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The final piece of the PhD journey is the PhD dissertation. It takes many years to accumulate enough original and new data to fill out a dissertation to the satisfaction of experts in your field. Interestingly, the PhD dissertation length and content vary significantly based on the field you are studying and the publishing conventions.
A PhD can be anywhere from 50 pages to over 450 pages long. This equates to between about 20,000 words to 100,000 words. Most PhD theses are between 60,000 and 80,000 words long excluding contents, citations and references.
A PhD thesis contains different sections including an introduction, methods, results and discussion, conclusions, further work, and references. Each one of these different sections will vary in length depending on the field of study and your particular topic.
Ultimately, a PhD dissertation should contain as many pages and words as it takes to communicate the results of your multi-year investigation.
It is very rewarding to see your thesis come together as you are writing day after day. When I was writing my PhD dissertation I wrote the sections separately and my heart filled with joy when I finally put them all together and compile them into a single PDF document.
Counting the pages should not be the way to determine a PhD dissertation’s value but it certainly helps when your thesis is starting to look substantial in thickness.
A PhD dissertation should contain as many pages and words as it takes to outline the current state of your field and provide adequate background information, present your results, and provide confidence in your conclusions. A PhD dissertation will also contain figures, graphs, schematics, and other large pictorial items that can easily inflate the page count.
Here is a boxplot summary of many different fields of study and the number of pages of a typical PhD dissertation in the field. It has been created by Marcus Beck from all of the dissertations at the University of Minnesota.
Typically, the mathematical sciences, economics, and biostatistics theses and dissertations tend to be shorter because they rely on mathematical formulas to provide proof of their results rather than diagrams and long explanations.
On the other end of the scale, English, communication studies, political science, history and anthropology are often the largest theses in terms of pages and word count because of the number of words it takes to provide proof and depth of their results.
At the end of the day, it is important that your thesis gets signed off by your review committee and other experts in the field. Your supervisor will be the main judge of whether or not your dissertation is capable of satisfying the requirements of a PhD in your field.
If you want to know more about how long a Masters’s thesis and PhD dissertation is you can check out my other articles:
A PhD thesis should contain enough evidence and discussion to report on the most significant findings of your PhD research.
A PhD dissertation should not contain everything that you have done during your PhD. It should only include the data and information required to convince your PhD examining body that wraps up and tells the full story of particular lines of investigation.
Including random results, thoughts, or superfluous explanation can result in a dissertation that is unfocused. I have heard of music PhD is being described as too verbose and physical sciences PhD dissertations as being unfocused.
Therefore, a PhD thesis can be too long if the information it contains does not form a full and cohesive story.
One of my colleagues during their PhD removed an entire chapter from the thesis after writing it as the supervisor said that it needed more experiments to be a full story. They did not want to spend the next six months gathering the data and simply removed the chapter altogether.
The shortest PhD dissertations are typically found in mathematics.
George Bernard Danzig was an American mathematical scientist who made contributions to industrial engineering and many other mathematical-related fields. An interesting miscommunication led to 1 of the shortest PhD theses ever.
In 1939 his professor wrote two problems on the blackboard and Danzig thought they were homeless assignments. He stated that they were harder than usual but handed in solutions to the surprise of the professor.
They were, in fact, open mathematical problems in statistics.
His professor said to bind the solution to the two problems together and submit them as his thesis – the total thesis length = 14 pages.
Obviously, most PhD theses and dissertations will be so much longer than that!
My PhD dissertation was 256 pages long. It was full of schematics, diagrams, and tables to demonstrate and communicate my findings.
I would say that most people’s PhD thesis experience will be closer to mine than Prof George Bernard Danzig’s.
PhD dissertations are often over 200 pages long.
One of the primary reasons they are so long is that it is a single document that summarises many years of hard work. Also, summarising the research field to date and making sure that all of your references and citations are included so you avoid plagiarism will bolster the word count of the thesis dramatically.
Here are all of the reasons PhD dissertations tend to be so long.
PhD theses or dissertations contain many years of research and analysis.
In many of my YouTube videos I recommend that a PhD student work towards their PhD thesis by doing at least three hours of focused work every work day.
This amount of work quickly adds up.
Of course, not every bit of work makes it into the PhD dissertation but a lot of it does. It can be difficult to work out what to include or leave out of your thesis.
As a PhD student, I perfected the art of turning one experiment into many different types of grafts and schematics to fully explore the limits of my data. The graphs can take up a lot of space in your PhD thesis and, therefore, bolster the page count significantly.
One of the most substantial parts of a PhD dissertation is the literature review.
The literature review can take up a huge portion of the early part of your PhD dissertation depending on the amount of data and publications in your field.
Writing an in-depth literature review requires just as much meticulous data analysis and searching as the central part of your dissertation.
Some fields end up producing a lot of figures and schematics.
My thesis had many full-page figures of atomic force microscopy experiments with much more explanation on subsequent pages.
As they say, a picture paints a thousand words and a dissertation can really benefit from having many schematics to highlight the important aspects of your findings.
