Writing a Mini-Review: A Crucial Task in PhD Research

Introduction

One of the research tasks that’s given me a tremendous amount of benefit during my PhD is the writing of a mini-review.  I use the term “mini-review” only because this task is something akin to completing a book review (only a little smaller)…and because frankly, I don’t know what else to call what I’m doing.

What is a mini-review

A mini-review (like a book review) is simply the careful summary of a particular scholar’s work.  It is usually a 2-3 page articulation of a work’s main thesis, supporting arguments and major points.

After this is complete, a final step in the mini-review is to take the content of 1-2 pages and shrink that down to one paragraph that you place at the top as a summary of the whole review.

Of course, creating a mini-review implies that you’ve actually sat down and spent some time in the book or article.  While it may take some time to put it together, the rewards are many (as I will enumerate later on.)

The Why of a Mini-Review

There are at least two major reasons for spending some time on this task:

1) You avoid the temptation to skim a work

Let’s face it, it is often very tempting to superficially skim a work, perhaps combine 2-3 book reviews and think you have an idea of an author’s contribution to your thesis.

It doesn’t take great skill to pull this off.  It is quite a different matter to really wrestle with an author’s argument and to reflect on how it fits within your overall thesis.

2) You develop the critical skill of summarizing

There are two skills that are absolutely essentially to the completion of your PhD (these aren’t the only two, but they are pretty important).

One is the ability to summarize an argument the other is the ability to synthesize various works into a cohesive narrative.

One entire chapter of your dissertation (your literature review) is essentially the concise summation (and synthesis) of dozens and dozens of works related to your topic.

But beyond that, every section of your dissertation is an interaction of your ideas with the ideas of other scholars (whose work you must summarize…)  Ditto for being able to create rich and meaningful footnotes that capture the essence of a work.

We might even say that summarizing arguments is the work horse of your PhD program around which you create your original contribution.

Benefits of Doing Mini-Reviews

The benefits to doing this kind of leg work early on in your research, and as you work your way through the dissertation are many:

1) You will be completing work for your literature review

Simply take your summary of your mini-review, the final step I mentioned above under “What is a Mini-Review” and you’ve got a pretty good entry to fit somewhere in your literature review.

2) Create expanded bibliographies to provide to your supervisor

Prior to my meetings with my supervisor I would often create a YTD summary of my readings for the time period between our chats.  This document often served as a springboard to many of our discussions and it gave my supervisor a quick glance into the scholarship related to my topic.

3) When you sit down to write you will have a wealth of material to draw upon

It is one thing to draw upon someone else’s book review to try to fill in some gaps in your dissertation.  It is quite another to have a 1-2 page summary of a work that you have labored to create.

Not only is your knowledge of an author’s work personal and deep, which allows you to have meaningful interactions, but also, your ability to draw connections (both to your thesis and to other related works) is greatly enhanced after completing a mini-review.

4) Your mini-reviews are a great resource for new insights or memory refreshers

Reading your own mini-review is like reading the most salient set of cliff notes on a particular work.  If it’s been a while since you’ve picked up a particular work, your mini-review will bring it all to mind.

In addition, reading my mini-reviews has sometimes sparked new ideas and fresh insights for my dissertation if only because some time may have elapsed since the original reading / creation of the book / mini-review.

In the interim, my knowledge and maturity about my topic may have shifted, allowing a fresh re-reading of my mini-review.

5) Writing a mini-review gets you into the groove of writing

If there is one regret I’ve had as I’ve worked on my dissertation it’s been that I’ve done too much research (note-taking) and not enough writing.

While gathering and collating sources is important, the key to a dissertation is output, and the only way of getting output is to slog your way through it.

Mini-reviews get you in the PhD mode.  They get you thinking like someone in the academy.

How do you say something concisely, how do you accurately reflect others’ views, what is important and what is not, is this a good argument or not, etc.

A Sample Mini-Review

Click on the link below to see a sample mini-review I created for an article on the Miletus Speech

Lambrecht: Paul’s Farewell Address

Conclusion

While the creation of mini-reviews may take some time, there is often no substitute for an honest wrestling with a particular author’s work.

Endeavoring in such labor, however, pays off rich dividends in your personal knowledge and in the wealth of source material that will be available for different parts of your dissertation.

Happy researching!