u/Judyloveswriting

Hi! I’m a PhD student in accounting, and I was told that you should only keep the literature that directly serves your hypothesis and that there should be a clear line of story running through the literature. But I’m still struggling with how to actually implement this.

Basically, I have two difficulties:

1. How do you connect the dots across different papers in a way that builds a coherent story and motivates your research question?
2. How do you quickly identify the “skeleton” or core structure of a literature?

If you have any great books, courses, or other resources that helped you develop these skills, especially for accounting research, I’d really appreciate your recommendations!

What would you do if you couldn't get any guidance from your PhD advisor/chair?

I haven't been able to get much guidance from my chair throughout my PhD. I feel sad and frustrated, but it also seems like there's nothing I can do to change the situation.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? How did you handle it? Do you have any advice on staying productive and moving forward despite the lack of mentorship?

Hi everyone,

I'm a PhD student in accounting, and English is not my first language. One of the biggest challenges I face is academic writing.

I've heard that one good way to improve is to closely study and mimic well-written papers before developing my own style. Could anyone recommend accounting papers that are particularly well written? I'm especially interested in papers with clear organization, smooth transitions, and concise writing.

If you learned academic writing this way, I'd also love to hear how you approached it. Did you focus on introductions, literature reviews, or another section first?

Thanks in advance!