The recommended PhD dissertation word count from an institution or university does not include citations, references, or other thesis parts such as summary of abbreviations, table of figures, et cetera.
However, these components of your dissertation can take up many pages and add to the overall thickness of your PhD dissertation.
University formatting rules will also dictate how you many pages your words take up.
I often get roasted on my YouTube channel for having doublespaced lines and wide margins. Unfortunately, this layout was dictated by my university before printing.
PhD dissertations often end up going into long-term storage and therefore, need to adhere to archival and standardised formatting rules.
Deep in the depths of the University of Newcastle, there is a copy of my thesis on a shelf. The formatting and binding rules mean that my thesis looks like everyone else’s.
Universities will often have their own requirements for PhD dissertation cover colour, quality, and type of paper. Even the quality of the paper can change the thickness of the PhD dissertation significantly.
It is becoming increasingly common to submit a number of peer-reviewed papers bound together with supplementary information in between instead of a PhD dissertation.
The benefits of this to the researcher and university are:
Even though this option has been available to PhD students for a number of years, I have only known a handful of students actually submit their PhD via publication.
Nonetheless, having this option will suit some research fields better than others and lead to a more productive PhD.
This article has been through everything you need to know about the length of a PhD dissertation and the common lengths of PhD dissertations for various fields.
Ultimately, there is no predefined length of a PhD .
A PhD thesis is as long as it needs to be to convince your examiners that you have contributed significantly enough to an academic field to be awarded the title of Dr of philosophy.
Mathematical and analytical theses tend to be shorter and can be as short as 50 pages (with one of the shortest being only 14 pages long). At the other end of the spectrum, PhD students in anthropology and history tend to produce the longest dissertations.
Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.
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If you look for an answer to the question, how long is a PhD thesis, you will notice that there is a lot of contradictory information on the internet because there is no one-size-fits-all answer for PhD students. Each university sets its maximum and minimum word count limits for PhD students.
So how many words is a Ph.D. thesis? At UWS London, your PhD thesis should not typically exceed 40,000 words for PhD students studying Mathematics, Technology, Science, and Engineering – this excludes ancillary data. For PhD students studying in all other fields, a PhD thesis should not exceed 80,000 words.
80,000 words should equate to around 350 pages, depending on how many photographs, tables, and figures are included. When you submit your thesis, you must also submit a statement of length. This statement confirms your thesis doesn’t exceed the word limit that has been set by your PhD committee.
As for the minimum word limits, your PhD thesis should be near the maximum limit; however, it should never exceed it. The word limit includes the contents page and the appendices, excluding the acknowledgements, the abstract, the footnotes, the references, the bibliography, abbreviations, the glossary, and any notes made on translations.
All limits of length are set by your university degree committee. If, for any reason, you need to increase the specified word limit set by your university for your field of study, you will need to make a written request for permission to go above the set word count. You will also need to apply for permission to extend the word count of your thesis if you need to increase your word limit following your viva after the corrections are made.
Spending time thinking about the structure of your thesis will always be time well-spent. To start the structuring process, organise the material you have already drafted into distinct chapters. Your thesis should read as a continuous story you are trying to write. What works well for some PhD candidates while structuring their thesis works less for others; you can try discussing the structure with someone with a background in your field of study, using mind-mapping techniques, creating a storyboard, using index cards, or placing post-it notes on a whiteboard.
PhD structures can vary by field; however, they are commonly structured in the following way:
Once you have sketched out a rough structure, many PhD students find it beneficial to assign a word count for each chapter and section. However, you should always remain flexible between the sections and chapters until you have a final draft. If after you have your final draft, you find that you have exceeded the specified word count, you will likely find that you can cut out unnecessary words during the editing process. In terms of thesis writing, PhD candidates typically have a planned writing approach or a generative writing approach.
For planned writers, it may be helpful to define sections under each chapter and break down sub-sections to paragraph by paragraph level. With this method, you can work methodically through each section and put a tick mark next to completed tasks on your PhD thesis plan.
For generative writers, it is typically easier to put ideas down on paper before arranging and organising them. If you use this approach, you will need to ensure you have imposed a structure afterwards; by summarising each paragraph or subsection as bullet points to create an overview of the structure. Re-ordering the sections or subsections may be required to strengthen the cohesion of your writing, and additional sub-headings may have to be written to make your thesis flow better. For both planned writers and generative writers, it is crucial to keep reviewing your thesis and structure as your writing and research develops. Amendments are a natural part of the process as you become aware of what your PhD thesis needs to include to demonstrate your understanding and contribution to your field of study.
After years of research and study, when it is finally time to start writing the PhD thesis, many candidates can feel overwhelmed by the task and the word count, which is significantly higher than what they encountered while writing their undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. The good news is that there is no need to be daunted by the process. By spending a fraction of your research time on finding ways to maximise your chances of success, by the time you submit your PhD thesis, you will feel confident in how you have showcased your creative knowledge and your contribution to your field of study. Below, we have outlined some tips you can follow to make the writing-up stage as stress-free as possible.
