what does dissertation word count include

Dissertation Format Regulations

Please click on each of the seven headings below to see the regulations which must be followed to format your dissertation correctly:

1. Number of copies

One electronic copy must be uploaded to the Assessed Assignment Submission area, within the module section of Minerva.

A hard copy of the Dissertation is not required.

If you need to upload any additional data in a separate document, there is an additional submission area to upload this.

2. Indicative length

The main body of the Dissertation must not exceed the word limit.

Does Count toward word count

The word count covers everything within the main text of the Dissertation, including:

the abstract and contents page
lists of tables and illustrative material
any tables, diagrams, subtitles, footnotes and references which are included within the main text.

Does not Count toward word count

The word count does not include;

the title page and front cover
any acknowledgements
bibliographies
end lists of references

Words presented as images

Any words presented in graphs, tables, or other graphics must be included in the word count.

Words displayed in these formats may need to be counted manually, as they will not be detected by the word count function on most word processing software.

Appendix Abuse

You must not use appendices to present matters of substance which should be included in the main body of the text.

The text must remain understandable without reference to any appendices.

3. Text and Layout

Font and size.

Dissertations should be presented using a standard font, and a font size of between 10 and 12 points.

Text must not be presented using only upper case letters.

Line Spacing

All standard text must be presented using double or one and a half line spacing.

Indented quotations and footnotes have an exception to the above rule, and may use single spacing.

For Microsoft Word this means standard dissertation text should have a spacing setting of either 2.0 or 1.5

Margins along all sides of the document (left, right, top and bottom) should not be less than 2.5cm (25mm).

For reference, the "normal" margins setting on a Microsoft Word document is 2.54cm on all sides - this is acceptable.

4. Pagination

All pages of text and appendices in your dissertation should be numbered consecutively.

Images and diagrams should also have their own consecutive numbering where possible.

5. Title Page

You must use the Leeds University Business School Dissertation / Project coversheet as your title page.

This can be downloaded from the Forms and Guidance Page

6. Table of Contents

Your dissertation document must include a contents page.

The contents page should list all main numbered chapter headings (such as 1, 2 , 3).

It is good practice to break down chapters into numbered sections, and these should also be listed on your contents page (such as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3).

Please carefully check the section above on word counts (2. indicative length) for information on which text contributes to your maximum permitted word count.

7. Acknowledgements

It is common to include a list of acknowledgements at the start of your dissertation, but you do not have to do so.

Students may wish to acknowledge the help their Supervisor provided, as well as the support of others such as family members or friends.

Formatting Your Dissertation
Introduction

Harvard Griffin GSAS strives to provide students with timely, accurate, and clear information. If you need help understanding a specific policy, please contact the office that administers that policy.

Application for Degree
Credit for Completed Graduate Work
Ad Hoc Degree Programs
Acknowledging the Work of Others
Advanced Planning
Dissertation Advisory Committee
Dissertation Submission Checklist
Publishing Options
Submitting Your Dissertation
English Language Proficiency
PhD Program Requirements
Secondary Fields
Year of Graduate Study (G-Year)
Master's Degrees
Grade and Examination Requirements
Conduct and Safety
Financial Aid
Non-Resident Students
Registration

On this page:

Language of the Dissertation

Page and text requirements, body of text, tables, figures, and captions, dissertation acceptance certificate, copyright statement.

Table of Contents

Front and Back Matter

Supplemental material, dissertations comprising previously published works, top ten formatting errors, further questions.

Related Contacts and Forms

When preparing the dissertation for submission, students must follow strict formatting requirements. Any deviation from these requirements may lead to rejection of the dissertation and delay in the conferral of the degree.

The language of the dissertation is ordinarily English, although some departments whose subject matter involves foreign languages may accept a dissertation written in a language other than English.

Most dissertations are 100 to 300 pages in length. All dissertations should be divided into appropriate sections, and long dissertations may need chapters, main divisions, and subdivisions.

8½ x 11 inches, unless a musical score is included
At least 1 inch for all margins
Body of text: double spacing
Block quotations, footnotes, and bibliographies: single spacing within each entry but double spacing between each entry
Table of contents, list of tables, list of figures or illustrations, and lengthy tables: single spacing may be used

Fonts and Point Size

Use 10-12 point size. Fonts must be embedded in the PDF file to ensure all characters display correctly.

Recommended Fonts

If you are unsure whether your chosen font will display correctly, use one of the following fonts:


Arial	10 pt
Century	11 pt
Courier New	10 pt
Garamond	12 pt
Georgia	11 pt
Lucida Bright	10 pt
Microsoft Sans Serif	10 pt
Tahoma	10 pt
Times New Roman	12 pt
Trebuchet MS	10 pt
Verdana	10 pt

If fonts are not embedded, non-English characters may not appear as intended. Fonts embedded improperly will be published to DASH as-is. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that fonts are embedded properly prior to submission.

Instructions for Embedding Fonts

To embed your fonts in recent versions of Word, follow these instructions from Microsoft:

Click the File tab and then click Options .
In the left column, select the Save tab.
Clear the Do not embed common system fonts check box.

For reference, below are some instructions from ProQuest UMI for embedding fonts in older file formats:

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2010:

In the File pull-down menu click on Options .
Choose Save on the left sidebar.
Check the box next to Embed fonts in the file.
Click the OK button.
Save the document.

Note that when saving as a PDF, make sure to go to “more options” and save as “PDF/A compliant”

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2007:

Click the circular Office button in the upper left corner of Microsoft Word.
A new window will display. In the bottom right corner select Word Options .
Choose Save from the left sidebar.

Using Microsoft Word on a Mac:

Microsoft Word 2008 on a Mac OS X computer will automatically embed your fonts while converting your document to a PDF file.

If you are converting to PDF using Acrobat Professional (instructions courtesy of the Graduate Thesis Office at Iowa State University):

Open your document in Microsoft Word.
Click on the Adobe PDF tab at the top. Select "Change Conversion Settings."
Click on Advanced Settings.
Click on the Fonts folder on the left side of the new window. In the lower box on the right, delete any fonts that appear in the "Never Embed" box. Then click "OK."
If prompted to save these new settings, save them as "Embed all fonts."
Now the Change Conversion Settings window should show "embed all fonts" in the Conversion Settings drop-down list and it should be selected. Click "OK" again.
Click on the Adobe PDF link at the top again. This time select Convert to Adobe PDF. Depending on the size of your document and the speed of your computer, this process can take 1-15 minutes.
After your document is converted, select the "File" tab at the top of the page. Then select "Document Properties."
Click on the "Fonts" tab. Carefully check all of your fonts. They should all show "(Embedded Subset)" after the font name.
If you see "(Embedded Subset)" after all fonts, you have succeeded.

The font used in the body of the text must also be used in headers, page numbers, and footnotes. Exceptions are made only for tables and figures created with different software and inserted into the document.

Tables and figures must be placed as close as possible to their first mention in the text. They may be placed on a page with no text above or below, or they may be placed directly into the text. If a table or a figure is alone on a page (with no narrative), it should be centered within the margins on the page. Tables may take up more than one page as long as they obey all rules about margins. Tables and figures referred to in the text may not be placed at the end of the chapter or at the end of the dissertation.

Given the standards of the discipline, dissertations in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning often place illustrations at the end of the dissertation.

Figure and table numbering must be continuous throughout the dissertation or by chapter (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.). Two figures or tables cannot be designated with the same number. If you have repeating images that you need to cite more than once, label them with their number and A, B, etc.

Headings should be placed at the top of tables. While no specific rules for the format of table headings and figure captions are required, a consistent format must be used throughout the dissertation (contact your department for style manuals appropriate to the field).

Captions should appear at the bottom of any figures. If the figure takes up the entire page, the caption should be placed alone on the preceding page, centered vertically and horizontally within the margins.

Each page receives a separate page number. When a figure or table title is on a preceding page, the second and subsequent pages of the figure or table should say, for example, “Figure 5 (Continued).” In such an instance, the list of figures or tables will list the page number containing the title. The word “figure” should be written in full (not abbreviated), and the “F” should be capitalized (e.g., Figure 5). In instances where the caption continues on a second page, the “(Continued)” notation should appear on the second and any subsequent page. The figure/table and the caption are viewed as one entity and the numbering should show correlation between all pages. Each page must include a header.

Landscape orientation figures and tables must be positioned correctly and bound at the top so that the top of the figure or table will be at the left margin. Figure and table headings/captions are placed with the same orientation as the figure or table when on the same page. When on a separate page, headings/captions are always placed in portrait orientation, regardless of the orientation of the figure or table. Page numbers are always placed as if the figure were vertical on the page.

If a graphic artist does the figures, Harvard Griffin GSAS will accept lettering done by the artist only within the figure. Figures done with software are acceptable if the figures are clear and legible. Legends and titles done by the same process as the figures will be accepted if they too are clear, legible, and run at least 10 or 12 characters per inch. Otherwise, legends and captions should be printed with the same font used in the text.

Original illustrations, photographs, and fine arts prints may be scanned and included, centered between the margins on a page with no text above or below.

Use of Third-Party Content

In addition to the student's own writing, dissertations often contain third-party content or in-copyright content owned by parties other than you, the student who authored the dissertation. The Office for Scholarly Communication recommends consulting the information below about fair use, which allows individuals to use in-copyright content, on a limited basis and for specific purposes, without seeking permission from copyright holders.

Because your dissertation will be made available for online distribution through DASH , Harvard's open-access repository, it is important that any third-party content in it may be made available in this way.

Fair Use and Copyright

What is fair use?

Fair use is a provision in copyright law that allows the use of a certain amount of copyrighted material without seeking permission. Fair use is format- and media-agnostic. This means fair use may apply to images (including photographs, illustrations, and paintings), quoting at length from literature, videos, and music regardless of the format.

How do I determine whether my use of an image or other third-party content in my dissertation is fair use?

There are four factors you will need to consider when making a fair use claim.

1) For what purpose is your work going to be used?

Nonprofit, educational, scholarly, or research use favors fair use. Commercial, non-educational uses, often do not favor fair use.
A transformative use (repurposing or recontextualizing the in-copyright material) favors fair use. Examining, analyzing, and explicating the material in a meaningful way, so as to enhance a reader's understanding, strengthens your fair use argument. In other words, can you make the point in the thesis without using, for instance, an in-copyright image? Is that image necessary to your dissertation? If not, perhaps, for copyright reasons, you should not include the image.

2) What is the nature of the work to be used?

Published, fact-based content favors fair use and includes scholarly analysis in published academic venues.
Creative works, including artistic images, are afforded more protection under copyright, and depending on your use in light of the other factors, may be less likely to favor fair use; however, this does not preclude considerations of fair use for creative content altogether.

3) How much of the work is going to be used?

Small, or less significant, amounts favor fair use. A good rule of thumb is to use only as much of the in-copyright content as necessary to serve your purpose. Can you use a thumbnail rather than a full-resolution image? Can you use a black-and-white photo instead of color? Can you quote select passages instead of including several pages of the content? These simple changes bolster your fair use of the material.

4) What potential effect on the market for that work may your use have?

If there is a market for licensing this exact use or type of educational material, then this weighs against fair use. If however, there would likely be no effect on the potential commercial market, or if it is not possible to obtain permission to use the work, then this favors fair use.

For further assistance with fair use, consult the Office for Scholarly Communication's guide, Fair Use: Made for the Harvard Community and the Office of the General Counsel's Copyright and Fair Use: A Guide for the Harvard Community .

What are my options if I don’t have a strong fair use claim?

Consider the following options if you find you cannot reasonably make a fair use claim for the content you wish to incorporate:

Seek permission from the copyright holder.
Use openly licensed content as an alternative to the original third-party content you intended to use. Openly-licensed content grants permission up-front for reuse of in-copyright content, provided your use meets the terms of the open license.
Use content in the public domain, as this content is not in-copyright and is therefore free of all copyright restrictions. Whereas third-party content is owned by parties other than you, no one owns content in the public domain; everyone, therefore, has the right to use it.

For use of images in your dissertation, please consult this guide to Finding Public Domain & Creative Commons Media , which is a great resource for finding images without copyright restrictions.

Who can help me with questions about copyright and fair use?

Contact your Copyright First Responder . Please note, Copyright First Responders assist with questions concerning copyright and fair use, but do not assist with the process of obtaining permission from copyright holders.

Pages should be assigned a number except for the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate . Preliminary pages (abstract, table of contents, list of tables, graphs, illustrations, and preface) should use small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages must contain text or images.

Count the title page as page i and the copyright page as page ii, but do not print page numbers on either page .

For the body of text, use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) starting with page 1 on the first page of text. Page numbers must be centered throughout the manuscript at the top or bottom. Every numbered page must be consecutively ordered, including tables, graphs, illustrations, and bibliography/index (if included); letter suffixes (such as 10a, 10b, etc.) are not allowed. It is customary not to have a page number on the page containing a chapter heading.

Check pagination carefully. Account for all pages.

A copy of the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (DAC) should appear as the first page. This page should not be counted or numbered. The DAC will appear in the online version of the published dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same.

The dissertation begins with the title page; the title should be as concise as possible and should provide an accurate description of the dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same.

Do not print a page number on the title page. It is understood to be page i for counting purposes only.

A copyright notice should appear on a separate page immediately following the title page and include the copyright symbol ©, the year of first publication of the work, and the name of the author:

Alternatively, students may choose to license their work openly under a Creative Commons license. The author remains the copyright holder while at the same time granting up-front permission to others to read, share, and (depending on the license) adapt the work, so long as proper attribution is given. (By default, under copyright law, the author reserves all rights; under a Creative Commons license, the author reserves some rights.)

Do not print a page number on the copyright page. It is understood to be page ii for counting purposes only.

