In a thesis/dissertation of 20,000 words limit, how can we justify the word count under 5 main headings?
In medical related topics its difficult to cope with the word count as there is not much to write about the body part involved or the treatment being used. I was not provided with any word limit per section, but what I found online was
Introduction & rationale = 1000 words
Literature review = 4000
Methodology = 3000
Data gathering and analysis = 9000
Discussion and conclusion = 3000
Isn't data gathering a part of methodology section and analysis a part of result section? My results analysis section has graphs and tables in it and 9000 words are too much to write even if all tables are discussed separately.
Which section can be used to increase word count from 17,000 to 20,000?
I think it depends on your field and the tradition of your institute. I also know that the section "literature Review" is very common in Anglo-Saxon countries. But we in Europe, or at least in the Netherlands, do not do it. It might even be a sign of weakness and is often called Schools= (high) schoolish.
But as a rule I always tell my students that they plan first how many words/pages they want to spend on each section and they are likely to come up with the double as much, at the end.
That's a difficult one and it depends on many factors of which Babak already mentioned some. Country, faculty, supervisor, topic, personal factors are just some of them. So an conrete answer to your problem would be rather impossible....
What I did in the past and what I still would do is just take some very good thesis/papers from your faculty/supervisor and see how it is in these papers. How did these authors structure their work?
Further, don't think about too much about word count in advance. Just go on writing and keep track of your words from time to time. To have a good scientific writing, a good language is the most difficult task IMHO, so don't cripple it by sticking too much to the word count. I'd say it is easier to cut down words than to add in the end of a paper work.
Good luck
@ Babak.....yes unfortunately in Asia we are asked to write literature review by Uni.
@ Ronny .... thank you for the advise :) i will look up for sections in previous researches. but as i said in medical related topics its a bit hard to keep on writing....it may not look good to write each and everything about the anatomy of the part when the aim of research is to test treatment methods. :(
I think you supervisor should be the one to comment on this... do you need to use up all 20 thousand words?
Just writing up my thesis and was wondering about that! Really good question there isn't any clear guideline in my school handbook!
To satisfy the formal school requirement is one of your goals. But you probably have another goal--to be known to researchers in your field. Write a MUCH SHORTER paper and try to publish it somewhere (a journal, a conferennce, etc.). It is easier to do now than later.
Ludwik Kowalski
http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html
I should add a penultimate section for best use of your remaining 3000 words.
It should showcase theinsight you have gained from the research, especially in relation to other closely-related work. I would give his section a meaningful rather than a generic title: crucial insight advanced by this research in relation to the received wisdom (or state of the art) of my field.
Best wishes
Peter Burton
Hi Hira, I agree with other comments that the distribution of words depends on the topic and on the prevailing culture within your subject area and institution. The word counts you quote seem reasonable but only if they suit your material and subject.
I would agree with you that the methods chapter can describe how you approached data collection and a description of your analytical approach and that the next chapter should describe the results. There are generally no hard and fast rules so don't get too hung up on word counts, so long as you are within the limit you will be compliant. Once you have mapped out chapter titles and paragraph headings and decided on tables for the results, the appropriate relative distribution of words will start to become clearer. The main consideration is the quality of the content.
I think word limit in introduction is less and in rest 3 it is too much.
I agree with all comments, it depends the topic, some areas need more review,specially if it's a new area, sometimes results can be more complex, specially if you run more than one technique. If your conclusion bring a new path into your area, maybe you need more words. It's kind of weird to me to count ideas by words...It's a little stressful to count words, and it seems some other can have the same sensation. But anyway... I think you did it great. Do references count in the word counting?, I wish you the best!!!!
Hira (and Stephanie) We agree with Helen, Ronny and Ludwik and tell our clients first to pull model thesis/dissertations from their university - especially those who were advised or mentored by one or more of the same professors as on their committee. Second, it will be useful to you to find award winners in your field - you mention a pretty standard five section format where (we agree with you) data collection and analysis are likely to be instead seen as results - with the collection side of things being in methodology. As for length of each I would answer these questions:
1) considering your reader - do you need to identify and explain your context in detail? If so then that will take more words than 1,000
2) review of literature may be one or two sections dependent on the field - for instance in some sciences the theoretical considerations will be in one section with the specifics of design, etc in another
As we consider award winners we see depth of discussion and analysis often teases out greater length than we would ever see in a publication - so I agree there with Ludwik that two versions now - one well considered from every angle and the other concise and to only the points you feel advance the field may be a tack to take.