Though wordcount is important, PhD candidates should pay mind to plenty more than their thesis wordcount when drafting and structuring. Writing as concisely as possible with adequate and clear exposition is just as important for PhD candidates aiming for no corrections or minor corrections following their PhD viva.
Remember that even the most experienced and eloquent writers, in academia or otherwise, never hit the ground running and knock it out of the park with the first draft. As the adage goes, you can’t edit a blank page; even if you start with rough bullet points that outline your subsections, these can be built on and around until you have fully mind-mapped your thesis. In time, your thesis will take clear and concise form; there is no use trying to stride over the finishing line before you have entered the race! Rewriting and editing is never a sign of failure or literary inadequacy; many writers spend most of the writing process editing their work!
By the time you have reached the writing-up stage as a PhD candidate, you will have already leaned on your PhD supervisor to flesh out your ideas and develop your creative knowledge. Your supervisor may not be able to map or write your thesis for you, but they can provide invaluably helpful tips on structuring your thesis. Never replace online advice for the guidance your PhD supervisor can offer you! To allow your supervisor to help, create rough drafts that you can bring to your meetings; in time, you can refine them as the writing-up stage approaches.
Contrary to popular belief, academic writing doesn’t need to be dry. While the amount of flair you can put into your work will vary with respect to your field of study, there is nothing to say that you can’t use your voice – to an extent. As long as your PhD reads clearly and concisely and proves you are worthy of your doctorate title, you will impress your examiners in your viva!
By using active wording in your thesis instead of passive phrases, you can simplify your work and make it read with more authority and conviction. To write actively instead of passively, always allow the subject in the sentence to act on the target. For example, a passive phrase would be “The philosophical discourse was changed by Foucault. The active equivalent of that phrase would be, “Foucault changed the political discourse”. It takes time to develop these habits; however, online tools, such as Grammarly, can help you to notice when you are writing passively or using excessive and unnecessary words.
Even though your thesis plan sets a roadmap of what needs to be completed, chronological writing can ultimately kill your creativity. Always write when the material or epiphanies are fresh in the mind – if you save them for later, there is a chance that they could be forgotten, or they may lose their substance or contextual importance. During the writing-up stage, some research could be more pertinent to chapters you have not turned to yet. Remember you will always return to each section later to ensure your full thesis is coherent.
Looking to find out how long the PhD will take to complete? Whether you want to complete it in the UK full-time or part-time; it is a big commitment, which shouldn’t be taken lightly. The gratification may not be immediate, but the rewards can be lifelong when considering the professional careers that are more accessible for PhD holders, the increased earning potential and the sense of satisfaction that comes with creating unique knowledge and gaining a title only a minute fraction of the global population will only acquire.
The information outlined in this article will give you plenty of clues on how to construct your thesis and which parameters you should use while structuring and drafting it. However, your PhD supervisor will be in the best position to inform you of the limits of length and stylistic requirements for your particular field of study. At UWS London, all our PhD supervisors are committed to ensuring all our PhD candidates receive the support, information, and guidance required for their writing-up stage and PhD Viva to run as smoothly as possible.
Going to university and choosing the right educational path are likely going to be some of the most important decisions in your life. This means
Do You Get Paid for a PhD? For many students who don’t have the luxury of never worrying about money, one of the main considerations
Where Can a PhD in Finance Take Me? In the dynamic world of finance, a PhD is not just an academic accolade; it’s a launchpad
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10th September 2019
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Candidates should write as concisely as is possible, with clear and adequate exposition. Each Degree Committee has prescribed the limits of length and stylistic requirements as given below. On submission of the thesis you must include a statement of length confirming that it does not exceed the word limit for your Degree Committee.
These limits and requirements are strictly observed by the Postgraduate Committee and the Degree Committees and, unless approval to exceed the prescribed limit has been obtained beforehand (see: Extending the Word Limit below), a thesis that exceeds the limit may not be examined until its length complies with the prescribed limit.
Thesis word limits are set by Degree Committees. If candidates need to increase their word limits they will need to apply for permission.
Information on how to apply (via self-service account) is available on the ‘ Applying for a change in your student status’ page. If following your viva, you are required to make corrections to your thesis which will mean you need to increase your word-limit, you need to apply for permission in the same way.
Archaeology and anthropology, architecture and history of art, asian and middle eastern studies, business and management, clinical medicine and clinical veterinary medicine, computer laboratory, earth sciences and geography, scott polar institute, engineering, history and philosophy of science, land economy, mathematics, modern and medieval languages and linguistics, physics and chemistry, politics and international studies, archaeology and social anthropology.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words (approx. 350 pages) for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. These limits include all text, figures, tables and photographs, but exclude the bibliography, cited references and appendices. More detailed specifications should be obtained from the Division concerned. Permission to exceed these limits will be granted only after a special application to the Degree Committee. The application must explain in detail the reasons why an extension is being sought and the nature of the additional material, and must be supported by a reasoned case from the supervisor containing a recommendation that a candidate should be allowed to exceed the word limit by a specified number of words. Such permission will be granted only under exceptional circumstances. If candidates need to apply for permission to exceed the word limit, they should do so in good time before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit the thesis, by application made to the Graduate Committee.
