Our Masters students in Vietnam are writing their literature reviews

Today Dr Ben Phạm and I had a productive meeting with our Masters students in Vietnam who are writing their literature reviews. We discussed the funnel approach where we write from what is known to what is unknown using the following structure:

1. What is widely known 
2. Establish a territory
   a. Show the general area is: important/ central/ interesting/ problematic/ relevant
   b. Introduce and review previous research 3
3. Establish a niche
   a. Indicate a gap in previous research
   b. Raise a question about it
   c. Extend previous knowledge 
4.  Occupy the niche
   a. Outline purposes/nature of the research
   b. Indicate structure of the paper 

We also discussed how it was important to keep revising the title and aims as we read the literature (and respond to constraints from COVID-19). I believe that the students are on track for submitting their thesis proposal even though they have been at home with their children for 5-6 weeks as a result of COVID-19.

Skype meeting with Hang Nguyen,  Vấn Phạm, and Dr Ben Phạm in Viet Nam