Hope this is helpful,
Alana
Thank you for your question and all the answers. What an interesting insight into a different area! I'm a PhD student and my field is mathematics education. In Portugal, the length of thesis is "measured" in terms of pages (300-400 pages would be the expected). Since I research in social sciences, our methods may be different, but we consider data gathering and analysis in the Methods section. I would increase the number of words in the Literature review and in the Discussion and conclusion section.
Thank you all, for your valuable comments, advice & wishes.
@ Maurice & Alma .... yes i need to get 20,000 words as criteria for masters research. No reference and preliminary pages are not included in word count.
@ Peter, Helen. Michael, Alana........it was really helpful to understand how to distribute words without effecting the quality of work.
@ Stephaine & Helia......for PhD we have word limit of 80,000-90,000. i guess it makes as much pages as you have described........good luck both :)!
@ Dipika......there is usually a page limit or word limit for all writings ......what specific report writing are you talking about?
An article by Theunz Kotze, "Guidelines on writing a first quantitative academic article" gives an inclusive take on almost everything you need when writing a thesis/journal article. Based on his word count example, the data gathering and analysis is just about 3000-4500 words if the total is 20thou word document.
You can check it out at http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/40/753/writing_an_academic_journal_article.pdf
After the book "How to do Research", by Loraine Baxter, Chris Hughes & Malcolm Tight:
Intro: 10%
Bibliography revision: 20%
Research Design and Methodology: 10%
Research Implementation: 15%
Data Presentation and Analysis: 15%
Results Comments and Criticism: 20%
Final Briefing and Conclusions: 10%
References, Biblio and Appendixes: As fit.
I guess you are not supposed to reach the 20,000 word limit. During my PhD, I remember one professor who compared the maximum word limit in thesis to the maximum speed limit allowed on high ways. You can drive up to the maximum speed limit allowed and you can drive a bit low as well. One is not supposed to cross the word limit / speed limit. The average thesis length at master level fluctuate between 15000 - 20,000 words. Same is the case with research articles where different research journals ask for 3000 - 5000 words limit.In my opinion, this flexibility in word limit is important keeping in view the nature of research and different disciplines.
What I saw in UK while doing my PhD that the word limits of students was different from each other. On average, the practice was as
Master Thesis/dissertation = more than 10,000 up to 20,000 words but the average word length that was practices in most thesis was 15000-17000 words
M.Phil thesis - more than 30,000 words up to 50,000 word s and the average word length that was practiced was 40,000 - 45,000 words
PhD thesis = more than 50,000 words up to 100,000 words but the average word length that was practiced was between 85,000-90,000 words
@ Babak .....i am from Pakistan.
@ Sera. Basharat and Gerald.........thank you i got the point now..... My study is comparative in which 2 variables are compared between control group and intervention group. The statistical analysis is given in the form of graphs and tables with some description below them. I think instead of doing the mistake of repetition i should not now worry about word count.
Writing a thesis or a report in health sciences is an art. Therefore, it is not a number of words but is how to provide your results in a scientific way that is clear and with high quality (professional). It is a training for students. Therefore, What's important is your results and analysis as well as your comment (they have to take major part). Too much words for biomedical sciences, it does not mean anything but make you more unclear and unnecessary
"Methodology = 3000
Data gathering and analysis = 9000
Discussion and conclusion = 3000
Isn't data gathering a part of methodology section and analysis a part of result section?"
In the methods chapters you are supposed to document the generally known methods that you use, plus any specialised techniques that you develop.
In the data chapters, you are supposed to dump all the measurements you made. (I moved all my secondary data to my appendix -- thesis appendix!). In the same chapters you document the mechanistic processing of your data e.g. statistical tests. However in the Results chapter you include your intellectual analysis of your results: what the results mean to you.
