I'm starting to plan my dissertation for next year, and I'm getting wildly different answers to what seems like a simple question: how long is a dissertation? I've asked different professors, looked at university websites, and talked to older students, and I've heard everything from 10,000 words to 100,000 words. That's such a huge range that it's basically useless as a guideline.
My friend doing history says hers has to be around 15,000-20,000 words for her master's . Another friend in STEM says his PhD thesis will be around 80,000 words but could go up to 100,000 . Meanwhile, I found a guide that said undergraduate dissertations are usually between 4,000-10,000 words . How can the same word mean such different things?
I'm doing a taught master's in sociology, and I genuinely don't know what target I should be aiming for. My supervisor just says 'it needs to be substantial enough to explore your research question properly,' which is not helpful when I'm trying to plan chapters. I've read that as a rough rule of thumb, taught master's dissertations often fall between 10,000-30,000 words depending on the program and credit value . But that still feels vague.
Does anyone have a clearer sense of how long is a dissertation at different levels? Undergraduate vs. master's vs. PhD? And does it vary by country or by subject? I'm trying to plan my research and chapter structure, but I can't do that without a rough word target in mind. Also, does the word count include everything—abstract, footnotes, bibliography, appendices—or just the main text ? I'm so confused and would really appreciate hearing from people at different stages and in different fields.
My friend doing history says hers has to be around 15,000-20,000 words for her master's . Another friend in STEM says his PhD thesis will be around 80,000 words but could go up to 100,000 . Meanwhile, I found a guide that said undergraduate dissertations are usually between 4,000-10,000 words . How can the same word mean such different things?
I'm doing a taught master's in sociology, and I genuinely don't know what target I should be aiming for. My supervisor just says 'it needs to be substantial enough to explore your research question properly,' which is not helpful when I'm trying to plan chapters. I've read that as a rough rule of thumb, taught master's dissertations often fall between 10,000-30,000 words depending on the program and credit value . But that still feels vague.
Does anyone have a clearer sense of how long is a dissertation at different levels? Undergraduate vs. master's vs. PhD? And does it vary by country or by subject? I'm trying to plan my research and chapter structure, but I can't do that without a rough word target in mind. Also, does the word count include everything—abstract, footnotes, bibliography, appendices—or just the main text ? I'm so confused and would really appreciate hearing from people at different stages and in different fields.