Students may choose between two alternative thesis formats for their work:
either in the form of a thesis of not more than 80,000 words in length for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. The limits include all text, in-text citations, figures, tables, captions and footnotes but exclude bibliography and appendices; or
in the form of a collection of at least three research articles for the PhD degree and two research articles for the MSc or MLitt degree, formatted as an integrated piece of research, with a table of contents, one or more chapters that outline the scope and provide an in-depth review of the subject of study, a concluding chapter discussing the findings and contribution to the field, and a consolidated bibliography. The articles may be in preparation, submitted for publication or already published, and the combined work should not exceed 80,000 words in length for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. The word limits include all text, in-text citations, figures, tables, captions, and footnotes but exclude bibliography and appendices containing supplementary information associated with the articles. More information on the inclusion of material published, in press or in preparation in a PhD thesis may be found in the Department’s PhD submission guidelines.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. Footnotes, references and text within tables are to be counted within the word-limit, but captions, appendices and bibliographies are excluded. Appendices should be confined to such items as catalogues, original texts, translations of texts, transcriptions of interview, or tables.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree. To include: footnotes, table of contents and list of illustrations, but excluding acknowledgements and the bibliography. Appendices (of no determined word length) may be permitted subject to the approval of the candidate's Supervisor (in consultation with the Degree Committee); for example, where a catalogue of works or the transcription of extensive primary source material is germane to the work. Permission to include such appendices must be requested from the candidate's Supervisor well in advance of the submission of the final thesis. NB: Permission for extensions to the word limit for most other purposes is likely to be refused.
The thesis is for the PhD degree not to exceed 80,000 words exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words exclusive of bibliography. For the MLitt degree not to exceed 60,000 words inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography and appendices.
The thesis for the PhD is not to exceed 60,000 words in length (80,000 by special permission), exclusive of tables, footnotes, bibliography, and appendices. Double-spaced or one-and-a-half spaced. Single or double-sided printing.
The thesis for the MPhil in Biological Science is not to exceed 20,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, footnotes, bibliography, and appendices. Double-spaced or one-and-a-half spaced. Single or double-sided printing.
For the PhD Degree the thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words, EXCLUDING bibliography, but including tables, tables of contents, footnotes and appendices. It is normally expected to exceed 40,000 words unless prior permission is obtained from the Degree Committee. Each page of statistical tables, charts or diagrams shall be regarded as equivalent to a page of text of the same size. The Degree Committee do not consider applications to extend this word limit.
For the Doctor of Business (BusD) the thesis will be approximately 200 pages (a maximum length of 80,000 words, EXCLUDING bibliography, but including tables, tables of contents, footnotes and appendices).
For the MSc Degree the thesis is not to exceed 40,000 words, EXCLUDING bibliography, but including tables, tables of contents, footnotes and appendices.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words including footnotes, references, and appendices but excluding bibliography; a page of statistics shall be regarded as the equivalent of 150 words. Only under exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed this limit. Candidates must submit with the thesis a signed statement giving the length of the thesis.
For the PhD degree, not to exceed 60,000 words (or 80,000 by special permission of the Degree Committee), and for the MSc degree, not to exceed 40,000 words. These limits exclude figures, photographs, tables, appendices and bibliography. Lines to be double or one-and-a-half spaced; pages to be double or single sided.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words including tables, footnotes and equations, but excluding appendices, bibliography, photographs and diagrams. Any thesis which without prior permission of the Degree Committee exceeds the permitted limit will be referred back to the candidate before being forwarded to the examiners.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and the MLitt degree, including footnotes, references and appendices but excluding bibliography. Candidates must submit with the thesis a signed statement giving the length of the thesis. Only under exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed this limit for the inclusion of an appendix of a substantial quantity of text which is necessary for the understanding of the thesis (e.g. texts in translation, transcription of extensive primary source material). Permission must be sought at least three months before submission of the thesis and be supported by a letter from the supervisor certifying that such exemption from the prescribed limit of length is absolutely necessary.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree, including the summary/abstract. The table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, appendices, bibliography and acknowledgements to not count towards the word limit. Footnotes are not included in the word limit where they are a necessary part of the referencing system used.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 275 numbered pages of which not more than 225 pages are text, appendices, illustrations and bibliography. A page of text is A4 one-and-a-half-spaced normal size type. The additional 50 pages may comprise tables of data and/or computer programmes reduced in size.
If a candidate's work falls within the social sciences, candidates are expected to observe the limit described in the Department of Geography above; if, however, a candidate's work falls within the natural sciences, a candidate should observe the limit described in the Department of Earth Sciences.