An abstract, numbered as page iii , should immediately follow the copyright page and should state the problem, describe the methods and procedures used, and give the main results or conclusions of the research. The abstract will appear in the online and bound versions of the dissertation and will be published by ProQuest. There is no maximum word count for the abstract.

double-spaced
left-justified
indented on the first line of each paragraph
The author’s name, right justified
The words “Dissertation Advisor:” followed by the advisor’s name, left-justified (a maximum of two advisors is allowed)
Title of the dissertation, centered, several lines below author and advisor

Dissertations divided into sections must contain a table of contents that lists, at minimum, the major headings in the following order:

Front Matter
Body of Text
Back Matter

Front matter includes (if applicable):

acknowledgements of help or encouragement from individuals or institutions
a dedication
a list of illustrations or tables
a glossary of terms
one or more epigraphs.

Back matter includes (if applicable):

bibliography
supplemental materials, including figures and tables
an index (in rare instances).

Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the end of the dissertation in an appendix, not within or at the end of a chapter. If additional digital information (including audio, video, image, or datasets) will accompany the main body of the dissertation, it should be uploaded as a supplemental file through ProQuest ETD . Supplemental material will be available in DASH and ProQuest and preserved digitally in the Harvard University Archives.

As a matter of copyright, dissertations comprising the student's previously published works must be authorized for distribution from DASH. The guidelines in this section pertain to any previously published material that requires permission from publishers or other rightsholders before it may be distributed from DASH. Please note:

Authors whose publishing agreements grant the publisher exclusive rights to display, distribute, and create derivative works will need to seek the publisher's permission for nonexclusive use of the underlying works before the dissertation may be distributed from DASH.
Authors whose publishing agreements indicate the authors have retained the relevant nonexclusive rights to the original materials for display, distribution, and the creation of derivative works may distribute the dissertation as a whole from DASH without need for further permissions.

It is recommended that authors consult their publishing agreements directly to determine whether and to what extent they may have transferred exclusive rights under copyright. The Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) is available to help the author determine whether she has retained the necessary rights or requires permission. Please note, however, the Office of Scholarly Communication is not able to assist with the permissions process itself.

Missing Dissertation Acceptance Certificate. The first page of the PDF dissertation file should be a scanned copy of the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (DAC). This page should not be counted or numbered as a part of the dissertation pagination.
Conflicts Between the DAC and the Title Page. The DAC and the dissertation title page must match exactly, meaning that the author name and the title on the title page must match that on the DAC. If you use your full middle name or just an initial on one document, it must be the same on the other document.
Abstract Formatting Errors. The advisor name should be left-justified, and the author's name should be right-justified. Up to two advisor names are allowed. The Abstract should be double spaced and include the page title “Abstract,” as well as the page number “iii.” There is no maximum word count for the abstract.
The front matter should be numbered using Roman numerals (iii, iv, v, …). The title page and the copyright page should be counted but not numbered. The first printed page number should appear on the Abstract page (iii).
The body of the dissertation should be numbered using Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, …). The first page of the body of the text should begin with page 1. Pagination may not continue from the front matter.
All page numbers should be centered either at the top or the bottom of the page.
Figures and tables Figures and tables must be placed within the text, as close to their first mention as possible. Figures and tables that span more than one page must be labeled on each page. Any second and subsequent page of the figure/table must include the “(Continued)” notation. This applies to figure captions as well as images. Each page of a figure/table must be accounted for and appropriately labeled. All figures/tables must have a unique number. They may not repeat within the dissertation.
Any figures/tables placed in a horizontal orientation must be placed with the top of the figure/ table on the left-hand side. The top of the figure/table should be aligned with the spine of the dissertation when it is bound.
Page numbers must be placed in the same location on all pages of the dissertation, centered, at the bottom or top of the page. Page numbers may not appear under the table/ figure.
Supplemental Figures and Tables. Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the back of the dissertation in an appendix. They should not be placed at the back of the chapter.
Permission Letters Copyright. permission letters must be uploaded as a supplemental file, titled ‘do_not_publish_permission_letters,” within the dissertation submission tool.
DAC Attachment. The signed Dissertation Acceptance Certificate must additionally be uploaded as a document in the "Administrative Documents" section when submitting in Proquest ETD . Dissertation submission is not complete until all documents have been received and accepted.
Overall Formatting. The entire document should be checked after all revisions, and before submitting online, to spot any inconsistencies or PDF conversion glitches.
You can view dissertations successfully published from your department in DASH . This is a great place to check for specific formatting and area-specific conventions.
Contact the Office of Student Affairs with further questions.

CONTACT INFO

Katie riggs, explore events.

The Essex website uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are consenting to their use. Please visit our cookie policy to find out which cookies we use and why. View cookie policy.

Thesis word count and format

Three months ago you considered whether you required a restriction to the access of your thesis, and you submitted your ‘Approval of Research Degree Thesis Title’ form. You’ve now finished writing up your thesis and it’s time to submit. We require your thesis to be presented and formatted in a certain way, so it’s important you read through the requirements below, before submitting your thesis. Find out more about thesis submission policy (.pdf)

The completed thesis should be saved in PDF format. Once saved, please review the file to ensure all pages are displayed correctly.

Page layout

Double line spacing should be used for everything except quotations, footnotes, captions to plates etc.
It is desirable to leave 2.5cm margins at the top and bottom of the page.
The best position for the page number is at the top right 1.3cm below the top edge.
The fonts of Arial or Times New Roman should be used throughout the main body of the thesis, in the size of no less than 12 and no greater than 14

Illustrations (Graphs, diagrams, plates, computer printout etc.)

Illustrations embedded within the thesis should be formatted, numbered and titled accordingly:

a) Illustration upright - Caption at the bottom, Illustration number immediately above the

Illustration.

b) Illustration sideways - Caption at right-hand side with Illustration number above it.

Numbers for graphs, diagrams and maps are best located in the bottom right hand corner.

For further advice, please consult your supervisor.

Word counts

The following word counts are the maximum permitted for each level of award*:

Award	Word count
PhD**	80,000
Professional Doctorate	40,000
MD	65,000
MPhil	50,000
MA/MSC by Dissertation	30,000

What's excluded from the word count

*In all cases above, the word count includes quotations but excludes appendices, tables (including tables of contents), figures, abstract, references, acknowledgements, bibliography and footnotes (as long as the latter do not contain substantive argument). Please note these are word limits, not targets.

Specific requirements

For degrees which involve Practice as Research (PaR), no less than 50% of the research output should be the written thesis. The written thesis for PaR degrees may be comprised of a range of written elements including, but not limited to, a critical review, a portfolio, and/or a statement on theoretical discourse or methodology.

**In cases of practice-based PhD’s or MPhil’s these suggested word counts may be different. It is normally expected that the written component would comprise no less than 50% of the overall output.

Each copy of the thesis should contain a summary or abstract not exceeding 300 words.

As an example, see how the layout of your title page (.pdf) should be.

For enquiries contact your Student Services Hub
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
Accessibility
Privacy and Cookie Policy

Dissertation Structure & Layout 101: How to structure your dissertation, thesis or research project.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Reviewed By: David Phair (PhD) | July 2019

So, you’ve got a decent understanding of what a dissertation is , you’ve chosen your topic and hopefully you’ve received approval for your research proposal . Awesome! Now its time to start the actual dissertation or thesis writing journey.

To craft a high-quality document, the very first thing you need to understand is dissertation structure . In this post, we’ll walk you through the generic dissertation structure and layout, step by step. We’ll start with the big picture, and then zoom into each chapter to briefly discuss the core contents. If you’re just starting out on your research journey, you should start with this post, which covers the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis .

Dissertation structure and layout - the basics

The Caveat

In this post, we’ll be discussing a traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout, which is generally used for social science research across universities, whether in the US, UK, Europe or Australia. However, some universities may have small variations on this structure (extra chapters, merged chapters, slightly different ordering, etc).

So, always check with your university if they have a prescribed structure or layout that they expect you to work with. If not, it’s safe to assume the structure we’ll discuss here is suitable. And even if they do have a prescribed structure, you’ll still get value from this post as we’ll explain the core contents of each section.

Overview: S tructuring a dissertation or thesis

Acknowledgements page
Abstract (or executive summary)
Table of contents , list of figures and tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature review
Chapter 3: Methodology
Chapter 4: Results
Chapter 5: Discussion
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Reference list

As I mentioned, some universities will have slight variations on this structure. For example, they want an additional “personal reflection chapter”, or they might prefer the results and discussion chapter to be merged into one. Regardless, the overarching flow will always be the same, as this flow reflects the research process , which we discussed here – i.e.:

The introduction chapter presents the core research question and aims .
The literature review chapter assesses what the current research says about this question.
The methodology, results and discussion chapters go about undertaking new research about this question.
The conclusion chapter (attempts to) answer the core research question .

In other words, the dissertation structure and layout reflect the research process of asking a well-defined question(s), investigating, and then answering the question – see below.

A dissertation's structure reflect the research process

To restate that – the structure and layout of a dissertation reflect the flow of the overall research process . This is essential to understand, as each chapter will make a lot more sense if you “get” this concept. If you’re not familiar with the research process, read this post before going further.

Right. Now that we’ve covered the big picture, let’s dive a little deeper into the details of each section and chapter. Oh and by the way, you can also grab our free dissertation/thesis template here to help speed things up.

The title page of your dissertation is the very first impression the marker will get of your work, so it pays to invest some time thinking about your title. But what makes for a good title? A strong title needs to be 3 things:

Succinct (not overly lengthy or verbose)
Specific (not vague or ambiguous)
Representative of the research you’re undertaking (clearly linked to your research questions)

Typically, a good title includes mention of the following:

The broader area of the research (i.e. the overarching topic)
The specific focus of your research (i.e. your specific context)
Indication of research design (e.g. quantitative , qualitative , or mixed methods ).

For example:

A quantitative investigation [research design] into the antecedents of organisational trust [broader area] in the UK retail forex trading market [specific context/area of focus].

Again, some universities may have specific requirements regarding the format and structure of the title, so it’s worth double-checking expectations with your institution (if there’s no mention in the brief or study material).

Acknowledgements

This page provides you with an opportunity to say thank you to those who helped you along your research journey. Generally, it’s optional (and won’t count towards your marks), but it is academic best practice to include this.

So, who do you say thanks to? Well, there’s no prescribed requirements, but it’s common to mention the following people:

Your dissertation supervisor or committee.
Any professors, lecturers or academics that helped you understand the topic or methodologies.
Any tutors, mentors or advisors.
Your family and friends, especially spouse (for adult learners studying part-time).

There’s no need for lengthy rambling. Just state who you’re thankful to and for what (e.g. thank you to my supervisor, John Doe, for his endless patience and attentiveness) – be sincere. In terms of length, you should keep this to a page or less.

Abstract or executive summary

The dissertation abstract (or executive summary for some degrees) serves to provide the first-time reader (and marker or moderator) with a big-picture view of your research project. It should give them an understanding of the key insights and findings from the research, without them needing to read the rest of the report – in other words, it should be able to stand alone .

For it to stand alone, your abstract should cover the following key points (at a minimum):

Your research questions and aims – what key question(s) did your research aim to answer?
Your methodology – how did you go about investigating the topic and finding answers to your research question(s)?
Your findings – following your own research, what did do you discover?
Your conclusions – based on your findings, what conclusions did you draw? What answers did you find to your research question(s)?

So, in much the same way the dissertation structure mimics the research process, your abstract or executive summary should reflect the research process, from the initial stage of asking the original question to the final stage of answering that question.

In practical terms, it’s a good idea to write this section up last , once all your core chapters are complete. Otherwise, you’ll end up writing and rewriting this section multiple times (just wasting time). For a step by step guide on how to write a strong executive summary, check out this post .

Need a helping hand?

what does dissertation word count include

This section is straightforward. You’ll typically present your table of contents (TOC) first, followed by the two lists – figures and tables. I recommend that you use Microsoft Word’s automatic table of contents generator to generate your TOC. If you’re not familiar with this functionality, the video below explains it simply:

If you find that your table of contents is overly lengthy, consider removing one level of depth. Oftentimes, this can be done without detracting from the usefulness of the TOC.

Right, now that the “admin” sections are out of the way, its time to move on to your core chapters. These chapters are the heart of your dissertation and are where you’ll earn the marks. The first chapter is the introduction chapter – as you would expect, this is the time to introduce your research…

It’s important to understand that even though you’ve provided an overview of your research in your abstract, your introduction needs to be written as if the reader has not read that (remember, the abstract is essentially a standalone document). So, your introduction chapter needs to start from the very beginning, and should address the following questions:

What will you be investigating (in plain-language, big picture-level)?
Why is that worth investigating? How is it important to academia or business? How is it sufficiently original?
What are your research aims and research question(s)? Note that the research questions can sometimes be presented at the end of the literature review (next chapter).
What is the scope of your study? In other words, what will and won’t you cover ?
How will you approach your research? In other words, what methodology will you adopt?
How will you structure your dissertation? What are the core chapters and what will you do in each of them?

These are just the bare basic requirements for your intro chapter. Some universities will want additional bells and whistles in the intro chapter, so be sure to carefully read your brief or consult your research supervisor.

If done right, your introduction chapter will set a clear direction for the rest of your dissertation. Specifically, it will make it clear to the reader (and marker) exactly what you’ll be investigating, why that’s important, and how you’ll be going about the investigation. Conversely, if your introduction chapter leaves a first-time reader wondering what exactly you’ll be researching, you’ve still got some work to do.

Now that you’ve set a clear direction with your introduction chapter, the next step is the literature review . In this section, you will analyse the existing research (typically academic journal articles and high-quality industry publications), with a view to understanding the following questions:

What does the literature currently say about the topic you’re investigating?
Is the literature lacking or well established? Is it divided or in disagreement?
How does your research fit into the bigger picture?
How does your research contribute something original?
How does the methodology of previous studies help you develop your own?

Depending on the nature of your study, you may also present a conceptual framework towards the end of your literature review, which you will then test in your actual research.

Again, some universities will want you to focus on some of these areas more than others, some will have additional or fewer requirements, and so on. Therefore, as always, its important to review your brief and/or discuss with your supervisor, so that you know exactly what’s expected of your literature review chapter.

