To ask for dissertation help please!?

[dissertationhell]

I have made an account especially for this after years of lurking. My dissertation is due in 4 days. My supervisor is on holiday. I have everything written I am just heavily editing everything. I am analysing my findings over two findings chapters.

My question is, when analysing my findings, can I bring in previous studies there if they aren't in my literature review? For instance, when analysing my findings I've found that reading between the lines, there appears to be feelings of shame and guilt emerging as well as justification for alcohol use. I've found studies to back up that there is a higher prevalence of shame and guilt in individuals with addiction but haven't wrote about that in my literature review.

Do I need to add these studies in my literature review? I find it strange that you have to write the lit review before findings etc because I feel like I'm having to constantly go back and update my lit review.

I know I can't add new studies in discussion chapter but is it okay in the findings chapters? Or does literally everything mentioned have to be included in lit review? Tearing my hair out, can't see the wood from the trees

Thanks in advance

I wouldn’t include in findings without including in the literature review, surely the findings are yours, and the literature review is the supporting literature you found on the topic?

Bump

Definitely needs to be in the lit review, you can’t bring new evidence in at a later point if it’s not referenced earlier.

Findings are your own results. Lit review establishes current perspective on issue.
My dissertations have been case studies, and followed a slightly different pattern because of this but you could use the new findings in the discussion?
Depending on how your work is structured there should be room to link your findings to the newer research, even if, in the lit review it's simply a line saying something about newly emerging research.
Be careful how you word your findings about 'reading between the lines' - if it isn't evidential, it needs be clear that this is an opinion or an apparent theme among the people/within the data you studied.

Anything about guilt and shame shouldn't be in the literature review if that wasn't what you found when you did the literature review! Those themes can emerge from your own findings and then be covered in the Discussion section.

No, you add nothing to findings or conclusions that you didn't include in the lit review.

And yes, back up everything you say with authoritative literature.

Thanks all, think I've got it now. However am really over the word count 14000 words and honestly don't know where to cut back. This is going to be the death of me.

I'm at 14000. Maximum it can be is 11100

Do you get 10% +/-?

How far over are you?

Close your laptop. Read it all again tomorrow. You'll see sentences that are superfluous.

Doing my PhD it was absolutely fine to include references you hadn't referenced in the lit review, in fact it was expected, because you wouldn't know what you would find when you did the literature review? I had lots of surprising results that I then had to delve further into with additional sources that wouldn't have been relevant for the wider background. Otherwise your literature review would be all the references in the thesis and that's just not the case.

Yeah you can add new references in the discussion but it was a total no no to bring in new information in the conclusion?

When you're critically evaluating what you found in the discussion you have to add more to what you found in the lit review or you'd not actually have done any research.

@bottleofbeer

Yeah you can add new references in the discussion but it was a total no no to bring in new information in the conclusion?

When you're critically evaluating what you found in the discussion you have to add more to what you found in the lit review or you'd not actually have done any research.

So whatever I mention in discussion needs to be in literature review?

Sorry I must sound thick but I am so lost. I am fine for a while, woke up this morning did loads was on a roll now I am just doubting myself again thinking there's not enough analysis. Feel like I just keep saying 'these finding support a study by...' and I don't have anything original to say except shame and guilt

No, the only place where you can't add new information is the final conclusion, because that should only be a summary of what you've already said. In the discussion you can add new references because as @bottleofbeer says, that is where you are doing original synthesis, so you would EXPECT to need new information to explain your findings.

I've literally not gotten out of my pyjamas in three days. My daughter is being ignored, the house is a bomb site. I feel emotionally exhausted I don't know how people do this.

The introduction is the easiest thing to cut back on

We stop reading at the word count maximum +10% so it’s in your interests to cut your work back to the word limit

Think about what you want to keep in. Often some stuff can be compacted. Or try cutting whole paragraphs or sections. You need to lose around 2000 words because otherwise the last 2000 words won’t be read - and that’ll be your conclusion.

However, you should not introduce new research in the discussion section. Make sure that any studies you refer to in the discussion have been addressed in the literature review. And don’t be afraid to modify your literature review as your study progresses (every dissertation project will evolve as it goes on).

This is what is confusing me, I am reading some things like that and different things on other sites saying it's fine. I wish my supervisor wasn't off, then I could just ask her! But she explicitly stated she is on holiday and won't be looking at her emails which is quite right but just frustrating for me

The lit review establishes the current state of knowledge about the topic, from which your research question emerges. It should sketch out the field in fairly general terms, including anything you draw on in your discussion (so yeah, stick something in about guilt and shame if you discuss it later).

You don’t need to cite all your sources in your lit review, but you should mention sources you’ll depend on for the development of your argument.

To reduce word count, look for places where you’ve used long expressions that could be replaced by a single word. There are usually lots of these left over from the first draft stage!

I'm doing a PhD and my supervisor says the literature review is an iterative process, so it develops and grows as more avenues emerge during data collection. However, my internal assessor says you shouldn't add everything you find to your literature review because you want your own results to add some novel contribution, not just support what you've already found in the lit review.

You do know how to do this! You're just second guessing yourself. I don't know the format of your dissertation because I don't know your subject. Introduction - what is it you want to find out?

Lit review - what is already know.

Methodology, sample, who, where, why. What type of analysis are you using and why? Justify your reasons.

Results section. What did you find out?

Discussion (usually the longest part) evaluate your findings in comparison to what you found in the lit review. Critically analyse.

Conclusion, this is where you simply talk about what you found without any mention of anything that hasn't already been mentioned. Always use 3rd person: the researcher found that...blah blah

@bottleofbeer thank you, your comments are really helpful!

I'm assuming this is an MSc thesis in psychology or similar? I'm a psychology professor and mark about 15 of these each year.

Do update your lit review to add more relevant material if you need to.

Do cut your text to the word limit. In my own writing, I like to print a paper and sit with a red pen to make cuts, before then implementing them on the computer. You may find you can cut whole paragraphs of the literature review that are no longer relevant.

For the best grade, so make sure your work has a clear structure and signposts so that it is easy for the reader to follow your train of thought and understand why you did your study in this way.