Applications for the limit of length of the thesis to be exceeded must be early — certainly no later than the time when the application for the appointment of examiners and the approval of the title of the thesis is made. Any thesis which, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, exceeds the permitted limit of length will be referred back to the candidate before being forwarded to the examiners.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words including tables, footnotes, bibliography and appendices. The Degree Committee points out that some of the best thesis extend to only half this length. Each page of statistical tables, charts or diagrams shall be regarded as equivalent to a page of text of the same size.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD and EdD degrees and 60,000 words for the MSc and MLitt degrees, in all cases excluding appendices, footnotes, reference list or bibliography. Only in the most exceptional circumstances will permission be given to exceed the stated limits. In such cases, you must make an application to the Degree Committee as early as possible -and no later than three months before it is proposed to submit the thesis, having regard to the dates of the Degree Committee meetings. Your application should (a) explain in detail the reasons why you are seeking the extension and (b) be accompanied by a full supporting statement from your supervisor showing that the extension is absolutely necessary in the interests of the total presentation of the subject.
For the PhD degree, not to exceed, without prior permission of the Degree Committee, 65,000 words, including appendices, footnotes, tables and equations not to contain more than 150 figures, but excluding the bibliography. A candidate must submit with their thesis a statement signed by the candidate themself giving the length of the thesis and the number of figures. Any thesis which, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, exceeds the permitted limit will be referred back to the candidate before being forwarded to the examiners.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words or go below 60,000 words for the PhD degree and not to exceed 60,000 words or go below 45,000 words for the MLitt degree, both including all notes and appendices but excluding the bibliography. A candidate must add to the preface of the thesis the following signed statement: 'The thesis does not exceed the regulation length, including footnotes, references and appendices but excluding the bibliography.'
In exceptional cases (when, for example, a candidate's thesis largely consists of an edition of a text) the Degree Committee may grant permission to exceed these limits but in such instances (a) a candidate must apply to exceed the length at least three months before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit their thesis and (b) the application must be supported by a letter from a candidate's supervisor certifying that such exemption from the prescribed limit of length is absolutely necessary.
It is a requirement of the Degree Committee for the Faculty of English that thesis must conform to either the MHRA Style Book or the MLA Handbook for the Writers of Research papers, available from major bookshops. There is one proviso, however, to the use of these manuals: the Faculty does not normally recommend that students use the author/date form of citation and recommends that footnotes rather than endnotes be used. Bibliographies and references in thesis presented by candidates in ASNaC should conform with either of the above or to the practice specified in Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England.
Thesis presented by candidates in the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics must follow as closely as possible the printed style of the journal Applied Linguistics and referencing and spelling conventions should be consistent.
A signed declaration of the style-sheet used (and the edition, if relevant) must be made in the preliminary pages of the thesis.
PhD theses MUST NOT exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length.
A minimum word length exists for PhD theses: 70,000 words (50,000 for MLitt theses)
The word limit includes appendices and the contents page but excludes the abstract, acknowledgments, footnotes, references, notes on transliteration, bibliography, abbreviations and glossary. The Contents Page should be included in the word limit. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Maps, illustrations and other pictorial images count as 0 words. Graphs, if they are the only representation of the data being presented, are to be counted as 150 words. However, if graphs are used as an illustration of statistical data that is also presented elsewhere within the thesis (as a table for instance), then the graphs count as 0 words.
Only under exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed this limit. Applications for permission are made via CamSIS self-service pages. Applications must be made at least four months before the thesis is bound. Exceptions are granted when a compelling intellectual case is made.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree, in all cases including footnotes and appendices but excluding bibliography. Permission to submit a thesis falling outside these limits, or to submit an appendix which does not count towards the word limit, must be obtained in advance from the Degree Committee.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree, both including footnotes, references and appendices but excluding bibliographies. One A4 page consisting largely of statistics, symbols or figures shall be regarded as the equivalent of 250 words. A candidate must add to the preface of their thesis the following signed statement: 'This thesis does not exceed the regulation length, including footnotes, references and appendices.'
For the PhD degree the thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words (exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography) but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words (exclusive of bibliography, table of contents and any other preliminary matter). Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy. For the MLitt degree the thesis is not to exceed 60,000 words inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography, appendices, table of contents and any other preliminary matter. Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy.
For the PhD degree submission of a thesis between 55,000 and 80,000 words (exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography) but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words (exclusive of bibliography, table of contents and any other preliminary matter). Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy. For the MLitt degree the thesis is not to exceed 60,000 words inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography, appendices, table of contents and any other preliminary matter. Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy.
There is no standard format for the thesis in Mathematics. Candidates should discuss the format appropriate to their topic with their supervisor.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree, including footnotes and appendices but excluding the abstract, any acknowledgements, contents page(s), abbreviations, notes on transliteration, figures, tables and bibliography. Brief labels accompanying illustrations, figures and tables are also excluded from the word count. The Degree Committee point out that some very successful doctoral theses have been submitted which extend to no more than three-quarters of the maximum permitted length.
In linguistics, where examples are cited in a language other than Modern English, only the examples themselves will be taken into account for the purposes of the word limit. Any English translations and associated linguistic glosses will be excluded from the word count.