Now that you’ve investigated the current state of knowledge in your literature review chapter and are familiar with the existing key theories, models and frameworks, its time to design your own research. Enter the methodology chapter – the most “science-ey” of the chapters…

In this chapter, you need to address two critical questions:

Exactly HOW will you carry out your research (i.e. what is your intended research design)?
Exactly WHY have you chosen to do things this way (i.e. how do you justify your design)?

Remember, the dissertation part of your degree is first and foremost about developing and demonstrating research skills . Therefore, the markers want to see that you know which methods to use, can clearly articulate why you’ve chosen then, and know how to deploy them effectively.

Importantly, this chapter requires detail – don’t hold back on the specifics. State exactly what you’ll be doing, with who, when, for how long, etc. Moreover, for every design choice you make, make sure you justify it.

In practice, you will likely end up coming back to this chapter once you’ve undertaken all your data collection and analysis, and revise it based on changes you made during the analysis phase. This is perfectly fine. Its natural for you to add an additional analysis technique, scrap an old one, etc based on where your data lead you. Of course, I’m talking about small changes here – not a fundamental switch from qualitative to quantitative, which will likely send your supervisor in a spin!

You’ve now collected your data and undertaken your analysis, whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. In this chapter, you’ll present the raw results of your analysis . For example, in the case of a quant study, you’ll present the demographic data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics , etc.

Typically, Chapter 4 is simply a presentation and description of the data, not a discussion of the meaning of the data. In other words, it’s descriptive, rather than analytical – the meaning is discussed in Chapter 5. However, some universities will want you to combine chapters 4 and 5, so that you both present and interpret the meaning of the data at the same time. Check with your institution what their preference is.

Now that you’ve presented the data analysis results, its time to interpret and analyse them. In other words, its time to discuss what they mean, especially in relation to your research question(s).

What you discuss here will depend largely on your chosen methodology. For example, if you’ve gone the quantitative route, you might discuss the relationships between variables . If you’ve gone the qualitative route, you might discuss key themes and the meanings thereof. It all depends on what your research design choices were.

Most importantly, you need to discuss your results in relation to your research questions and aims, as well as the existing literature. What do the results tell you about your research questions? Are they aligned with the existing research or at odds? If so, why might this be? Dig deep into your findings and explain what the findings suggest, in plain English.

The final chapter – you’ve made it! Now that you’ve discussed your interpretation of the results, its time to bring it back to the beginning with the conclusion chapter . In other words, its time to (attempt to) answer your original research question s (from way back in chapter 1). Clearly state what your conclusions are in terms of your research questions. This might feel a bit repetitive, as you would have touched on this in the previous chapter, but its important to bring the discussion full circle and explicitly state your answer(s) to the research question(s).

Next, you’ll typically discuss the implications of your findings . In other words, you’ve answered your research questions – but what does this mean for the real world (or even for academia)? What should now be done differently, given the new insight you’ve generated?

Lastly, you should discuss the limitations of your research, as well as what this means for future research in the area. No study is perfect, especially not a Masters-level. Discuss the shortcomings of your research. Perhaps your methodology was limited, perhaps your sample size was small or not representative, etc, etc. Don’t be afraid to critique your work – the markers want to see that you can identify the limitations of your work. This is a strength, not a weakness. Be brutal!

This marks the end of your core chapters – woohoo! From here on out, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

The reference list is straightforward. It should contain a list of all resources cited in your dissertation, in the required format, e.g. APA , Harvard, etc.

It’s essential that you use reference management software for your dissertation. Do NOT try handle your referencing manually – its far too error prone. On a reference list of multiple pages, you’re going to make mistake. To this end, I suggest considering either Mendeley or Zotero. Both are free and provide a very straightforward interface to ensure that your referencing is 100% on point. I’ve included a simple how-to video for the Mendeley software (my personal favourite) below:

Some universities may ask you to include a bibliography, as opposed to a reference list. These two things are not the same . A bibliography is similar to a reference list, except that it also includes resources which informed your thinking but were not directly cited in your dissertation. So, double-check your brief and make sure you use the right one.

The very last piece of the puzzle is the appendix or set of appendices. This is where you’ll include any supporting data and evidence. Importantly, supporting is the keyword here.

Your appendices should provide additional “nice to know”, depth-adding information, which is not critical to the core analysis. Appendices should not be used as a way to cut down word count (see this post which covers how to reduce word count ). In other words, don’t place content that is critical to the core analysis here, just to save word count. You will not earn marks on any content in the appendices, so don’t try to play the system!

Time to recap…

And there you have it – the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows:

Acknowledgments page

Most importantly, the core chapters should reflect the research process (asking, investigating and answering your research question). Moreover, the research question(s) should form the golden thread throughout your dissertation structure. Everything should revolve around the research questions, and as you’ve seen, they should form both the start point (i.e. introduction chapter) and the endpoint (i.e. conclusion chapter).

I hope this post has provided you with clarity about the traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below, or feel free to get in touch with us. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the Grad Coach Blog .

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

You Might Also Like:

The acknowledgements section of a thesis/dissertation

36 Comments

many thanks i found it very useful

Glad to hear that, Arun. Good luck writing your dissertation.

Such clear practical logical advice. I very much needed to read this to keep me focused in stead of fretting.. Perfect now ready to start my research!

what about scientific fields like computer or engineering thesis what is the difference in the structure? thank you very much

Thanks so much this helped me a lot!

Very helpful and accessible. What I like most is how practical the advice is along with helpful tools/ links.

Thanks Ade!

Thank you so much sir.. It was really helpful..

You’re welcome!

Hi! How many words maximum should contain the abstract?

Thank you so much 😊 Find this at the right moment

You’re most welcome. Good luck with your dissertation.

best ever benefit i got on right time thank you

Many times Clarity and vision of destination of dissertation is what makes the difference between good ,average and great researchers the same way a great automobile driver is fast with clarity of address and Clear weather conditions .

I guess Great researcher = great ideas + knowledge + great and fast data collection and modeling + great writing + high clarity on all these

You have given immense clarity from start to end.

Morning. Where will I write the definitions of what I’m referring to in my report?

Thank you so much Derek, I was almost lost! Thanks a tonnnn! Have a great day!

Thanks ! so concise and valuable

This was very helpful. Clear and concise. I know exactly what to do now.

Thank you for allowing me to go through briefly. I hope to find time to continue.

Really useful to me. Thanks a thousand times

Very interesting! It will definitely set me and many more for success. highly recommended.

Thank you soo much sir, for the opportunity to express my skills

Usefull, thanks a lot. Really clear

Very nice and easy to understand. Thank you .

That was incredibly useful. Thanks Grad Coach Crew!

My stress level just dropped at least 15 points after watching this. Just starting my thesis for my grad program and I feel a lot more capable now! Thanks for such a clear and helpful video, Emma and the GradCoach team!

Do we need to mention the number of words the dissertation contains in the main document?

It depends on your university’s requirements, so it would be best to check with them 🙂

Such a helpful post to help me get started with structuring my masters dissertation, thank you!

Great video; I appreciate that helpful information

It is so necessary or avital course

This blog is very informative for my research. Thank you

Doctoral students are required to fill out the National Research Council’s Survey of Earned Doctorates

wow this is an amazing gain in my life

This is so good

How can i arrange my specific objectives in my dissertation?

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

What Is A Literature Review (In A Dissertation Or Thesis) - Grad Coach - […] is to write the actual literature review chapter (this is usually the second chapter in a typical dissertation or…

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Print Friendly

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

Knowledge Base
Dissertation

What Is a Dissertation? | Guide, Examples, & Template

A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. It is usually submitted as the final step in order to finish a PhD program.

Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you’ve ever completed. It requires solid research, writing, and analysis skills, and it can be intimidating to know where to begin.

Your department likely has guidelines related to how your dissertation should be structured. When in doubt, consult with your supervisor.

You can also download our full dissertation template in the format of your choice below. The template includes a ready-made table of contents with notes on what to include in each chapter, easily adaptable to your department’s requirements.

Download Word template Download Google Docs template

In the US, a dissertation generally refers to the collection of research you conducted to obtain a PhD.
In other countries (such as the UK), a dissertation often refers to the research you conduct to obtain your bachelor’s or master’s degree.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Dissertation committee and prospectus process, how to write and structure a dissertation, acknowledgements or preface, list of figures and tables, list of abbreviations, introduction, literature review, methodology, reference list, proofreading and editing, defending your dissertation, free checklist and lecture slides.

When you’ve finished your coursework, as well as any comprehensive exams or other requirements, you advance to “ABD” (All But Dissertation) status. This means you’ve completed everything except your dissertation.

Prior to starting to write, you must form your committee and write your prospectus or proposal . Your committee comprises your adviser and a few other faculty members. They can be from your own department, or, if your work is more interdisciplinary, from other departments. Your committee will guide you through the dissertation process, and ultimately decide whether you pass your dissertation defense and receive your PhD.

Your prospectus is a formal document presented to your committee, usually orally in a defense, outlining your research aims and objectives and showing why your topic is relevant . After passing your prospectus defense, you’re ready to start your research and writing.

Don't submit your assignments before you do this

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students. Free citation check included.

Try for free

The structure of your dissertation depends on a variety of factors, such as your discipline, topic, and approach. Dissertations in the humanities are often structured more like a long essay , building an overall argument to support a central thesis , with chapters organized around different themes or case studies.

However, hard science and social science dissertations typically include a review of existing works, a methodology section, an analysis of your original research, and a presentation of your results , presented in different chapters.

Dissertation examples

We’ve compiled a list of dissertation examples to help you get started.

Example dissertation #1: Heat, Wildfire and Energy Demand: An Examination of Residential Buildings and Community Equity (a dissertation by C. A. Antonopoulos about the impact of extreme heat and wildfire on residential buildings and occupant exposure risks).
Example dissertation #2: Exploring Income Volatility and Financial Health Among Middle-Income Households (a dissertation by M. Addo about income volatility and declining economic security among middle-income households).
Example dissertation #3: The Use of Mindfulness Meditation to Increase the Efficacy of Mirror Visual Feedback for Reducing Phantom Limb Pain in Amputees (a dissertation by N. S. Mills about the effect of mindfulness-based interventions on the relationship between mirror visual feedback and the pain level in amputees with phantom limb pain).

The very first page of your document contains your dissertation title, your name, department, institution, degree program, and submission date. Sometimes it also includes your student number, your supervisor’s name, and the university’s logo.

Theoretical framework

Your literature review can often form the basis for your theoretical framework. Here, you define and analyze the key theories, concepts, and models that frame your research.

Checklist: Dissertation

My title page includes all information required by my university.

I have included acknowledgements thanking those who helped me.

My abstract provides a concise summary of the dissertation, giving the reader a clear idea of my key results or arguments.

I have created a table of contents to help the reader navigate my dissertation. It includes all chapter titles, but excludes the title page, acknowledgements, and abstract.

My introduction leads into my topic in an engaging way and shows the relevance of my research.

My introduction clearly defines the focus of my research, stating my research questions and research objectives .

My introduction includes an overview of the dissertation’s structure (reading guide).

I have conducted a literature review in which I (1) critically engage with sources, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of existing research, (2) discuss patterns, themes, and debates in the literature, and (3) address a gap or show how my research contributes to existing research.

I have clearly outlined the theoretical framework of my research, explaining the theories and models that support my approach.

I have thoroughly described my methodology , explaining how I collected data and analyzed data.

I have concisely and objectively reported all relevant results .

I have (1) evaluated and interpreted the meaning of the results and (2) acknowledged any important limitations of the results in my discussion .

I have clearly stated the answer to my main research question in the conclusion .

I have clearly explained the implications of my conclusion, emphasizing what new insight my research has contributed.

I have provided relevant recommendations for further research or practice.

If relevant, I have included appendices with supplemental information.

I have included an in-text citation every time I use words, ideas, or information from a source.

I have listed every source in a reference list at the end of my dissertation.

I have consistently followed the rules of my chosen citation style .

I have followed all formatting guidelines provided by my university.

Congratulations!

The end is in sight—your dissertation is nearly ready to submit! Make sure it's perfectly polished with the help of a Scribbr editor.

If you’re an educator, feel free to download and adapt these slides to teach your students about structuring a dissertation.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked.

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates
Dissertation Table of Contents in Word | Instructions & Examples
How to Choose a Dissertation Topic | 8 Steps to Follow

Get unlimited documents corrected

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free.

Knowledge Base
Dissertation

What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started

Published on 26 March 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 5 May 2022.

A dissertation is a large research project undertaken at the end of a degree. It involves in-depth consideration of a problem or question chosen by the student. It is usually the largest (and final) piece of written work produced during a degree.

The length and structure of a dissertation vary widely depending on the level and field of study. However, there are some key questions that can help you understand the requirements and get started on your dissertation project.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Be assured that you'll submit flawless writing. Upload your document to correct all your mistakes.

When and why do you have to write a dissertation, who will supervise your dissertation, what type of research will you do, how should your dissertation be structured, what formatting and referencing rules do you have to follow, frequently asked questions about dissertations.

A dissertation, sometimes called a thesis, comes at the end of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. It is a larger project than the other essays you’ve written, requiring a higher word count and a greater depth of research.

You’ll generally work on your dissertation during the final year of your degree, over a longer period than you would take for a standard essay . For example, the dissertation might be your main focus for the last six months of your degree.

Why is the dissertation important?

The dissertation is a test of your capacity for independent research. You are given a lot of autonomy in writing your dissertation: you come up with your own ideas, conduct your own research, and write and structure the text by yourself.

This means that it is an important preparation for your future, whether you continue in academia or not: it teaches you to manage your own time, generate original ideas, and work independently.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

During the planning and writing of your dissertation, you’ll work with a supervisor from your department. The supervisor’s job is to give you feedback and advice throughout the process.

