topic and its emerging themes. If you like this approach, then I’d suggest you start this early.
It’s always good practice to vocalise your notes. And presenting with confidence and energy can score you some easy points that will contribute prettily to your final grade.
What I did
You will live and breathe your topic. So, I’d suggest you decide on a topic not on the basis of how easy you believe it would be, but on the basis of how interested/passionate you are about it, and how willing you are to dream about it.
My review was on Cephalopods and their relationship to acoustics – I was thinking about cuttlefish concerts and DJ-ing octopi for weeks! Thus, one night, I dreamt a silent dream that I was sharing a seafood tank with dozens of squid, all darting around me in a flurry of inky panic, all swiftly evading the rubbery grasp for the next serving of calamari rings – all except me.
Basically – be sure of the topic you’re choosing and keep a healthy balance of work.
My review topic was an irregular twist on one of the given choices and is comparably less understood within its field. This proved to be difficult at stages because the available literature was sparse and I often felt that the more I read, the less I understood. Coincidentally however, the obscure nature of my topic, coupled with my innate interest in it, provided enough mystique, motivation, and momentum for me to successfully complete my literature review. So, if you like a challenge, don’t be afraid to step out of convention and venture into the lesser-known domains.
After all, why else are you studying science?