In theses written under the aegis of any of the language sections, all sources in the language(s) of the primary area(s) of research of the thesis will normally be in the original language. An English translation should be provided only where reading the original language is likely to fall outside the expertise of the examiners. Where such an English translation is given it will not be included in the word count. In fields where the normal practice is to quote in English in the main text, candidates should follow that practice. If the original text needs to be supplied, it should be placed in a footnote. These fields include, but are not limited to, general linguistics and film and screen studies.
Since appendices are included in the word limit, in some fields it may be necessary to apply to exceed the limit in order to include primary data or other materials which should be available to the examiners. Only under the most exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed the limit in other cases. In all cases (a) a candidate must apply to exceed the prescribed maximum length at least three months before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit their thesis and (b) the application must be accompanied by a full supporting statement from the candidate's supervisor showing that such exemption from the prescribed limit of length is absolutely necessary.
It is a requirement within all language sections of MMLL, and also for Film, that dissertations must conform with the advice concerning abbreviations, quotations, footnotes, references etc published in the Style Book of the Modern Humanities Research Association (Notes for Authors and Editors). For linguistics, dissertations must conform with one of the widely accepted style formats in their field of research, for example the style format of the Journal of Linguistics (Linguistic Association of Great Britain), or of Language Linguistic Society of America) or the APA format (American Psychology Association). If in doubt, linguistics students should discuss this with their supervisor and the PhD Coordinator.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree, both excluding notes, appendices, and bibliographies, musical transcriptions and examples, unless a candidate make a special case for greater length to the satisfaction of the Degree Committee. Candidates whose work is practice-based may include as part of the doctoral submission either a portfolio of substantial musical compositions, or one or more recordings of their own musical performance(s).
PhD (MLitt) theses in Philosophy must not be more than 80,000 (60,000) words, including appendices and footnotes but excluding bibliography.
The thesis is not to exceed, without prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words, including summary/abstract, tables, footnotes and appendices, but excluding table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, list of figures/diagrams, list of abbreviations/acronyms, bibliography and acknowledgements.
The thesis is not to exceed, without prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words, including summary/abstract, tables, and footnotes, but excluding table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, list of figures/diagrams, list of abbreviations/acronyms, bibliography, appendices and acknowledgements. Appendices are relevant to the material contained within the thesis but do not form part of the connected argument. Specifically, they may include derivations, code and spectra, as well as experimental information (compound name, structure, method of formation and data) for non-key molecules made during the PhD studies.
Applicable to the PhDs in Politics & International Studies, Latin American Studies, Multi-disciplinary Studies and Development Studies for all submissions from candidates admitted prior to and including October 2017.
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length. The word limit includes appendices but excludes footnotes, references and bibliography. Footnotes should not exceed 20% of the thesis. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text, and thus to circumvent the word limits. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
Applicable to the PhDs in Politics & International Studies, Latin American Studies, Multi-disciplinary Studies and Development Studies for all submissions from candidates admitted after October 2017.
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, including footnotes. The word limit includes appendices but excludes the bibliography. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
Only applicable to students registered for the degree prior to 1 August 2012; all other students should consult the guidance of the Faculty of Biological Sciences.
Applicable to the PhD in Psychology (former SDP students only) for all submissions made before 30 November 2013
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length. The word limit includes appendices but excludes footnotes, references and bibliography. Footnotes should not exceed 20% of the thesis. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text, and thus to circumvent the word limits. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
Applicable to the PhD in Psychology (former SDP students only) for all submissions from 30 November 2013
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length. The word limit includes appendices but excludes footnotes, references and bibliography. Footnotes should not exceed 20% of the thesis. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text, and thus to circumvent the word limits. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. Applications should be made in good time before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit the thesis, made to the Graduate Committee. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be over 60,000 words. This word limit includes footnotes and endnotes, but excludes appendices and reference list / bibliography. Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 150 words for each page, or part of a page, that they occupy. Other media may form part of the thesis by prior arrangement with the Degree Committee. Students may apply to the Degree Committee for permission to exceed the word limit, but such applications are granted only rarely. Candidates must submit, with the thesis, a signed statement attesting to the length of the thesis.
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The Write Question is a weekly video podcast about writing that I started in 2017 and that ran, more or less weekly, until April 2022. This is a republication of issue #120, which discusses how many words you should write each day. The post first ran on Dec. 13/19.
How many words should you write each day? That’s the topic I’m addressing today in The Write Question. I’m Daphne Gray-Grant, the Publication Coach.
I have a question from Chris Johnson, a writer based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here’s what he’s asked via email:
“I’m working on a book and I’m wondering if you suggest I aim to write X number of words each day? And if that’s the case, how much should X be? Or, do you think it’s better to spend X amount of time writing. And if I do that, how much time should that be? Or do you have some other way of approaching this issue?”
Thanks for your questions, Chris . Many writers benefit from having goals like this — either word count or amount of time. But the goal is going to be very different for every individual. There is no ‘one size fits all.’