The dissertation supervisor is often assigned by the department, but you might be allowed to indicate preferences or approach potential supervisors. If so, try to pick someone who is familiar with your chosen topic, whom you get along with on a personal level, and whose feedback you’ve found useful in the past.

How will your supervisor help you?

Your supervisor is there to guide you through the dissertation project, but you’re still working independently. They can give feedback on your ideas, but not come up with ideas for you.

You may need to take the initiative to request an initial meeting with your supervisor. Then you can plan out your future meetings and set reasonable deadlines for things like completion of data collection, a structure outline, a first chapter, a first draft, and so on.

Make sure to prepare in advance for your meetings. Formulate your ideas as fully as you can, and determine where exactly you’re having difficulties so you can ask your supervisor for specific advice.

Your approach to your dissertation will vary depending on your field of study. The first thing to consider is whether you will do empirical research , which involves collecting original data, or non-empirical research , which involves analysing sources.

Empirical dissertations (sciences)

An empirical dissertation focuses on collecting and analysing original data. You’ll usually write this type of dissertation if you are studying a subject in the sciences or social sciences.

What are airline workers’ attitudes towards the challenges posed for their industry by climate change?
How effective is cognitive behavioural therapy in treating depression in young adults?
What are the short-term health effects of switching from smoking cigarettes to e-cigarettes?

There are many different empirical research methods you can use to answer these questions – for example, experiments , observations, surveys , and interviews.

When doing empirical research, you need to consider things like the variables you will investigate, the reliability and validity of your measurements, and your sampling method . The aim is to produce robust, reproducible scientific knowledge.

Non-empirical dissertations (arts and humanities)

A non-empirical dissertation works with existing research or other texts, presenting original analysis, critique and argumentation, but no original data. This approach is typical of arts and humanities subjects.

What attitudes did commentators in the British press take towards the French Revolution in 1789–1792?
How do the themes of gender and inheritance intersect in Shakespeare’s Macbeth ?
How did Plato’s Republic and Thomas More’s Utopia influence nineteenth century utopian socialist thought?

The first steps in this type of dissertation are to decide on your topic and begin collecting your primary and secondary sources .

Primary sources are the direct objects of your research. They give you first-hand evidence about your subject. Examples of primary sources include novels, artworks and historical documents.

Secondary sources provide information that informs your analysis. They describe, interpret, or evaluate information from primary sources. For example, you might consider previous analyses of the novel or author you are working on, or theoretical texts that you plan to apply to your primary sources.

Dissertations are divided into chapters and sections. Empirical dissertations usually follow a standard structure, while non-empirical dissertations are more flexible.

Structure of an empirical dissertation

Empirical dissertations generally include these chapters:

Introduction : An explanation of your topic and the research question(s) you want to answer.
Literature review : A survey and evaluation of previous research on your topic.
Methodology : An explanation of how you collected and analysed your data.
Results : A brief description of what you found.
Discussion : Interpretation of what these results reveal.
Conclusion : Answers to your research question(s) and summary of what your findings contribute to knowledge in your field.

Sometimes the order or naming of chapters might be slightly different, but all of the above information must be included in order to produce thorough, valid scientific research.

Other dissertation structures

If your dissertation doesn’t involve data collection, your structure is more flexible. You can think of it like an extended essay – the text should be logically organised in a way that serves your argument:

Introduction: An explanation of your topic and the question(s) you want to answer.
Main body: The development of your analysis, usually divided into 2–4 chapters.
Conclusion: Answers to your research question(s) and summary of what your analysis contributes to knowledge in your field.

The chapters of the main body can be organised around different themes, time periods, or texts. Below you can see some example structures for dissertations in different subjects.

Political philosophy

This example, on the topic of the British press’s coverage of the French Revolution, shows how you might structure each chapter around a specific theme.

Example of a dissertation structure in history

This example, on the topic of Plato’s and More’s influences on utopian socialist thought, shows a different approach to dividing the chapters by theme.

Example of a dissertation structure in political philosophy

This example, a master’s dissertation on the topic of how writers respond to persecution, shows how you can also use section headings within each chapter. Each of the three chapters deals with a specific text, while the sections are organised thematically.

Example of a dissertation structure in literature

Like other academic texts, it’s important that your dissertation follows the formatting guidelines set out by your university. You can lose marks unnecessarily over mistakes, so it’s worth taking the time to get all these elements right.

Formatting guidelines concern things like:

line spacing
page numbers
punctuation
title pages
presentation of tables and figures

If you’re unsure about the formatting requirements, check with your supervisor or department. You can lose marks unnecessarily over mistakes, so it’s worth taking the time to get all these elements right.

How will you reference your sources?

Referencing means properly listing the sources you cite and refer to in your dissertation, so that the reader can find them. This avoids plagiarism by acknowledging where you’ve used the work of others.

Keep track of everything you read as you prepare your dissertation. The key information to note down for a reference is:

The publication date
Page numbers for the parts you refer to (especially when using direct quotes)

Different referencing styles each have their own specific rules for how to reference. The most commonly used styles in UK universities are listed below.

&	An author–date citation in brackets in the text…	…corresponding to an entry in the alphabetised reference list at the end.
	A superscript or bracketed reference number in the text…	…corresponding to an entry in the numbered reference list at the end.
	A footnote in the text that gives full source information…	…and an alphabetised bibliography at the end listing all sources.

You can use the free APA Reference Generator to automatically create and store your references.

APA Reference Generator

The words ‘ dissertation ’ and ‘thesis’ both refer to a large written research project undertaken to complete a degree, but they are used differently depending on the country:

In the UK, you write a dissertation at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a thesis to complete a PhD.
In the US, it’s the other way around: you may write a thesis at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a dissertation to complete a PhD.

The main difference is in terms of scale – a dissertation is usually much longer than the other essays you complete during your degree.

Another key difference is that you are given much more independence when working on a dissertation. You choose your own dissertation topic , and you have to conduct the research and write the dissertation yourself (with some assistance from your supervisor).

Dissertation word counts vary widely across different fields, institutions, and levels of education:

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 by your university to determine how long your own dissertation should be.

At the bachelor’s and master’s levels, the dissertation is usually the main focus of your final year. You might work on it (alongside other classes) for the entirety of the final year, or for the last six months. This includes formulating an idea, doing the research, and writing up.

A PhD thesis takes a longer time, as the thesis is the main focus of the degree. A PhD thesis might be being formulated and worked on for the whole four years of the degree program. The writing process alone can take around 18 months.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, May 05). What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started. Scribbr. Retrieved 24 June 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/what-is-a-dissertation/

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

Other students also liked, how to choose a dissertation topic | 8 steps to follow, how to write a dissertation proposal | a step-by-step guide, what is a literature review | guide, template, & examples.

FindAMasters
Researching and Writing a Masters Dissertation

Written by Mark Bennett

All Masters programmes include some form of extended individual project. Research-focussed programmes, such as an MRes , may include multiple independent research components. Taught courses usually culminate with a substantial research task, referred to as the Masters dissertation or thesis.

This article talks about how long a Masters dissertation is and the structure it follows.Before you get started on your dissertation, you'll usually need to write a proposal. Read our full guide to Masters dissertation proposals for more information on what this should include!

Masters dissertation - key facts
Length	15,000 - 20,000 words
Structure	Abstract (300 words) Introduction (1,000 words) Literature review (1,000 words) Research methodology (1,500 words) Results Discussion (12,000 words) Conclusion (1,500 words) References/Bibliography Appendices
Supervision	Yes, you’ll be paired with an academic from your own university
Assessment	External examiner along with additional members of faculty. There is not usually a viva at Masters level.

To answer your overall research question comprehensively, you’ll be expected to identify and examine specific areas of your topic. This can be like producing a series of shorter pieces of work, similar to those required by individual modules. However, there’s the additional requirement that they collectively support a broader set of conclusions.

This more involved Masters dissertation structure will:

Give you the scope to investigate your subject in greater detail than is possible at undergraduate level
Challenge you to be effective at organising your work so that its individual components function as stages in a coherent and persuasive overall argument
Allow you to develop and hone a suitable research methodology (for example, choosing between qualitative and quantitative methods)

If the individual topics within your overall project require you to access separate sources or datasets, this may also have an impact on your research process.

As a postgraduate, you’ll be expected to establish and assert your own critical voice as a member of the academic community associated with your field .

During your Masters thesis you’ll need to show that you are not just capable of analysing and critiquing original data or primary source material. You should also demonstrate awareness of the existing body of scholarship relating to your topic .

So, if you’ll excuse the pun, a ‘Masters’ degree really is about achieving ‘mastery’ of your particular specialism and the dissertation is where you’ll demonstrate this: showing off the scholarly expertise and research skills that you’ve developed across your programme.

What’s the difference between a dissertation and a thesis?

A dissertation is a long piece of (usually) written work on the same topic. A thesis is a little more specific: it usually means something that presents an original argument based on the interpretation of data, statistics or content.

So, a thesis is almost always presented as a dissertation, but not all dissertations present a thesis.

Masters dissertation structure

As you can probably imagine, no two dissertations follow the exact same structure, especially given the differences found between Masters programmes from university to university and country to country .

That said, there are several key components that make up the structure of a typical Masters dissertation

How long is a Masters dissertation?

Most dissertations will typically be between 15,000 and 20,000 words long, although this can vary significantly depending on the nature of the programme.

You should also check with your university exactly which sections of the dissertation count towards the final word count (the abstract, bibliography and appendices won’t usually be included in the total).

Usually around 300 words long, the abstract is meant to be a concise summary of your dissertation. It should briefly cover the question(s) you aim to answer, your primary argument and your conclusion.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to provide context for the rest of the dissertation, setting out your aims and the scope of what you want to achieve with your research. The introduction should give a clear overview of the dissertation’s chapters and will usually be around 1,000 words long.

Literature review

This part of the dissertation should examine the scholarship that has already been published in your field, presenting various arguments and counter-arguments while situating your own research within this wider body of work.

You should analyse and evaluate other publications and explain how your dissertation will contribute to the existing literature in your subject area. The literature review sometimes forms part of the introduction or follows immediately on from it. Most literature reviews are up to 1,000 words long.

Research methodology

Not all dissertations will require a section covering research methodology (Arts and Humanities dissertations won’t normally undertake the kind of research that involves a set methodology). However, if you are using a particular method to collect information for your dissertation, you should make sure to explain the rationale behind your choice of methodology. The word count for this part of the dissertation is usually around the 1,500 mark.

Those in the Arts and Humanities will usually outline their theoretical perspectives and approaches as part of the introduction, rather than requiring a detailed explanation of the methodology for their data collection and analysis.

Results / findings

If your research involves some form of survey or experiment, this is where you’ll present the results of your work. Depending on the nature of the study, this might be in the form of graphs, tables or charts – or even just a written description of what the research entailed and what the findings were.

This section forms the bulk of your dissertation and should be carefully structured using a series of related chapters (and sub-chapters). There should be a logical progression from one chapter to the next, with each part building on the arguments of its predecessor.

It can be helpful to think of your Masters dissertation as a series of closely interlinked essays, rather than one overwhelming paper. The size of this section will depend on the overall word count for your dissertation. However, to give you a rough idea for a 15,000-word dissertation, the discussion part will generally be about 12,000 words long.

Here you should draw together the threads of the previous discussion chapters and make your final concluding statements, drawing on evidence and arguments that you’ve already explored over the course of the dissertation. Explain the significance of your findings and point towards directions that future research could follow. This section of the Masters thesis will be around 1,500 words long.

References / bibliography

While planning and writing your dissertation, you should keep an extensive, organised record of any papers, sources or books you’ve quoted (or referred to). This will be a lot easier than leaving all of it until the end and struggling to work out where a particular quotation is from!

Appendices won’t be necessary in many dissertations, but you may need to include supplementary material to support your argument. This could be interview transcripts or questionnaires. If including such content within the body of the dissertation won’t be feasible – i.e. there wouldn’t be enough space or it would break the flow of your writing – you should consult with your supervisor and consider attaching it in an appendix.

It’s worth bearing in mind that these sections won’t always be discretely labelled in every dissertation. For example, everything up to ‘discussion’ might be covered in introductory chapter (rather than as distinct sections). If you’re unsure about the structure of your Masters dissertation, your supervisor will be able to help you map it out.

How does supervision work for a Masters dissertation?

As a Masters student at the dissertation stage you’ll usually be matched with an academic within your institution who will be tasked with guiding your work. This might be someone who has already taught you, or it may be another scholar whose research interests and expertise align well with what you want to do. You may be able to request a particular supervisor, but taught postgraduates are more likely to be assigned them by their department.

Specific arrangements with your supervisor will vary depending on your institution and subject area. They will usually meet with you at the beginning of the dissertation period to discuss your project and agree a suitable schedule for its undertaking. This timetable will probably set dates for:

Subsequent discussions and progress checks
The submission of draft chapters or sections
Feedback appointments

Though your supervisor is there to help and advise you, it is important to remember that your dissertation is a personal research project with associated expectations of you as an independent scholar.

As a rule of thumb, you can expect your supervisor to read each part of your dissertation once at the draft stage and to offer feedback. Most will not have time to look at lots of subsequent revisions, but may respond favourably to polite requests for exceptions (provided their own workload permits it).

Inundating your supervisor with emails or multiple iterations of draft material is best avoided; they will have their own research to manage (as well as other supervision assignments) and will be able to offer better quality feedback if you stick to an agreed schedule.

How is a Masters dissertation assessed and examined?

On most courses your dissertation will be assessed by an external examiner (as well as additional members of faculty within your university who haven’t been responsible for supervising you), but these will read and critique the work you submit without personally questioning and testing you on it.

Though this examination process is not as challenging as the oral defence or ‘ viva voce ’ required for a PhD thesis, the grading of your Masters dissertation is still a fundamental component of your degree.

On some programmes the result awarded to a student’s dissertation may determine the upper grade-band that can be awarded to their degree.

