Most academicians say that a PhD dissertation length should not exceed 80, 000 words. Thus, your text should be near this length. This word count includes the appendices while excluding references, footnotes, and bibliography. The footnotes of a dissertation shouldn’t exceed 20% of the text.
Many factors should generally be considered when answering the question of how long is a PhD dissertation. However, students should limit their writing between 80,000 and 100,000 words. On average, this document should have around 204 pages. But, the average length of a PhD thesis also depends on the university and the specific subject.
How long is a dissertation? This is a question that you’re likely to ask if you’ve just enrolled for a doctoral program. But, this question is not new because other students have asked it too. Perhaps, the simplest answer to this question is that a dissertation should be sufficiently long to answer the stated question satisfactorily.
Students are discouraged from including discursive footnotes. What’s more, they should not use footnotes to include materials that should be in their main text. Doing so would circumvent the average length of the dissertation.
Average Dissertation Length
There is no single answer to the question of a doctoral dissertation length. But most dissertations are on average 100-200 pages long. Somebody can say it should be 146 pages while somebody else can say 90 pages. Another person can say it should be 200 pages. Essentially, the length of this important academic document should depend on the topic, writing style, and goals of the writer.
You’re no longer asking how long is a dissertation word count because this question has been answered. But, you probably want to know the length of its proposal. Well, there is no specific length for this document. However, it should be considered as a long, formal treatise.
The length of the dissertations is from 100 to 200 pages. On average the dissertation should be at least 80 000 words. However, this depends on the scope, expertise, and knowledge in the field of study. Longer dissertation papers have more words with a relatively higher number of pages.
A dissertation is a lengthy piece of written work that includes original research or expanded research on a new or existing topic. As the doctoral student, you get to choose what you want to explore and write about within your field of study.
Structurally, the two pieces of written analysis have many differences.
As a graduate student, you will have many different types of challenging coursework and assignments. However, the biggest project that you’ll work on when earning your master’s or doctoral degree will be your thesis or dissertation. The differences between a dissertation vs thesis are plenty. That’s because each of these pieces of writing happen at different times in one’s educational journey.
A thesis is also a scholarly piece of writing, but it is for those who are graduating from a master’s program. A thesis allows students to showcase their knowledge and expertise within the subject matter they have been studying.
What is a Thesis?
Let’s break down what a dissertation and thesis are so that you have a strong handle on what’s expected. For both a thesis and a dissertation, there is an obvious fluency and understanding of the subject one studies.
Each piece of writing is an opportunity for a student to demonstrate his or her ability to think critically, express their opinions in writing, and present their findings in front of their department.
Regardless of where and when you earn your master’s or doctoral degree, you will likely have to complete a thesis or dissertation. The main difference between a thesis and dissertation is the level at which you complete them. A thesis is for a master’s degree, and a dissertation is for a doctoral degree.
Just get something down on the page. It doesn’t have to be a well-written sentence to start with
Boring, we know, but it is crucial to have your outline with a detailed plan for each chapter ready before you start writing. Each thesis chapter requires a special approach. To write an introduction you will first need to read a bunch of papers. As you read, you can pull out all useful citations in one document which will give you a basis for your future ideas. Reference software such as Mendeley or Zotero can help you to stay on top of all references. For the ‘Results’ section, it is helpful to first organize all figures and tables in the order that tells the story of your PhD project. You can then proceed with writing the bulk part.
I would recommend writing first and editing later. Editing the finished piece (eg sub-chapter) is much easier because you can assess the overall flow and the clarity of the message. Once you come to editing, do it ruthlessly. Think about each word: does it convey the right message? I like the advice from Mark Twain: “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’
The amount of work can seem overwhelming, so it is important to concentrate on small steps. A goal of writing a page or even half a page will feel much less intimidating compared with a goal of creating the whole sub-chapter. Some supervisors recommend starting with the ‘Materials and methods’ section as it is the easiest chapter, and the first victory will motivate you for the rest of the journey.
5. Productive procrastination
If you find that you can’t convince yourself to start writing one day (this happened to me more often than I want to admit), try a Pomodoro technique. This is an easy time management method: you set a timer and work for 25 minutes, then you take a break for five minutes. You can use an app instead of an actual timer.
Establishing a writing routine can help you to stay motivated and on track. You can implement yoga, running, or meditation to re-set your mind before you start writing. You can try to read a poem or inspirational quotes, or even sing your favorite song. It can be anything that you enjoy and find motivating.
Finally, plan several nice breaks every day. You will need them. When I was writing at home, I found out that assembling a jigsaw puzzle for just five minutes could recharge my batteries.