The answer really depends on YOU. Not on what I tell you to do. Consider the history of some other famous authors. For example, did you know that Ernest Hemingway always tried to write 500 words a day? Mark Twain on the other hand aimed at 1400 words. Vampire Chronicles writer Ann Rice aims at 3,000 words per day. And the late prolific Michael Creighton, author of Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain accomplished 10,000 words per day. Below, I include a link to a blog post outlining the daily word counts of 39 famous authors.
Notice the huge variation. The issue is like height or head size or arm length. Some of us are born writing quickly and the rest of us are born writing relatively slowly. In fact, the speed doesn’t matter.
But yes, set yourself a goal. Just make sure it’s a really easy goal? Why? Because you want to be sure you succeed.
Let me tell you a story. When I wrote my most recent book, Your Happy First Draft , (see link below) I had a daily goal of writing 500 words and I did in 30 minutes a day. Once I finished my rough draft and spent many months editing it, however, I realized I still needed to write two more chapters. But I hadn’t done any writing on the book for more than six months. So, guess what? I’d lost my conditioning.
I tried to write 500 new words per day at this point, and I just couldn’t do it. As a result, I procrastinated about writing, something I hadn’t done in years. I took a look at my situation and decided on a radical solution. I cut my word count goal in half. Instead of aiming to write 500 words, I only had to write 250 I decided. All of a sudden, writing became easy again and my procrastination disappeared, pop!, like a soap bubble.
Many people think that they will be happy if they write a good number of words each day. But, actually, the system works in reverse. When you’re happy, you’ll be able to write more. I’ve written a blog post on this subject and I include the link below .
So, do some basic arithmetic before you get started. A typical book is somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000 words. If you write just 300 words per day – the length of a medium-sized email — just five days a week, you’ll have 70,000 words in 46 weeks. That’s less than a year! Did you ever imagine you’d be able to write an entire book in that amount of time?
So, Chris, I guess my answer to your question is ‘yes.’ Do set a word count goal for yourself. Do give yourself a specific amount of time to do the writing in and make both of those goals very easy. The most important thing is to show up, day after day, and write a little bit at a time. Three hundred words is plenty. And a smaller word count is also okay.
In terms of time, guard against spending TOO MUCH time. That’s a way bigger risk than spending too little. I suggest you start with 15 minutes and gradually work up from there. But don’t allow yourself to exceed 60 minutes because then the job is likely to become too burdensome.
Finally, let me wrap up with a quote from poet Sylvia Plath: “Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences.”
Chris, notice how Sylvia Plath said nothing about how many words she planned to write per day. Instead, she talked about getting good sentences and, more importantly, writing in harmony with the rest of her life. Writing is a lifelong habit and to keep it that way, you need to make sure your practice is sustainable.
If you’d like to learn how to stop procrastinating and make writing a happier more fulfilling process for yourself please take a look at my latest book Your Happy First Draft . I don’t sell it in bookstores or via Amazon. The only place to buy it is on my website, link below.
Daily word counts of 39 famous authors
Your Happy First Draft
How to become a happy writer
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“neither gender more chatty, study of per-day words shows”.
Turns out women don’t talk much more than men.
At least, that’s what a recent study conducted partially by UA researcher Matthias R. Mehl, an assistant professor of psychology, has determined.
“”Whenever I hear people repeating a stereotype or generalization – or, for that matter, denying that one is true – my reaction is always to think, ‘Well, let’s test that empirically,’ “” said Simine Vazire, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington in St. Louis who worked with Mehl on the research.
Over the course of six years, the team recorded the conversations of 396 people for several days using a machine known as the Electronically Activated Recorder.
The EAR sampled ambient sounds during the experiment, with the exception of when the participants were asleep.
Prior to experimentation, the team of researchers sampled each of the participant’s voices so they could distinguish between their voices and the voice of others.
College students of both Mexican and American backgrounds were sampled. The sample population was split equally between men and women, according to a press release.
After the data was collected, research revealed that both genders used an average of approximately 16,000 words per day. Women, however, used slightly more.
The average for women was 16,215, while for men it was 15,669, Mehl wrote in an e-mail.
“”For biological or sociocultural reasons, women and men may have a preference for different conversational topics, but they do not differ in their amount of overall talking,”” Mehl wrote in an e-mail.
The standard deviation from the mean is something Mehl noted upon reviewing the results, some of which showed a large variance from the average.
“”Perhaps there is a difference in certain contexts, or among certain subgroups, but if there was a ubiquitous, biologically-based difference, we would have seen it in our samples,”” Vazire said.
Still, the 500-word difference between men and women paled in comparison to the 46,000-word difference between the people who talked the most and the least, Mehl said in a press release.
One person used around 47,000 words, whereas another used around 700.
“”I think this finding is one more instance of alerting people to be cautious when thinking of gender differences,”” Mehl wrote.
“”I am not saying that there are no psychological differences between men and women – there sure are. Yet, I urge to resist the temptation of using the ‘gender magnifying glass’ to make them bigger than they are.””
Discussion forum for current, past, and future students of any discipline completing post-graduate studies - taught or research.