Search for a Masters

Ready to start looking for your ideal postgraduate opportunity? Browse and compare Masters degrees on FindAMasters.com.

Our postgrad newsletter shares courses, funding news, stories and advice

Select your nearest city

Aberystwyth
Beaconsfield
Bishop Burton
Bournemouth
Bridlington
Chatham Maritime
Cirencester
East Malling
Hemel Hempstead
High Wycombe
Huddersfield
Isle of Man
Jordanstown
London Central
London East
London South
London West
Londonderry
Loughborough
Middlesbrough
Milton Keynes
Musselburgh
Northampton
Potters Bar
Saffron Waldon
Scarborough
Southampton
St Leonards on Sea
Stoke on Trent
Wolverhampton

You haven’t completed your profile yet. To get the most out of FindAMasters, finish your profile and receive these benefits:

Monthly chance to win one of ten £10 Amazon vouchers ; winners will be notified every month.*
Access to our £6,000 scholarship competition
Weekly newsletter with funding opportunities, application tips and much more
Early access to our physical and virtual postgraduate study fairs

Or begin browsing FindAMasters.com

or begin browsing FindAMasters.com

*Offer only available for the duration of your active subscription, and subject to change. You MUST claim your prize within 72 hours, if not we will redraw.

Do you want hassle-free information and advice?

Create your FindAMasters account and sign up to our newsletter:

Find out about funding opportunities and application tips
Receive weekly advice, student stories and the latest Masters news
Hear about our upcoming study fairs
Save your favourite programmes, track enquiries and get personalised subject updates

Create your account

Looking to list your Masters programmes? Log in here .

Let us help you find a Masters

Never miss a course

Enter our ambassador competition

Get funding news, tips and advice

Hear about upcoming events

Sign up to our newsletter today

We've been helping students find the right postgraduate course for over a decade.

Login to your account

Enter your username below to login to your account.

The Open University
Guest user / Sign out
Study with The Open University

My OpenLearn Profile

Personalise your OpenLearn profile, save your favourite content and get recognition for your learning

EPQs: writing up your dissertation

The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is an opportunity for you to work independently on a topic that really interests you or that you think is important. It is equivalent to an A-level qualification. These articles are designed to help you if you are enrolled on an EPQ.

See previous article in series: Finding and using evidence

Writing up your dissertation.

Being able to communicate well is an essential skill for both university and working life. One of the aims of the EPQ is to help you develop your skills in using different communication tools, so you can communicate what you have found clearly and appropriately for different audiences.

Communication is also a vital part of the research cycle. The progress of research thrives on the exchange, review and discussion of ideas. Writing is one of the ways in which we communicate what we have found out and share it with others.

Sharing the results of your research by writing well and effectively gives your readers the opportunity to learn from the work you have done.

This article offers suggestions and support for developing your skills in writing in the academic style that is needed for your EPQ dissertation.

Getting organised .

It’s worth considering a few practical points first. The start of writing is a good time to gather your material together and get yourself organised.

Don’t lose your work
Timings & deadlines
Organise your records
Laying out the document
Tables, graphs and charts

You don’t want to find yourself a few days – or hours – from the submission deadline when a computer breakdown or accident means you lose everything you’ve done.

It has happened before, and you don’t want it to happen to you!

Build a routine for backups into your work pattern. For example, when you sit down to write, save a copy (named, for example, Version 1, Version 2 ... Version 25 ...) of the existing document before you make any changes.

And back up your backup. Once a week, make a backup copy of your files (your dissertation, your notes and the resources you have collected) to an external hard drive, memory stick or cloud storage.

Work out how much time you have to write your dissertation, and how much time you want to allocate to each section. (There’ll be more on this shortly under ‘Structuring the dissertation – Start with the structure’.)

Make sure you know – and have written down! – the deadlines for submitting your dissertation, including deadlines for any draft versions your teacher might want to see. Use these to help plan your writing time.

There are many tools to choose from to keep yourself on track. For example, you could create a table with a list of tasks.

Table 1
Week	Task	Done
1–2	Write research review	✔️
3–4	Write discussion of results
5	Write analysis of evidence
6	Write conclusion
7	Write introduction and abstract
8	Create and check reference list
9	Swap drafts with Sam for review Check my draft for spelling and grammar
10	Review Sam’s comments and make final changes Submit draft to Dr Jones

Or you could make a simple Gantt chart, using a spreadsheet. If you use Microsoft Excel, it has some Gantt chart templates. The advantage of a Gantt chart is that it makes it easier to see how you can overlap some tasks, and you can mark important milestones such as submission deadlines .

As you have gone through the process of collecting and analysing the evidence you need to answer your research question, you will have gathered records of:

what you looked for (the search terms you used in your searches)
where you looked (search engines, websites, etc.)
what you read / watched / listened to (academic papers, articles, videos, podcasts, etc.)
the notes you made on your reading, listening and watching
the data you have gathered.

All these sources contribute to the content of your written dissertation. Hopefully you have good records, but if you got a bit behind, now is the time to sort them out and remind yourself what you did and what you found out.

If you need a reminder of what information you need to keep, look back at Article 2 – Finding and using evidence .

Organising your records and keeping a note of the sources you mention in the text as you write helps you build a comprehensive reference list.

There is more information on how to set out your reference list later in this article (see ‘Structuring the dissertation – Referencing styles’ ).

Laying out your document in a clear and neat style helps make your readers’ life easier.

For the text , use a classic font such as Arial, Helvetica or Times New Roman. It’s best to avoid quirky fonts such as Comic Sans, or difficult to read fonts such as Lucida handwriting.

For easy reading, the font shouldn’t be too small. 11 or 12 point is a popular choice for the main (or body) text, which is usually black in colour. You can use larger fonts for headings and sub-headings, and perhaps make them bold or a different colour.

Generous margins also make the document easier to read. As a guide, around half the area of the page should be white space; on an A4 page, that means margins of about 2cm all round.

Use the paragraph styling tool . It’s well worth investing some time learning to use paragraph styling in Microsoft Word and Mac Pages ; it can really speed up the creation of long documents and help you produce good-looking work.

This tool gives you control over the appearance of the text in your document. For example, you can use it to include automatic numbering for your headings ( Word or Pages ). This means you don’t have to manually change all the numbering if you insert a new heading or delete one that is no longer useful. You can also use automatic numbering for figure and table captions. Or, if you decide you don’t like the font you have used, you can change it in the paragraph style and it will be changed throughout the document.

Some kinds of evidence – such as numeric data – work well when displayed as graphs, charts and tables.

Readers should be able to make sense of the graph, chart or table without explanation.

Look at Table 2. Is it clear what information the creator wanted to share?

Table 2
SUA2	core	salt precipitates (0-30cm)	muddy
	nose (tip of corer)	salt precipitates (30-34)	muddy

A better example can be seen below in Table 3:

Table 3
Town or city	Total population in 2020	Male	Female
London	8,960,924	4,494,611	4,466,313
Birmingham	1,159,888	575,432	584,456
Liverpool	589,774	292,878	296,896
Bristol	580,199	290,344	289,855
Manchester	566,896	288,714	278,182
Sheffield	557,039	278,024	279,015
Leeds	516,298	255,099	261,199
Leicester	415,584	208,466	207,118
Coventry	388,793	197,892	190,901
Bradford	358,573	177,748	180,825

Graphs and charts need titles too. They should also have axis titles (naming what is plotted on each axis, with the relevant units) and axis labels (the values plotted).

When it comes to plotting graphs, using different shapes or line styles can help readers distinguish different data points or collections of data on a single graph. You can use contrasting colours, but keep in mind that too many colours can be distracting for the reader. And some readers – for example, people who are colour-blind or have vision problems – might not be able to distinguish between certain colours, so choose carefully.

Look at Figure 3. Does it have all the elements of a good graph? Could anything be improved?

Comparison of four search terms used in Google in the UK from Jan to May 2021.

This has many of the requirements of a good graph. The title explains what the graph is about, the axes are labelled and the four search terms are each given their own colour, with a key to show which is which.

It could be made better by:

making the graph larger, so that the four lines are more separate
choosing different colours – the orange for ‘Perseverance’ and the yellow for ‘astrobiology’ are difficult to distinguish from each other.

Evidently, something interesting must have happened in mid-February to cause this spike in searches – you might remember that on 18 February 2021, the NASA Mars Perseverance Rover mission landed on Mars!

Structuring the dissertation .

Facing a blank page and the prospect of writing 5000 or so words can feel daunting. But you can structure the way you write to help make the task easier.

Start with the structure
Facing the blank page
The narrative arc
Finishing things off
Referencing styles

Starting with the structure will help you consider how you want the dissertation to flow, and how to allocate your time and effort.

This example, taken from the Edexcel documentation, gives a suggested word count for the different sections of a ‘research review’ dissertation. All the exam boards publish their requirements, so you should check the requirements for your board and the type of EPQ you are doing .

Table 4
	Word count
Abstract (summary)	150
Introduction	650
Research review	1500
Discussion / development / analysis	2300
Conclusion	400
Bibliography (reference list)	-

A ‘research review’ dissertation would probably follow something like the structure above. For other kinds of project, check with your teacher or look at the exam board’s requirements. Knowing what structure the exam board is expecting helps you to know where to focus your effort.

In Table 4, you can see that the biggest section of the dissertation is the discussion/development/analysis of the argument, so it would make sense to spend the largest part of your writing time on this section. Look back at the Gantt chart under ‘Getting organised – Tables, graphs and charts’ for an example of time allocated in this way.

You’ve opened a new document. You know the sections you need to include.

How do you get started on the sentences that will fill the gaps in between? Two researchers offered suggestions from their experience.

Robert, a space scientist, says he usually works out the first paragraph in his head before sitting down to write.

Ann’s summary

This is how Charlotte described her approach. First step, open a Word document!

Second step, write titles and sub-headings on the page. These can be working titles that you can come back to and polish once you have developed the document. But getting that structure down on the page is a key step for Charlotte in building the document and working out how the manuscript is going to flow. Once she’s broken the document up into sections, it feels much less daunting for her. Instead of starting at word one of six thousand, she’s working on smaller, more manageable chunks – word one of a hundred, or two hundred.

Step three is to write down the aims, objectives and scope of the document. And then she goes on to write the conclusions. And she says yes, that’s not a typo – if you’ve done a good job of researching the topic, developing the aims and objectives and making your notes, then writing the conclusion first should be relatively easy. The benefit of writing the end of your manuscript before the beginning is that you’re less likely to go off on tangents when you’re writing the rest of the manuscript, because you know where you’re heading.

If you feel you’ve thoroughly researched your topic and you’re still finding it hard to work out what your conclusions are, then it may be a good idea to turn your research notes into a presentation, during which you can ask yourself ‘what key message do I want the audience to walk away with?’, and that will be your conclusion.

Step five: write the remaining sections of the dissertation, justifying and building your arguments for each conclusion.

Charlotte’s main points

Charlotte’s steps are:

Open a Word document!
Write titles and sub-headings on the page.
Write down the aims, objectives and scope of the document.
Write the conclusion – ask yourself ‘what key message do I want the audience to walk away with?’
Write the remaining sections, justifying and building your arguments for each conclusion.

Headings and sub-headings

Charlotte described how she likes to set up the headings and sub-headings that structure her writing, even though she knows they might change as the document develops.

Using descriptive headings, such as ‘The history of ...’ tells the reader what to expect in that section or chapter. This is sometimes called ‘signposting’, because the headings and sub-headings guide the reader around your work.

As well as descriptive headings, you can number your headings and sub-headings:

Section 1: An introduction to…
Section 1.1 : The history of ...

This means you can refer the reader back and forth (e.g. ‘see Section 1.2’), which cuts down repetition and wasted words.

Both approaches have the merit of getting something on to the blank page, which makes it look much less scary.

Whether you start with an opening paragraph, a set of headings, or another method that works for you, getting those first few words on the page is one of the biggest hurdles to clear.

Narrative – the story thread that runs through any piece of work we create – is important in any piece of writing. Stories keep people’s attention, as storytellers have known for hundreds of years. Writers, broadcasters and podcasters continue to make use of this fact today.

One way to think about how you shape your story is to consider its narrative arc. Yes, even the most ‘science-y’ of dissertations has a story.

Click on the crosses on Figure 6 to find out more about the components of the narrative arc.

Figure 6 The narrative arc

Points on the narrative arc

Description : A parabolic curve representing the narrative arc of a story. The first half of the curve rises to a peak, showing the points that build interest in the story. The second half falls back to the baseline, showing how we reflect on the details of the story and bring it to a close.

– In the Introduction , attract the reader’s attention at the start, perhaps by telling them what got you interested in the question; a personal interest, an ambition or a desire to know more about a topic.

– In the Introduction , describe the journey to your research question. Make sure you do actually tell your reader what your question is (you’d be surprised how often people forget that!)

Information

– In the Research Review section, you show the reader how you found your evidence; tell them about the keywords you used, the mindmaps, flowcharts, tables you made; what information was important and what was not; what stayed in and what didn’t.

– This is your analysis of the material you found, showing how you pulled together the information you uncovered in your review and what it meant for your question. However, this isn’t an absolute rule; where you put the analysis depends on the kind of dissertation you are writing.

– Tell the reader what you found out and how it relates to what is already known.

– Use the Conclusion to round off your story. What’s the answer to your research question? What did you discover? What’s still not known?

There are a couple of sections of the dissertation that are best dealt with towards the end of the writing process: abstract and bibliography.

The abstract

At the beginning of the dissertation, you should provide a short summary or abstract.

An abstract is like a trailer for a film or television programme. It gives the reader a sense of what’s in the dissertation. However, unlike a trailer, it’s OK to give away the ending! Someone who only reads the abstract, and never looks at the dissertation, should still understand the scope of your work.

For this reason, it’s easier to write the abstract towards the end of your writing time, when you have a complete picture of your work in your mind.

The abstract is usually quite short (perhaps only 200 words) and is written in one paragraph. That’s not much space, so what should you include?