Your time has come. You have finished your experiments and your PhD thesis outline is approved by your supervisor. You just need to sit down and communicate four years of your hard work. Just. I’ve heard many PhD students reminiscing about their days in the lab, preferring to do more experiments than writing their thesis.
Broadly speaking, a theory framework can be used to either derive certain testable assumptions or as a way of making sense of your data. In both cases, it structures your data collection by focusing your attention on a small subset of concepts.
Imagine you’re making a new model of mobile phone. You’d need to look at old models to see how other people are designing them (and so you know how yours will differ) and to see how they are made. You’ll need to look for their flaws, and get an idea of where they can be improved.
You can, therefore, think of it as a toolbox. In your literature review, you outlined the problem that needs ‘fixing’. The theory framework is a toolbox stuffed full of concepts, variables, or hypotheses (your tools) that you’ll then use to address the problem and do the fixing.
The literature review is the same. You use it to make the case for your research by surveying the work that’s already been done in your discipline (and sometimes beyond). It’s a bit like a family tree. You use it to trace the lineage of your study. Putting it in its place.
How to Structure a Literature Review
The theory framework is the scaffolding upon which your thesis is built. When you’re done writing your theory framework chapter or section, your reader should be able to answer these questions:
The tricky thing about writing a great PhD abstract is that you haven’t got much space to answer the six questions above. There are a few things to consider though that will help to elevate your writing and make your abstract as efficient as possible:
It can state the theoretical assumptions underpinning the study.
Above all, your PhD abstract should answer the question: ‘So what?’ In other words, what is the contribution of your thesis to the field?
The average Masters dissertation length is approximately 20,000 words whilst a thesis is 4 to 5 times this length at approximately 80,000 – 100,000.
For any PhD student writing a thesis, they will find that their document will be subject to a word limit set by their university. In nearly all cases, the limit only concerns the maximum number of words and doesn’t place any restrictions on the minimum word limit. The reason for this is that the student will be expected to write their thesis with the aim of clearly explaining their research, and so it is up to the student to determine what he deems appropriate.
The above universities set upper word limits that apply across the board, however, some universities, such as the University of Birmingham and the University of Sheffield, set different word limits for different departments. For example, the University of Sheffield adopts these limits:
In mid-2019, Dr Eva Lantsoght, a published author, academic blogger and Structural Engineering Professor, conducted a poll which asked postgraduate doctoral students to share the length of their final thesis. 149 PostDoc students responded to the survey, with the majority reporting a length falling within the ‘80,000 – 120,000 words’ bracket as seen below.
Can You Exceed the Word Count?
It’s no secret that one of the most challenging aspects of a PhD degree is the volume of work that goes into writing your thesis. So this raises the question, exactly how long is a thesis?
Over a three-year time period, Dr Ian Brailsford, a then Postgraduate Learning Adviser at the University of Auckland, analysed 1000 doctoral thesis submitted to his university’s library. The PhD theses which formed the basis of his analysis were produced between 2008 to 2017 and showed:
To find out more about how these word limits differ between universities, how the average word count from STEM thesis differ from non-STEM thesis and a more detailed breakdown from the analysis of over 1000 PhDs, carry on reading the below.
Unfortunately, there’s no one size fits all answer to this question. However, from the analysis of over 100 PhD theses, the average thesis length is between 80,000 and 100,000 words. A further analysis of 1000 PhD thesis shows the average number of pages to be 204. In reality, the actual word count for each PhD thesis will depend on the specific subject and the university it is being hosted by. This is because universities set their own word length requirements, with most found to be opting for around 100,000.
That’s because you can’t make something new if you don’t know what the old one looks like.
The tricky thing about writing a great PhD abstract is that you haven’t got much space to answer the six questions above. There are a few things to consider though that will help to elevate your writing and make your abstract as efficient as possible:
In what follows, I’ll talk you through the basic outline of a typical thesis. This mirrors and expands upon the PhD Writing Template I’ve created. If you haven’t already downloaded it, you can find it here .
I’ve read those books, proofread hundreds of PhDs and coached dozens of students and want to take what I know and run you through a basic introduction to structuring your PhD thesis .
How to Structure an Introduction
Broadly speaking, a theory framework can be used to either derive certain testable assumptions or as a way of making sense of your data. In both cases, it structures your data collection by focusing your attention on a small subset of concepts.
The reader should be able to understand the whole thesis just by reading the introduction. It should tell them all they need to know about:
But, you should do so critically, and question the suitability of any theories that exist or that you are creating to your particular study. That means that you should discuss previous applications of theory in order to discuss what implications they have for your own research.
Universities and supervisors often assume that PhD students know how to structure their PhD theses. But often this assumption is false, which can cause considerable headache and uncertainty. It can also waste a lot of time and money as you engage in a process of trial and error working out what goes where.