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It's a rather short dissertation of approximately 40,000 words as the second part of my PhD requirement is a short story collection (I'm doing a creative PhD). 3. 9 Share. Add a Comment. Sort by: Search Comments. downsideleft. • 4 yr. ago. I wrote 2 to 4 pages per day, 4 days a week with the expectation that I would edit it down by 25 - 35%.
Unfortunately, there's no one size fits all answer to this question. However, from the analysis of over 100 PhD theses, the average thesis length is between 80,000 and 100,000 words. A further analysis of 1000 PhD thesis shows the average number of pages to be 204. In reality, the actual word count for each PhD thesis will depend on the ...
A PhD thesis (or dissertation) is typically 60,000 to 120,000 words ( 100 to 300 pages in length) organised into chapters, divisions and subdivisions (with roughly 10,000 words per chapter) - from introduction (with clear aims and objectives) to conclusion. The structure of a dissertation will vary depending on discipline (humanities, social ...
Words per day for my master thesis. This is good to see. Writing is a very slow process for me. I managed to scrape together about 8-9,000 words for my interim report with the full 20,000-word honours thesis due in October. A lot more reading (and all my practical work) still to come.
Writing needs to be done daily - even if you only write 200 words. Your writing schedule might be for two hours from 8.15 a.m until 10.15 a.m Monday to Friday or from 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm each evening (take the weekends off. Life is too short to work weekends.) Or you might work better in 15 minute bursts.
Your university will usually set an upper limit - typically between 70,000 and 100,000 words, with most dissertations coming in at around 80,000 words. ... How many chapters should a PhD thesis have? There's no hard and fast rule for the numbers of chapters in a PhD thesis, but most will have four or five chapters (in addition to the ...
An undergraduate dissertation is typically 8,000-15,000 words. A master's dissertation is typically 12,000-50,000 words. A PhD thesis is typically book-length: 70,000-100,000 words. However, none of these are strict guidelines - your word count may be lower or higher than the numbers stated here. Always check the guidelines provided ...
Thanks for this. I wrote my first 50 words of my thesis just now. I've been having trouble just getting started on writing my thesis. I wasted half my Spring Break sitting in front of my computer, prepared to start writing, but never actually starting. But now I actually started, I'm one step closer to 50 pages, and it's a small victory of sorts.
A PhD can be anywhere from 50 pages to over 450 pages long. This equates to between about 20,000 words to 100,000 words. Most PhD theses are between 60,000 and 80,000 words long excluding contents, citations and references. A PhD thesis contains different sections including an introduction, methods, results and discussion, conclusions, further ...
1) Know what you are going to write before you write it. Composing a Thesis requires you to do different types of writing. Some of this writing is 'generative' in that it helps you form and articulate ideas by… just writing as much as you can, not as well as you can.
From time to time, a little PhD help can be useful, particularly when it comes to writing. To get to the point of writing 2,000 words each day, there are two main conditions you must keep in mind: You must know exactly what you plan to write about; and. You must set aside a specific time to write. Know What You Plan To Write.
80,000 words should equate to around 350 pages, depending on how many photographs, tables, and figures are included. When you submit your thesis, you must also submit a statement of length. This statement confirms your thesis doesn't exceed the word limit that has been set by your PhD committee. Read more.
The average dissertation is generally between 130-230 pages. Double-spaced, one page is typically 250 words. At the upper end, then, a dissertation can be 57,500 words or even more; but generally not less than 30,000 or so. If you're working on a book, you can apply this estimate to that, as well.
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, including footnotes. The word limit includes appendices but excludes the bibliography. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per ...
Revise your thesis by ensuring all words are specific, all ideas are exact, and all verbs express action. This page titled 1.4: Writing Thesis Statements is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, ...
I've written a blog post on this subject and I include the link below. So, do some basic arithmetic before you get started. A typical book is somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000 words. If you write just 300 words per day - the length of a medium-sized email — just five days a week, you'll have 70,000 words in 46 weeks.
How to write 1000 words a day (and not go bat shit crazy) Recently I Tweeted a link to an article called "How to write 1000 words a day for your blog" which I thought had some good productivity tips for thesis writers. @webnemesis wrote back: " would like to see someone write a blog post on how to write 1000 words of substance for yr ...
A. AKB2000. I find word targets work because they get you to start doing it everyday and overall 500 words isn't that much, you can then review what you've written, correct it, improve it and possibly concise it then go again the next day. In my opinion. 5 years ago.
When I'm on writing streaks I feel like 500 words is a good daily target. But I'm a scientist and there are days when it's all data analysis or background reading. 300 a day. 5 days a week. I'm on a bit of a tear, for me. I've been writing like mad every day the last 45 days. I'm curious about how much academic text you all can produce….
After the data was collected, research revealed that both genders used an average of approximately 16,000 words per day. Women, however, used slightly more.
My Master's thesis took me 4.5 months to write. From the beginning of the Introduction to the end of the Conclusion sections it's 79 pages, including figures in the text. Then there's another 85 pages or so of just figures in appendices. I also worked an unrelated full time job (40-60 hours per week) for 2 months during the writing.