A typical abstract would tell the reader:

why you did this research – the question you set out to answer
how you did the research – the methods you used to collect the data and where you looked for it
what you found out – a summary of your main findings
the key message – the answer to your question; if your readers could remember just one thing from your dissertation, this would be it.

One way to approach writing the abstract is to read through your dissertation section by section. For each section, write one or two sentences that summarise the main point. Click on ‘example’ to see what we mean.

Using Google Scholar, I searched for articles using different combinations of these search terms: ‘alternative medicine’, ‘complementary medicine’, understanding, knowledge, motivation, CAM. I filtered the results to keep only articles that related to the use of CAM by young people. I defined ‘young’ as people under the age of 25. I downloaded twenty complete papers, articles and other resources from open access sources and the Open University research repository.

Use of CAM by young people has increased since 2000. Young women use CAM more than young men. The most common sources for getting information about CAM are friends and family and social media.

Key message

The best way to provide information for young people about CAM is through social media.

Take away the headings and polish the sentences and you have an abstract:

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is growing rapidly among young people, but the usefulness and safety of some therapies is controversial. Therefore, I investigated the question: what are the best places to reach young people with information about CAM? Using Google Scholar, I searched for articles using different combinations of these search terms: ‘alternative medicine’, ‘complementary medicine’, understanding, knowledge, motivation, CAM. I filtered the results to keep only articles that related to the use of CAM by young people. I defined ‘young’ as people under the age of 25. My search found twenty relevant papers, articles and other resources, which I downloaded from open access sources and the Open University research repository. My results show that young people’s most common sources for information about CAM are friends and family and social media. Therefore, I believe that using social media is the best way to provide information about CAM for young people.

The bibliography or reference list

The last thing to include in your dissertation is the bibliography or reference list * .

Your reference list shows the people who read (and mark!) your dissertation how well you have researched your subject and how your arguments are supported by evidence from other people’s research.

It is also evidence of how you have been open and honest in your work. Readers can use it to find the sources that you used and check that you have read and used them correctly.

Using your reference list, a reader should be able to find that source for themselves if they want to follow up an idea or check something you have written. Including a reference list helps you avoid plagiarism (passing off someone else’s work as your own), because readers can check the original source if they have any doubts.

If you need a reminder of what information you should keep, look back at ‘Finding and using evidence – Keeping track’ .

* A reference list is a list of all references to other people’s work that you have mentioned in your dissertation. A bibliography is a list of references, plus the background readings or other material that you have read but not actually mentioned.

The Open University Library Services’ Referencing and plagiarism page has lots of help and pointers to further information about references and referencing styles.

If you go on to study at university, and have to write essays, assignments and reports, you will be asked to set out – or ‘style’ – reference lists in a specific way. There are many different referencing styles; which one you are asked to use will depend on the subject you are studying and the university’s requirements.

For the EPQ, check the requirements of your exam board or ask your teacher what these are.

Even if you aren’t asked to use a specific style, you should aim to include as much information about the sources as possible. The minimum information would be:

the authors’ (or creators’) names
the year the source was published
the title of the article or book chapter, or the name of the artwork, film or video
the title of the journal or the book in which the article/chapter appeared
for books – the name of the publisher
for online sources – the name of the website and the page on which the article appeared, the URL of the website, and the date on which you read the article*.

*The date you found the article is important for online sources, as websites sometimes disappear or are changed. If the reader can’t find the same article but knows when you found it, that suggests they can trust the source.

These examples are laid out in the Harvard referencing style, which is a style used in many university subjects.

Books and ebooks

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

Mukherjee, S. (2011) The Emperor of all Maladies . London: Fourth Estate.

Article from an academic journal

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Doi: doi number if available OR Available at: URL (Accessed date)

Ungar, S. (2008) ‘Global bird flu communication: hot crisis and media reassurance’, Science Communication , 29(4), 472-497. DOI: 10.1177/1075547008316219

Article from a newspaper or magazine

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Rice-Oxley, M. (2021) ‘Do good things come to those who wait?’, The Guardian , 26 February. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/26/do-good-things-come-to-those-who-wait (Accessed 26 February 2021).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

BBC Online (2020) How New Zealand relied on science and empathy . Available at: bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52344299 (Accessed 17 September 2020).

Writing clearly .

Good writing takes time, effort and energy. Being able to produce clear, readable, logical and well-argued pieces of writing is important in both university and in your working life.

Precise & concise
Keep it simple
A word about style
Quoting others

Blaise Pascal was a seventeenth-century mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher and writer. He once wrote:

‘ Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte ’ .

–Blaise Pascal, Provincial Letters, Letter XVI, December 1656.

Translation: ‘I wrote this very long [letter] because I didn’t have the time to make it shorter’.

What do you think Pascal meant by this?

Claire, whose research looks for evidence of how we might ‘ sniff’ for life , produced a mind map of what she thinks Pascal meant (Figure 9). The audio below describes her process.

Claire’s mind map takes us on quite a journey. Starting from Pascal’s premise that it’s better to write short than long, slower than quicker, makes her think about the need for concision, to look for concise words, words that are specific and measured, not being confusing, the need to choose the right word. Not always easy in English, where one word can have a variety of meanings.

She suggest perhaps using a thesaurus, but that could lead down the pathway of having too many words to choose from and not being able to decide which one to pick. Thinking about the dissertation, she introduces a word we all dread – waffling! No one wants to be a waffler, and giving too much information might make your readers’ heads explode.

And yet we must explain our concepts, because we want our writing to be understood by everyone but that means a balance with explaining too much. We need to give enough detail to make our point understood, and scientific, if it’s that kind of research question, without being too complicated. All in all, it comes down to the need to simplify.

More tips from Ann

As Pascal – and Claire – suggest, taking out what isn’t needed is as important as putting in what is.

Writing clearly and to the point takes time, effort and energy. Allow yourself plenty of time to draft, review, get feedback, edit ... draft again, review again, get more feedback, edit again … … check, proof-read, finish.

As we established earlier, your dissertation will have a word allowance. EdExcel, for example, suggests a research review dissertation should be around 6000 words. That sounds like a lot, but then, you’ve done a lot of work that needs to be included.

The exact figure will depend on the exam board’s requirements and the kind of EPQ you have carried out, so check before you start writing, or ask your teacher.

The best writers keep things as simple as possible. It’s a way of being kind to your readers and making the task of reading easier.

However, keeping things simple isn’t simple. As Steve Jobs, the designer and co-founder of Apple said: ‘Simple can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple’. The same applies to writing.

When you’ve done a complex piece of work, it’s tempting to think you can only describe it in complex language. But you should try to avoid the pitfall of using over-complicated language. You don’t want to run the risk of sounding pompous or making your text too difficult to understand.

You’ve almost certainly come across simple questions with unnecessarily complicated answers before. Here’s an example. Which is the best answer to this question?

The Up Goer Five challenge

To practise writing in simple language, you can take the Up Goer Five challenge. This is a project by the artist Randall Monroe, creator of XKCD .

The challenge is to explain a hard idea using only the ‘ten hundred’ most common words in the English language. As an example, how might we explain ‘astrobiology’?:

We think about where we might find living things. We take stuff from places – dry places, cold places, hot places – and we put it in stuff that we think has what living things need to grow. We wait, then we use a seeing-small-things tool to look for the living things. At the moment, we look at stuff from here but one day, we want to look at stuff from other stars.

Have a go at using the Up Goer Five text editor (which has a link to the ten hundred most common words ) to explain an idea related to your research topic. If you find it tricky to think of an idea, here are a few to get you started:

global warming and its consequences
what causes earthquakes
the problems caused by the misuse of antibiotics.

You wouldn’t write your dissertation in this style, but experimenting with writing like this helps develop skills in keeping things simple, avoiding jargon and complicated language and writing in short sentences and paragraphs.

We all write in different ways every day, depending on who we’re writing for. The style of a textbook is different from the style of a WhatsApp message; we write an email to a family member in a different style from the way we would write a personal statement for a university application.

When we write anything, we start by thinking about our readers and the kind of writing they are expecting to see.

For the EPQ dissertation, start by checking the requirements of the exam board you are studying with. It is very likely that the exam board will want the dissertation to be written in a formal style; the kind of style you will have seen in the academic articles and books you drew on in your research.

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as your own. It is, essentially, theft of someone else’s work.

Learning alongside a friend, discussing ideas or sharing your thoughts can be helpful and valuable. We have also encouraged you to take notes on everything that you find. So, it is likely that you have ideas you want to present in your report that are not entirely your own.

Plagiarism can occur in a variety of ways. It can mean copying someone else’s text and passing it off as your own, or copying and pasting text/images from a web page and pretending they are your own work. It can also overlap with what is called ‘collusion’, which means collaborating with someone to share work on a task that you are expected to complete by yourself.

Try this interactive resource from OpenLearn to understand some of the challenges and ways to avoid plagiarism. This is aimed at university students, but it will be relevant for the EPQ.

All my own work

Plagiarism comes in all shapes and forms. Step into the shoes of a university student to learn the challenges and temptations facing her during her assignment, and help make it all her own work.

Level: 1 Introductory

There will be points in your dissertation when you want to present ideas that have come from someone else’s work. How can you do this while avoiding plagiarism?

Identify your sources

If you have used an image, graph or chart created by someone else, identify where the image has come from and who made it.

You might remember this image from Article 1 , in the section on dealing with feedback.

This image comes from an online picture library, creazilla.com. They have placed it in the ‘public domain’, which means it can be re-used freely. Show this information in the image caption within your work.

If you create a graph, chart or table yourself, identify the source of the data, as you saw earlier in ‘ Getting organised – Tables, graphs and charts ’.

If you find a phrase or a sentence in a source that helpfully illustrates a point you are trying to make, you can quote that in your work. You must quote it exactly as the authors wrote it. After the quote, you give the name of the author, the date of publication and the page where the quote is from. Then give the full reference in your reference list (see ‘ Structuring the dissertation – Referencing styles ’). For example:

This shows that the format of an infographic can influence people’s responses to the evidence. For example, ‘ graphs commonly used to show descriptive statistics, such as line or area graphs, may also appear “scientific” and create a pseudo sense of trustworthiness ’ (Li et al., 2018, p. 4).

The quote marks (‘…’) show which words are the quote.

We use the Latin phrase ‘et al.’ (meaning ‘and others’) when an article has more than three authors, so that the reader doesn’t have to read through a long list of names. In the reference list, you would see the full list of authors along with the other source details:

Li, N., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D., Wilson, P. and Rose, K. (2018) ‘Communicating data: interactive infographics, scientific data and credibility’, Journal of Science Communication, 17(2), A06. DOI: 10.22323/2.17020206

When you paraphrase, you express an idea that has come from someone else in your own words. You might do this to re-state the idea in simpler language, or to bring together the ideas of several writers on the same topic. Paraphrasing can also help you show that any new ideas you’ve put together from your research are supported by earlier research.

You should show where the ideas you have paraphrased came from, but because you are not directly quoting, you need only give the authors’ names and the date of publication. For example:

My survey of fifty young people aged 16 to 18 showed that their social media posts were most often connected with current events. This is supported by earlier research, which shows that the most common topics for young people’s posts are current events, health and fitness, and celebrity and entertainment news, closely followed by science and technology (Hargittai, Füchslin & Schäfer, 2018) .

In the reference list, you would see:

Hargittai, E., Füchslin, T. and Schäfer, M. (2018) ‘How do young adults engage with science and research on social media?’, Social Media + Society, July-September 2018, 1-10, DOI: 10.1177/205630511879772

Although your dissertation must be all your own work, you can ask for help to review what you have written.

How do you ask for help, then, while keeping the dissertation all your own work and avoiding plagiarism?

Reviews – who and when?

Before you ask someone to review your work, you can check some things for yourself.

Check the spelling and grammar . Microsoft Word has built-in tools, or you can use online ones such as Grammarly . The more technically correct your writing is, the more your reviewers will be able to focus their energy on the content.

Then read it all through yourself . Some people like to read through silently, line by line, others prefer to read the text out loud. You can record yourself and listen back later, or use the Read Aloud function in Word, if you’re using that software. This has the advantage of using a different part of your brain – when you listen, you hear mistakes that you just don’t see in writing.

After you have reviewed it yourself, ask others to do the same. Getting someone else’s feedback on your work is immensely valuable. This is where you can collaborate with friends or classmates – if you ask them to review your work, you can offer to review theirs. And families can help too; even if they don’t know anything about your topic, the questions they ask will help you review your work.

Michael asks for help
Who could you ask for help?

Listen to the audio in the next tab about how Michael, who is a microbiologist, asks for help. When does he do this, and who does he ask?

Michael turns to his colleagues, his family and his senior colleagues at work. He asks for help at different stages: perhaps when he’s struggling a little, when he’s written the first draft and later on at the final stages, when he’s finished editing.

For Michael, feedback is incredibly important, not only for the actual content of the work, but for assessing how easy it is to understand. And he felt it’s always important to consider reviews of our writing from the viewpoint that the reviewer wants to help us improve our work, not criticise it. In terms of who he asks, first he calls on his peers; when he was at school, friends in his class and year, and now his colleagues, who can comment on the content of the work and how easy it is for them to follow. When he was at school, he also turned to his parents. During high school, his parents helped with input on grammar, spelling and how easy it was to understand. Now, his wife performs that role. As he says, by having someone from outside the field review your work, you can gain valuable insights. He also thinks about his seniors – in his current job, his senior colleagues will read multiple drafts of a manuscript before it’s complete. This is always an advantage – it allows him to get input from someone more experienced and means the work is improved.

In terms of when, he asks for help when he’s struggling, perhaps to find the right direction for a piece of work. Discussing the work with a friend or a teacher can start him developing insights on where it should start. Certainly after completing and spell-checking a first draft, he’ll ask for help.

And of course it’s always important to go back and review after editing, because when you change a piece of work, it’s easy to introduce errors, as well as fix them.

Conclusion.

