It’s in the BIN

I’ve been gifted with a tool to help organize my reading for this PhD. It’s a strategy and methodology to help keep key information in one place, traceable and searchable, using key words or foci. It’s coming from Jenni Hayman who’s currently working on her dissertation research. She’s sent some samples of one’s she’s done and when I can gift this forward to someone else, I will.

Here’s the basic framework for each of the bins.

ANALYTIC PURPOSE	EXAMPLE	QUAL BELIEF
ADVICE	EXPLANATION	QUANT BELIEF
CHALLENGES	INTERPRETATION	RECOMMEND
COMMON GROUND	GOOD QUESTION	RULE
COMMON MISUNDERSTANDING	MYTH	STUDY DESCRIPTION
CRITICAL POINT	METHODS/WAYS TO DO	SUMMARY
DIFFERENCES	NOTES NOT QUOTES	SURVEY ADVICE
DEFINTION	OVERVIEW	WHAT?
DO	PROCESS	WHY THIS?
DON’T DO	QUOTES	WHERE?

I may tweak and rework them as I begin, but this structure will certainly help me focus on my thinking, connecting and considerations as I read articles. I’m also working on the structure of the literature review collections as I work on this.

Getting started with this makes me realize the monumental task I’m facing in collecting, sorting, searching and making sense of information. Analysis and synthesis will be in overload throughout the next several years. BINS may help keep physical stuff organized and now they’re going to help me keep text and media materials in some type of order too!