The actual shape and size of your thesis should depend only what you find and the best way of saying it. Don't use word count averages: you are not a journalist or author paid per word.
Ian.....guess my university is following an old thesis writing guideline. the sections and the headings under each section are different from what described by you. thank you for help yes all what matters is the quality of study.
The figures you have given are mere guidelines. Obviously do not excessively exceed the figures given by the university. For our MA theses (Sociology of Sport n the UK) we have been told to take the figure of 20000 words for our research and calculate +/- 10%. However, a word count that is below 15000 might not impress your supervisors equally.
Universities may vary in their requirements, but my experience at supervising masters and doctoral students across 3 Universities, and marking a number of theses from others, is based on working with number of pages. Consider double line spacing at average of 300 words per page, first 20 pages will be for introduction, problem statement rationale (in other words conceptualisation of the study), the next 30-40 pages will be literature review and sometimes with conceptual framework, the next 20-30 pages will describe your methodology, depending on the volume of data and analysis, another 40 pages will be for data analysis and findings, the remaining 20 pages will be a discussion of the findings. This gives you about 40000 words in a 130 page document. This is the usual average for masters thesis, and usually double that for a doctoral thesis. Nevertheless, you do have thin volumes and thick volumes depending on the nature of the study, which do not necessarily follow this pattern.
Writing thesis or dissertation for Masters / PhD level there is no rule of thumb for distribution of words. It all depends on the nature of topic and type of research. Literature suggests the length of words from 20000 – 100000 depending upon the subjects (Sociology, Anthropology, Archaeology, Economics, Biochemistry, Zoology, Plant Science, History, Clinical Medicines, Linguistics, Education, Geography, Fine Arts, Philosophy, Health Sciences, Psychology, etc.). Words’ limit for different levels may be:
Subject Level Words’ Limit
Physiological studies
Health Sciences
Masters 25000
M. Phil /D. Phil / Ph. D 40000
Politics and Int’l Relations
Psychological studies
Social Sciences
Masters 50000
M. Phil /D. Phil / Ph. D 100000
The distribution of words may as follows but not restricted to:
Introduction & Rationale 5 – 10 %
Literature Review 15 – 20%
Methods 5%
Analysis 50%
Discussions 10 – 15%
Conclusions 5 – 10%
I know very little about medical writing and can only opine from the format above that other than the subject matter, it is much the same as any PhD work -
Try writing work that can be used in both the research and clinical aspects of the discipline. Write position and reflective papers, critique articles, gather and analyze data, respond to case studies, and work collaboratively on a project.
With the goal of providing high quality care, the healthcare industry places a premium on rigorous research as the foundation for evidence-based practices. Thus, students are expected to keep up with the most current research in their field and support the assertions they make in their work with evidence from the literature. Writers are also expected to critically analyze and evaluate studies and assess whether findings can be used in clinical practice (Beyea & Slattery, 2006).
If you spend time on all these areas, it would seem likely that 20,000 words would come fairly quickly. Although word count is important, it is the quality of the work that sells the paper.
Beyea, S. C., & Slattery, M. J. (2006). Evidence-based practice in nursing: A guide to successful implementation. Retrieved from http://www.hcmarketplace.com/supplemental/3737_browse.pdf
Dear Hira
What you found online are genral guidlines.Their is no one specific rule. Every case is different. At the end of the day, you are the best judge.
Dear Hira,
I think it's best to meet the page number requirement by expanding your literature review. That would also show that you have reached a level of saturation.
Dear Hira,
I agree with Ms.Donna you might expand on the literature review
It all depends on the problem of research and to some extent the branch of knowledge in which the research is being carried out. Even in some disciplines like mathematics, sometimes even this limit of words is also not applicable.
Thank you everyone......all of your suggestions helped me in completing required word count...........i have now completed the thesis and its ready for submission :) hope all goes well after submission...........Thank you once again :)
Dear Hira Ali
Hope you have done it well. I have just gone through a PhD dissertation which is around 150 pages long. Pages/word doesn't matter only quality matters.
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