Writing is Reading: How to Join a Theoretical Conversation

Speaker: Tammar Zilber (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

In this webinar, I will focus on one challenge in the writing process -- theoretical positioning and literature review. I used to ask my Ph.D. students — early when they were writing their research proposal, and again once they started to analyze their empirical materials — to read previous research and come back to me with ideas on how they can position their project vis-a-vis the literature, how they can "join the conversation." With time, I realized how challenging this exercise was. Thus, based on my own reading practices, I offer some ideas on identifying what one needs to read and how to approach reading previous research. I relate to three modes of reading: vertical reading (read to understand the paper in its own terms), horizontal reading (read to understand how this paper relates to other papers in the conversation, to understand how the conversation evolved), and relevance reading (read to understand how you can use the paper to make your own argument). I also suggest using a table to capture and document these three readings. With the help of these three modes of reading, the dictums "join the conversation," "position yourself in the literature," and "make a theoretical contribution" all become more concrete and doable.