EPQs: designing your research question

You’ve already decided to do an EPQ, so it might seem a little odd to start this resource by asking you to consider why you want to do a research project. People do an EPQ for all sorts of reasons. Why do you want to do an EPQ?

EPQs: finding and using evidence

Finding the evidence that will help you understand a topic or answer a question is an important stage in the research process. And once you have found it, you will need to examine it closely and carefully, to judge how reliable it is and whether it is useful to help you answer your question.

EPQs: why give a presentation?

What are the guidelines for the presentation?

Become an OU student

Ratings & comments, share this free course, copyright information, publication details.

Originally published: Friday, 3 March 2023
Body text - Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 : The Open University
Image 'Graph of the EPQ cycle' - Copyright: Ann Grand
Image 'Comparison of four search terms used in Google in the UK from Jan to May 2021.' - Copyright: Ann Grand
Image 'Robert, a space scientist.' - Copyright: Robert from AstrobiologyOU
Image 'Sketch of Blaise Pascal' - Copyright: Wikimedia Commons
Image 'Photo of Claire' - Copyright: Claire Batty
Image 'Claire's mind map' - Copyright: Claire Batty
Image 'Screenshot from the UpGoer project' - Copyright: XKCD
Image 'Responses to feedback ' - Copyright: creazilla.com Public Domain boy crying angry woman happy man
Image 'Photo of Michael' - Copyright: Michael Macey
Image 'All my own work' - The Open University under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
Image 'EPQs: why give a presentation?' - Alphabet Yellow © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
Image 'EPQs: finding and using evidence' - Alphabet Yellow © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
Image 'EPQs: designing your research question' - © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

Rate and Review

Rate this article, review this article.

Log into OpenLearn to leave reviews and join in the conversation.

Article reviews

For further information, take a look at our frequently asked questions which may give you the support you need.

How long is a PhD dissertation? [Data by field]

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.

How many pages should a PhD dissertation be?

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:

How Long is a Masters Thesis? [Your writing guide]
How long is a Thesis or dissertation? [the data]

Can a PhD dissertation be too long?

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.

How short can PhD dissertation be?

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.

Why PhD dissertations are typically so long

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.

Many years of work

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.

In depth literature review

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.

Figures and schematics

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.

References and citations

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

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.

PhD by publication

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:

More early career peer-reviewed journals for career advancement
an easier review process – they have already been peer-reviewed
an early focus on publishing means better research outcomes for the researcher, supervisor, and Department.
No mad rush at the end to finish a thesis
continually writing peer-reviewed papers throughout your PhD helps with timely analysis and communication of results

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.

Wrapping up

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.

Thank you for visiting Academia Insider.

We are here to help you navigate Academia as painlessly as possible. We are supported by our readers and by visiting you are helping us earn a small amount through ads and affiliate revenue - Thank you!

Cookies & Privacy
GETTING STARTED
Introduction
FUNDAMENTALS

Getting to the main article

Choosing your route

Setting research questions/ hypotheses

Assessment point

Building the theoretical case

Setting your research strategy

Data collection

Data analysis

CONSIDERATION ONE

Word count issues.

Most students run out of words when writing up. At the start of the process, especially if you're an undergraduate doing a dissertation for the first time, 10,000, 12,000, or 15,000 words (and up) sound like a lot, but they soon get eaten up. Worst still, they get eaten up in the wrong places, so you have a lop-sided dissertation, with some chapters receiving more focus than they should, whilst others are relatively neglected. Your dissertation guidelines might provide some instructions or recommendations on word count per chapter, but this is not always the case. Since you're likely to run out of words at some point during the writing up process, we'd recommend the following:

Always leave extra words for your Results chapter. This chapter can be concisely written, especially when you know how to summarize data well and make good use of Appendices . However, more often than not, too much is included and it becomes excessively large. The problem is that you can suddenly find the Results chapter becoming 1,000 to 2,000 words too long (sometimes more), and it's very hard to either shorten the chapter or reduce the word count in other chapters. Leaving a little extra in terms of word count for this chapter is advisable, but when it comes down to it, knowing how to write up the Results chapter properly is important and will help you get this right first time.

Don't waste words on peripheral sections within chapters. Every chapter has a number of sections that are useful, and often have to be included to some extent, but (a) can eat into your word count and (b) won't give you lots of extra marks by themselves. Obvious examples include the Chapter Summaries section within the Introduction chapter, as well as necessary components such as Acknowledgements . In the case of Acknowledgements , this is sometimes even included in your word count, despite having no influence on the mark you are awarded, even though you would be expected to include it.

Don't waste words (a) waffling or (b) going off-point in your Literature Review , Research Strategy and Results chapters. Now there is a difference between waffling and going off-point:

Going off-point When writing a dissertation as a student, as opposed to a conference paper or journal as an academic, you have to provide a lot more explanation of possible choices you could have made, rather than simply justifying the choices you made. For example, in the Research Strategy chapter, you'll often be expected to explain the differences between research designs, research methods or sampling strategies that could have been used. This is sometimes the result of a marker needing to know that you have read up about the available options and can demonstrate this by briefly summarising these different components of research strategy. This is what we mean by going off-point , and it can be a real word hog, eating into your available word count. You need to try and avoid this by keeping these sections short, but also focusing on justifications (i.e., why you are using one research method or sampling strategy over another), which when written well, demonstrate your understanding of different components of research strategy, without having to waste words explaining each component in turn.

Waffling Ignoring waffling that comes from laziness - we know this happens! - waffling is often a problem of the Literature Review and Results chapters. Waffling is simply similar to dumping everything you know on the page, which can happen when (a) you don't know the material very well or (b) you're struggling to gauge which content is important and which can be left out, something that is a real challenge for the first-time dissertation student. As a result, you add too much content. This happens a lot in the Literature Review chapter because it is hard to be selective and critical, and in the Results chapter when you don't know (a) what analysis should be included, (b) what can be omitted entirely, and (c) what can be removed and put into the Appendix . In these chapters within the Route #1: Chapter-by-Chapter section of Lærd Dissertation, we help you to avoid this kind of waffling, which not only saves words, but makes your argument much more coherent.

Finally, there can be an obsession with word count when doing marked work. You're doing an essay of 1,500 words or 3,000 words, and you try to use every single word available. This can make sense when you have a small word count and lots of worthwhile things to say in such a small space. However, when taking on a much larger document (i.e., 10,000 words or more), it is not only important what is being said, but also what you leave out. Rather than thinking too hard about word count, focus on making sure that everything being said is worthwhile. All chapters, but especially your Literature Review and Results chapter can lose a lot of quality simply because of three or four unnecessary paragraphs that disrupt the flow and logic of your arguments and results. Despite the added word count of dissertations compared with essays, less can be more.

English and Comparative Literary Studies

Please remember the following when submitting your dissertation:

The dissertation should be 9000 words: the word count does not include footnotes, bibliography or appendices.

The usual rules apply about wordcount as per all other essays - tutors will allow a discretionary 10% short-fall or extension of the word-length. However, a tutor will stop reading an essay once the 10% extension has been reached. However, please note that the penalties detailed below will be made in the following circumstances:

- 5 marks will be deducted for an essay 10-15% over/under the required wordcount

- 10 marks will be deducted for an essay 15-50% over/under the required wordcount

- 20 marks will be deducted for an essay more than 50% over/under the required wordcount

You must include a short (250 word) abstract of your dissertation: this is not included in the word count.
Please remember to include: a title page; an abstract; a contents page; a bibliography.
You may include books in your bibliography that you do not cite in your dissertation, but that have been formative in your thinking.
You should ideally follow MLA style when formatting your dissertation, but include a bibliography - click here for a brief guide .
Your dissertation should be submitted via Tabula, just like other UG essays. NO hard copy is required.
If you wish, you wish to preserve your dissertation in hard copy form and this may be useful, in particular, for any student who thinks they may apply for Masters or Doctoral study in the future as a prospective supervisor or admissions officer may ask to see it. It is also possible that, particularly in the case of students who are discussing visual texts in their dissertation, markers may ask to see a hard copy if one is available. Should you wish to preserve a hard copy, it should be bound in some way - either spiral bound or soft covered. Commercial services are available to do this or the University binding service at Warwick Print (on the Westwood campus) will do this for you for a small fee.

Library Services

Q. What is included in the word count?

25 Assignment support
5 Book allocation
11 Databases
8 Directional
18 Eresources
24 Library services
15 My library account
3 Partner courses
14 Procedures
62 Referencing
40 Research support
17 Search strategy
1 Study spaces
2 Systematic review
3 Walk in access

Need more help?

Answered by: ros sykes last updated: dec 13, 2023 views: 13962.

The word count usually includes everything in the main body of the text including citations, quotations and tables. Everything before the main text (e.g. abstract, acknowledgements, contents, executive summaries) and everything after the main text (e.g. references, bibliographies, appendices) are not included in the word count limit.

There are exceptions to this, but if there is an exception it should be explained in your assessment brief. For more information see the University Assessment Policy .

Share on Facebook

Was this helpful? Yes 12 No 3

Comments (1)

ah...well...that's 772 words off my word count...I may need to request an extension to my project submission date. by Abdullah Qadri on May 02, 2024

Award winning services from an outstanding team

LIBRARY SERVICES AND CORONAVIRUS : we're offering support and extra online resources during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Study at Cambridge

About the university, research at cambridge.

Undergraduate courses
Events and open days
Fees and finance
Postgraduate courses
How to apply
Postgraduate events
Fees and funding
International students
Continuing education
Executive and professional education
Courses in education
How the University and Colleges work
Term dates and calendars
Visiting the University
Annual reports
Equality and diversity
A global university
Public engagement
Give to Cambridge
For Cambridge students
For our researchers
Business and enterprise
Colleges & departments
Email & phone search
Museums & collections
Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught
Postgraduate examinations
Writing, submitting and examination
PhD, EdD, MSc, MLitt
Cambridge students
New students overview
Pre-arrival courses
Student registration overview
Information for New Students
Information for Continuing Students
Frequently Asked Questions overview
Who needs to register
When to register
Received registration in error/not received registration email
Problems creating an account
Problems logging in
Problems with screen display
Personal details changed/incorrectly displayed
Course details changed/incorrectly displayed
Accessing email and other services
Miscellaneous questions
Contact Form
First few weeks
Manage your student information overview
Student record overview
Camsis overview
Extended Self-Service (ESS)
Logging into CamSIS
What CamSIS can do for you
Personal information overview
Changing your name
Changing Colleges
Residing outside the University's precincts
Applying for person(s) to join you in Cambridge
Postgraduate students overview
Code of Practice for Master's students
Code of Practice for Research Students
Postgraduate student information
Requirements for research degrees
Terms of study
Your progress
Rules and legal compliance overview
Freedom of speech
Public gatherings
Disclosure and barring service overview
Cambridge life overview
Student unions
Extra-curricular activities overview
Registering societies
Military, air, and sea training
Food and accommodation
Transport overview
Bicycles and boats
Your course overview
Undergraduate study
Postgraduate study overview
Changes to your student status (postgraduates only) overview
Applying for a change in your student status (postgraduates only)
Changing your mode of study
Withdrawing from the University
Allowance/exemption of research terms
Withdrawal from Study
Reinstatement
Changing your course registration
Changing your department/faculty
Changing your supervisor
Exemption from the University composition fee
Confirmation of Study: Academic Verification Letters
Extending your submission date
Medical intermission (postgraduates)
Non-medical intermission (postgraduates)
Returning from medical intermission
Working away
Working while you study
Postgraduate by Research Exam Information
Research passports
Engagement and feedback
Student elections
Graduation and what next? overview
Degree Ceremonies overview
The ceremony
Academical dress
Photography
Degree ceremony dates
Eligibility
The Cambridge MA overview
Degrees Under Statute B II 2
Degree certificates and transcripts overview
Academic Transcripts
Degree Certificates
After Graduation
Verification of Cambridge degrees
After your examination
Exams overview
Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught overview
All students timetable
Undergraduate exam information overview
Postgraduate examinations overview
Examination access arrangements overview
Research programmes
Taught programmes
Writing, submitting and examination overview
PhD, EdD, MSc, MLitt overview
Research Best Practice
Preparing to submit your thesis
Submitting your thesis
Word limits
The oral examination (viva)
After the viva (oral examination)
After the examination overview
Degree approval and conferment overview
Final thesis submission
Examination allowances for certain Postgraduate degrees (except PhD, MSc, MLitt and MPhil by thesis degrees)
Requesting a review of the results of an examination (postgraduate qualifications)
Higher degrees overview
Higher doctorates
Bachelor of divinity
PhD under Special Regulations
Faith-provision in University exams
Publication of Results
Exam Support
Postgraduate by Research
EAMC overview
Annual Reports of the EAMC
Dates of meetings
Frequently asked questions
Guidance notes and application forms
Resources overview
Build your skills overview
Research students
Fees and financial assistance overview
Financial assistance overview
General eligibility principles and guidance
Cambridge Bursary Scheme funding overview
What you could get
Scottish students
EU students
Clinical medics and vets
Independent students
Extra scholarships and awards
Undergraduate Financial Assistance Fund
Postgraduate Financial Assistance Fund
Realise Financial Assistance Fund
The Crane Fund
Loan Fund I
External Support
Support from your Funding Sponsor
Guidance for Academic Supervisors and College Tutors
Fees overview
Funding overview
Mosley, Worts, and Frere Travel Funds
Support for UKRI Studentship Holders
Student loans overview
US loans overview
Application procedure
Entrance and Exit Counselling
Cost of attendance
What type of loan and how much you can borrow
Interest rates for federal student loans
Proof of funding for visa purposes
Disbursement
Satisfactory academic progress policy
In-School Deferment Forms
Leave of absence
Withdrawing and return to Title IV policy
Rights and Responsibilities as a Borrower
Managing Repayment
Consumer information
Submitting a thesis — information for PhD students
Private loans
Veteran affairs benefits
Frequently Asked Questions
Student support

Word limits and requirements of your Degree Committee

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.

