I am nearing the end of writing up my doctoral thesis. I only have the discussion to write and the introduction and conclusion to tidy up. My word count is currently 55k. Even with going back and writing as much as I can in every chapter, I can't see it getting above 65K. I am a former copywriter and proof reader and I write in a succinct and direct way using as few words necessary in order to convey a point effectively. Surely I can't be expected to 'pad' or add waffle just to hit the 80k proscribed length?
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21What does your advisor say?– user438383Commented Oct 7, 2023 at 16:11
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7Who proscribed the length? I have never heard of any length requirements.– Anonymous PhysicistCommented Oct 7, 2023 at 16:20
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21"the 80k proscribed length" You mean prescribed. (Just pointing this out because you mention that are a former and therefore possibly also future copywriter and proof reader...)– Adam PřenosilCommented Oct 7, 2023 at 16:39
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2As everyone else has said, padding your writing is a terrible idea. However, you should have a literature review chapter. Is it as complete as you can make it? Also see Buffy's answer.– Bob BrownCommented Oct 7, 2023 at 20:39
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3@AdamPřenosil Unless it really is "proscribed" because 80k is far too long.– user128581Commented Oct 7, 2023 at 20:48
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4 Answers
A dissertation needs to establish some hypothesis (answer some question) and explain why it is or isn't true, giving the necessary arguments and dealing with counterarguments. If you can do that succinctly, but correctly, that should be enough. Not everyone will agree, of course.
Your advisor is the best guide here as are, potentially, other faculty members in your field. You may have to adhere to some arbitrary standard. But padding for the sake of quantity helps no one.
But, for a student, checking the boxes is often necessary. Talk to your advisor.
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6I'm not sure "A dissertation needs to establish some hypothesis and explain why it is or isn't true" is universally applicable in the social sciences.– user128581Commented Oct 7, 2023 at 20:48
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I concur with @DanielHatton ... A dissertation should establish some hypothesis and explanatory ... might be more like it for Humanities and Social Sciences. Although, some social sciences can be as IMRAD as they can be! Commented Oct 7, 2023 at 21:05
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1@DanielHatton, they may not use the same terminology as the social sciences, but I'd guess that in most cases there is a "question" to be addressed, with "evidence". Not so far away. A stretch for Humanities such as Literature, perhaps, but even then it would sometimes (maybe often) apply. I was just looking at the academic history of the crime/thriller author Robert B. Parker, for example. My daughter's philosophy dissertation certainly had a hypothesis. But the "evidence" is less likely to be statistical. But evidence is needed to advance scholarship.– BuffyCommented Oct 7, 2023 at 21:47
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2Social science research usually derives hypotheses from theory and tests these hypotheses using qualitative (e.g. interview material) or quantitative (e.g. survey data, official statistics) material applying common analysis methods, such as cluster analysis, correlation/regression analysis, etc. What often makes social science research "longer" is the extensive discussion of theoretical approaches used to derive a hypothesis and for example the description of data and operationalization.– LeonieCommented Oct 8, 2023 at 9:02
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1@DanielHatton, absolutely, but if it were a thesis based on grounded theory we would be talking about much more than 65k words.– LeonieCommented Oct 8, 2023 at 16:33
When I did my PhD (in philosophy) many years ago, my supervisor advised me to go close to the maximum permitted number of words. His reasoning was that this would make it easier to defend the thesis at the viva since a question on the lines of "Why didn't you include X?" could (if no other justification was available) always be answered by "I was already at the word limit".
As a slightly separate point, he also advised that a good thesis usually resulted from writing too much and then, after critically reviewing the draft, cutting out some relatively lower quality or less relevant sections to reduce the word count to the permitted level.
As others have already pointed out, there usually is no minimum word count for a dissertation. The length of your dissertation is defined by the question you ask and the way you answer it. If your work is based on qualitative rather than quantitative analysis, your dissertation will probably be longer in text, also because you'll have no or less figures and tables.
- What you should do is check with your supervisor(s).
Things you can do to ease your mind:
- Check other former PhD candidates dissertations from your department or even from the same supervisor - how much did they write?
- I would consider checking how many papers you would have needed if you had done a paper based (cumulative) dissertation and multiply this by 8k-10k which is a normal word count for social science papers. Then add around one paper length for introduction and analysis strategy, one paper length for theoretical framework and literature review, and one paper length for discussion and summary.
Remember that your dissertation needs to answer a question. Do your hypotheses capture all relevant aspects of the question? Is your question comprehensively answered? Also consider that language plays a role here, as in some languages there is one word for something which has to be described in many words in others.
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1I definitely agree with the first point, my supervisor specifically asked me to read over the dissertation of his recent graduates. He also strongly recommend that I try and publish a journal or good conference paper for each chapter along with the literature review - the argument was it's very hard for examiners to reject something that's based of peer reviewed publications. Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 3:02
The 80-100K words limit for a PhD thesis seems to be a conventional standard in the academia, because I received the same advice regarding word limit from my university that is located in another continent. From my personal experience, one can satisfy the word requirement with adequate and appropriate expansion of themes that are well critiqued and comprehensively articulated.
Have a second look at your work once more with a neutral and open mind to enable you locate which new themes to add and the ones to expand. A further critical look at the research topic, questions, objectives, hypothesis if any, and the theory underpinning the research will give you clues.
This task is impossible if you have already convinced yourself that there is nothing more you can do because you have done your best. Good luck to you.