Extending the Word 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.

Requirements of the Degree Committees

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.

Biological Anthropology:

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.

Architecture:

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.

History of Art:

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.

Earth Sciences:

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.

Criminology:

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.

Institute of Astronomy, Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, Department of Physics:

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.

Department of Chemistry:

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

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.

Contact the University
Accessibility
Freedom of information
Privacy policy and cookies
Statement on Modern Slavery
Terms and conditions
University A-Z
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Research news
About research at Cambridge
Spotlight on...

Ask Us: Academic Skills Team

What is included in the word count, before you start to write up your assignment you should check the information provided in your module handbook or assignment brief on the required word count, or ask your tutor for guidance..

Generally speaking, the word count will include the following:

All titles or headings that form part of the actual text.
All words that form the essay (the main body of text).
All words forming the titles for figures, tables and boxes, are included but this does not include boxes or tables or figures themselves
All in-text (that is bracketed) citations
All directly quoted material

It will not include:

All words that form the title page
All words that form the reference list
Captions added to visual material (i.e. diagrams, tables, maps, and/or images)

Academic Writing
My assignment
Last Updated 12 Apr, 2024
Views 29088
Answered By Academic Skills team

FAQ Actions

Share on Facebook

Comments (0)

Need more help?

Your Information

Your Question/Comment

Please enter your question or comment below. If you have a question or are reporting a problem please give us as much detail as possible.

Wed. Jun 26th, 2024

Dissertation Center

A General Guide to PhD Dissertation Word Count And Structure

5 tools that are most useful in phd dissertation, leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

What Are Elements of a Good Thesis Statement for a Research Paper?

How students can adopt the best research methodology for phd thesis writing, a review on “research proposal: academic writing guide for graduate students”, how education can bring social change in community.

Recommended pages

Lecture timetables
Campus maps
Student digital services
Staff Digital Services
Student support
Online registration
Core systems
Car parking
Room bookings
Staff development

What is excluded from the word count?

Question Answered
Rate this answer
College of Arts and Law
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
College of Life and Environmental Sciences
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
College of Social Sciences

Professional Services

Academic Services
Campus Services
Development and Alumni Relations
Executive Support
External Relations
Human Resources
IT Services
Legal Services
Research Strategy and Services

Are chapter titles & section headings included in the word count?

Hi, My university says that the word count for my thesis should exclude footnotes, tables, figures, maps, bibliography, appendices, etc. This means the word count should include only the main content of my thesis, i.e. from the first word of my introduction to the last word of my conclusion. However, I am uncertain whether the chapter titles and section headings in my thesis should be included in the word count. For example, if a section in my thesis, like "(2.1) The Cults of Ancient Egypt", is 6 words in length, and the content of this section is 2000 words in length, should the word count for this section be 2006 words or just 2000 words? Another example: if all the chapter tiles and section headings in my thesis amount to 400 words, and the contents of all these chapters amount to 99,700 words, should the word count for my thesis be 101,000 words (which means I exceed the maximum length) or just 99,700 words (which means I am still safe)? Thank you very much in advance for your reply.

======= Date Modified 25 Jan 2012 13:02:50 ======= For ease of counting I would include them. To be honest if your headings total 400 words and they are pushing you over the word limit, and you cannot find a way of culling 400 words from the rest of your thesis, you need help editing. Show it to someone else - it's always easier for a fresh pair of eyes to spot opportunities to reduce a word count.

They are included as far as I am concerned. I actually lost track of my word count right at the end as I was cutting and pasting and deleted a lot just before submission. However the examiners (in my uni anyhow) are only given a hardcopy version and I don't think that either of them actually counted the words. It looked about right and I think it was about right. I would imagine word counts, to the extent that you are talking about, only come into play if it 'looks' seriously short or seriously long.

Thank you for your replies. I actually am happy to include them.

Post your reply

Postgraduate Forum

Masters Degrees

PhD Opportunities

PostgraduateForum Is a trading name of FindAUniversity Ltd FindAUniversity Ltd, 77 Sidney St, Sheffield, S1 4RG, UK. Tel +44 (0) 114 268 4940 Fax: +44 (0) 114 268 5766

Welcome to the world's leading Postgraduate Forum

An active and supportive community.

Support and advice from your peers.

Your postgraduate questions answered.

Use your experience to help others.

Sign Up to Postgraduate Forum

Enter your email address below to get started with your forum account

Login to your account

Enter your username below to login to your account

Reset password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password

An email has been sent to your email account along with instructions on how to reset your password. If you do not recieve your email, or have any futher problems accessing your account, then please contact our customer support.

or continue as guest

Postgrad Forum uses cookies to create a better experience for you

To ensure all features on our website work properly, your computer, tablet or mobile needs to accept cookies. Our cookies don’t store your personal information, but provide us with anonymous information about use of the website and help us recognise you so we can offer you services more relevant to you. For more information please read our privacy policy

This discussion is now closed.

Is my Biology EPQ too general?
15,000 words MSc dissertation
forgot to reference an image/ chart
Do you find larger or smaller essays more challenging?
3 Weeks to write my diss, any pointers?
How long did your dissertation take you to do?
workload for sociology year 2 at Manchester Metropolitian University/Uni of Salford ?
Can I resit my Dissertation?
Can i resit my dissertation?
Oxford Master Grading and Progression
How to find the citations?
Dissertation
Dissertation issues - consequences of not submitting it?
Biomedical Sciences Dissertation Examples?
Worried about being under word count.
Please help me. Essays.
Can I finish my dissertation in 3 weeks?
Capped Late Submissions
Applying for a PhD with a high Masters grade but low Bachelor's grade
how many words should I write for my dissertation draft?

I'm well below the word count for my dissertation

Related discussions.

Last reply 53 minutes ago

Last reply 1 hour ago

Last reply 1 day ago

Last reply 2 days ago

Last reply 3 days ago

Last reply 4 days ago

Last reply 5 days ago

Last reply 1 week ago

Last reply 2 weeks ago

Last reply 3 weeks ago

Articles for you

How to write an excellent personal statement in 10 steps

Will artificial intelligence put legal graduates out of work?

Why industry placements are so important for business students

You don’t need to take a law conversion course for the SQE… but here’s why you should

IMAGES

Dissertation Word Count Breakdown
Know the Numbers of Pages vs. Research in PhD
Dissertation Word Count Breakdown Structure With Calculator
A General Guide to PhD Dissertation Word Count And Structure
12000 Word Dissertation Breakdown for New Students
How To Put A Word Count In An Essay

VIDEO

Does APA word count include abstract?
AWR001 Academic Writing Part 1 A
Some interesting task in MS word 2010
AWR001 Academic Writing Part 1 B
DON'T WRITE YOUR DISSERTATION! [before doing this]
Does Pages word count include footnotes?

COMMENTS

Dissertation Format Regulations
The main body of the Dissertation must not exceed the word limit. Does Count toward word count. The word count covers everything within the main text of the Dissertation, including: the abstract and contents page; lists of tables and illustrative material; any tables, diagrams, subtitles, footnotes and references which are included within the ...
PDF Dissertation Submission Frequently Asked Questions
tables/diagrams are included in the overall word count Abstract 200 word maximum abstract, not counted towards total word count 5 keywords maximum Appendices If appendices are used, they should not be excessive, and should not be 'essential reading'. Electronic Submission Submitted to your Dissertation Learn page. What to Submit
Formatting Your Dissertation
The words "Dissertation Advisor:" followed by the advisor's name, left-justified (a maximum of two advisors is allowed) ... The Abstract should be double spaced and include the page title "Abstract," as well as the page number "iii." There is no maximum word count for the abstract. Pagination . The front matter should be numbered ...
Thesis word count and format
It is desirable to leave 2.5cm margins at the top and bottom of the page. The best position for the page number is at the top right 1.3cm below the top edge. The fonts of Arial or Times New Roman should be used throughout the main body of the thesis, in the size of no less than 12 and no greater than 14.
Dissertation Structure & Layout 101 (+ Examples)
Time to recap…. And there you have it - the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows: Title page. Acknowledgments page. Abstract (or executive summary) Table of contents, list of figures and tables.
How long is a dissertation?
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 ...
What Is a Dissertation?
A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. It is usually submitted as the final step in order to finish a PhD program. Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you've ever completed. It requires solid research, writing, and analysis skills, and it can be intimidating ...
What Is a Dissertation?
Revised on 5 May 2022. A dissertation is a large research project undertaken at the end of a degree. It involves in-depth consideration of a problem or question chosen by the student. It is usually the largest (and final) piece of written work produced during a degree. The length and structure of a dissertation vary widely depending on the ...
Researching and Writing a Masters Dissertation
It can be helpful to think of your Masters dissertation as a series of closely interlinked essays, rather than one overwhelming paper. The size of this section will depend on the overall word count for your dissertation. However, to give you a rough idea for a 15,000-word dissertation, the discussion part will generally be about 12,000 words long.
EPQs: writing up your dissertation
Table 4 Structuring the dissertation by word count; Word count; Abstract (summary) 150: Introduction: 650: Research review: 1500: Discussion / development / analysis: 2300: Conclusion: 400: Bibliography (reference list)- ... The last thing to include in your dissertation is the bibliography or reference list *.
How long is a PhD dissertation? [Data by field]
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.
PDF Research Dissertation Guidelines
Your title page should include a total word-count value for the main body of the dissertation (i.e. not including legends, tables, appendices and references). In your writing, try to be concise while explaining your thoughts clearly: quality is more important than quantity. A target of 10,000 words should allow you plenty of
Consideration 1: Word count issues in your dissertation write-up
Word count issues. Most students run out of words when writing up. At the start of the process, especially if you're an undergraduate doing a dissertation for the first time, 10,000, 12,000, or 15,000 words (and up) sound like a lot, but they soon get eaten up. Worst still, they get eaten up in the wrong places, so you have a lop-sided ...
Submission
Submission. Please remember the following when submitting your dissertation: The dissertation should be 9000 words: the word count does not include footnotes, bibliography or appendices. The usual rules apply about wordcount as per all other essays - tutors will allow a discretionary 10% short-fall or extension of the word-length.
What is included in the word count?
The word count usually includes everything in the main body of the text including citations, quotations and tables. Everything before the main text (e.g. abstract, acknowledgements, contents, executive summaries) and everything after the main text (e.g. references, bibliographies, appendices) are not included in the word count limit. There are ...
Word limits and requirements of your Degree Committee
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.
What is included in the word count?
Generally speaking, the word count will include the following: All titles or headings that form part of the actual text. All words that form the essay (the main body of text). All words forming the titles for figures, tables and boxes, are included but this does not include boxes or tables or figures themselves.
A General Guide to PhD Dissertation Word Count And Structure
Most of the students don't know how many words are included in the different chapters of the dissertation. Here, we will provide a general guide about the PhD dissertation word count and structure. 1) Preliminary pages. In the structure of the PhD dissertation, first of all, there come preliminary pages. These preliminary pages include ...
What is excluded from the word count?
What is excluded from the word count? Home > Student Administration > Thesis Submission and Examination > Word count. Tables, diagrams (including associated legends), appendices, references, footnotes and endnotes, the bibliography and any bound published material are excluded from the word count.
Are chapter titles & section headings included in the word count?
For ease of counting I would include them. To be honest if your headings total 400 words and they are pushing you over the word limit, and you cannot find a way of culling 400 words from the rest of your thesis, you need help editing. Show it to someone else - it's always easier for a fresh pair of eyes to spot opportunities to reduce a word count.
I'm well below the word count for my dissertation
17. My dissertation is due tomorrow afternoon and on a total word count of 4,900 (which includes words from the the reference, first few pages etc). My word limit is 6,000 and I'm obviously no where near there. This main reason for this is that my project had to end abruptly due to insufficient time and so I don't have a lot of results.
Does Dissertation Word Count Include References
This document discusses whether dissertation word counts include references. It notes that dissertation word counts typically do include references, as they are an integral part of academic writing. However, institutions may have varying guidelines on what is included in the word count. It's important to adhere to the specific guidelines of one's institution to avoid issues. The document ...

Dissertation Format Regulations

1. Number of copies

2. Indicative length

Does Count toward word count

Does not Count toward word count

Words presented as images

Appendix Abuse

3. Text and Layout

Line Spacing

4. Pagination

5. Title Page

6. Table of Contents

7. Acknowledgements

Language of the Dissertation

Front and Back Matter

Fonts and Point Size

Recommended Fonts

Instructions for Embedding Fonts

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2010:

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2007:

Using Microsoft Word on a Mac:

Use of Third-Party Content

Fair Use and Copyright

CONTACT INFO

Thesis word count and format

Page layout

Illustrations (Graphs, diagrams, plates, computer printout etc.)

Word counts

What's excluded from the word count

Specific requirements

Dissertation Structure & Layout 101: How to structure your dissertation, thesis or research project.

*The Caveat *

Overview: S tructuring a dissertation or thesis

Acknowledgements

Abstract or executive summary

Need a helping hand?

Table of contents

Time to recap…

Psst... there’s more!

You Might Also Like:

36 Comments

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Have a language expert improve your writing

What Is a Dissertation? | Guide, Examples, & Template

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Table of contents

Don't submit your assignments before you do this

Dissertation examples

Theoretical framework

Checklist: Dissertation

Congratulations!

Is this article helpful?

More interesting articles

Get unlimited documents corrected

Have a language expert improve your writing

What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Table of contents

Why is the dissertation important?

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

How will your supervisor help you?

Empirical dissertations (sciences)

Non-empirical dissertations (arts and humanities)

Structure of an empirical dissertation

Other dissertation structures

How will you reference your sources?

Cite this Scribbr article

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

On this page

What’s the difference between a dissertation and a thesis?

Masters dissertation structure

How long is a Masters dissertation?

Introduction

Literature review

Research methodology

Results / findings

References / bibliography

How does supervision work for a Masters dissertation?

The Caveat