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08 Mar, 2025
It is a known fact that the length of your dissertation will depend on your degree, and the length will be different for each level, but when we talk about writing a dissertation for a PhD, you must prepare yourself to write the longest piece of writing in your career until now. Initially, a PhD was the only degree in which students were asked to write a dissertation or thesis, but nowadays, a dissertation is even given in a master’s. But do not worry; we will help you with complete information on how long a PhD dissertation must be according to most UK Universities.
Top Universities in UK ask their students to develop dissertations during their master's and doctoral studies. Academic programs in reputable learning institutions heavily depend on this paper, which is a vital component. This blog is helpful to all those PhD students who express concern about the length of this document because it represents a vital component of their educational journey.
Standard recommendations exist regarding the recommended length of dissertations. The length of your dissertation ought to depend on the topics you select for your project as well. In this blog, you will find detailed distribution of the total word count for each section, and as you might have no idea on how many words to use, we have mentioned the average of length of PhD dissertation, which you can use for your dissertation, only when there is no information provided by the University.
The length of a doctoral dissertation remains unspecified since different academic approaches exist. Most doctoral dissertations measure between 100 and 300 pages. Two different audiences will give separate page length recommendations for the dissertation, such as 146 pages and 90 pages. One person suggests the document should extend to 250 pages.
The documented length of this essential scholarly research depends on what the writer wants to achieve and their selected writing style, as well as the research topic. Even someone who knows how to write a dissertation cannot simply assume the word count of a dissertation all by themself. The length and structure of the dissertation depend on various things, including your subject, location, and university. For example, the University of Salford includes a title page, declaration, acknowledgements, abstract, table of contents, Lists of figures, tables and abbreviations, chapters, appendices and references.
We will not confuse you and will give you an answer to how long a PhD dissertation should take. According to the academic consensus of UK Universities, a PhD dissertation should maintain 80,000 words or less in total. The total word count includes appendices but does not include citations, bibliography and footnotes. A dissertation must have footnotes that occupy no more than 20% of the total document.
The inclusion of discursive footnotes is strongly prohibited to students. The content belonging to the main text cannot be inserted through footnotes, according to established PhD rules. This action would let students avoid exceeding the typical dissertation word limit.
Each statistical table in a dissertation falls within an approximately 150-word range. The Degree Committee has the power to approve requests from students to cross specified limits when special circumstances exist. Students need to submit their dissertation exception requests before the planned date of their submission. The Graduate Committee determines whether students should modify their average dissertation length through their evaluation of submitted applications.
Activity members assess the research proposal together with written testimony that verifies the dissertation's projected scope. A dissertation exceeding the average length will result in necessary revisions before it moves toward institution examiners. In case you are not able to get things done in the given words, we suggest that this is the best time to use a dissertation writing service.
Here is an average length which can be used in case your university has not provided you with any guidelines on how many words you have to use for your dissertation. Multiple elements influence the answer regarding the usual duration of a PhD dissertation. Students need to maintain their dissertation word count between 60,000 and 80,000 words.
The typical length for this document amounts to 200 to 240 pages. The average length of a PhD dissertation is influenced by both the university and the academic subject it deals with. You can ask the dissertation helper UK about the dissertation length of any particular UK university, and they can let you know what would be the best length according to the University where you are studying.
University institutes have the authority to determine the length requirements of a dissertation presentation. The common word count selection among institutions settles at 80,000 words. Research results indicate that STEM dissertations tend to have 170 to 200 pages as their average length. Non-STEM dissertations are typically around 220 pages in length, whereas STEM dissertations have a medium length of 170 pages.
The question about dissertation chapter length must be a common uncertainty you students have. Actual chapter lengths differ because each chapter contains distinct subsections with their specific information to present. Your written piece should have an appropriate length when you concisely provide essential details. You have to learn the dissertation word count breakdown structure, as every part of a doctoral dissertation has a particular length depending on the importance and the marking rubrics provided by the universities. Here is an estimate we have mentioned after communicating with the professional UK dissertation helpers.
| Chapters/Section | Word Count Distribution |
| Introduction | 10% |
| Literature Review | 15% to 20% |
| Methodology | 10% to 15% |
| Results | 10% to 20% |
| Discussion | 25% to 35% |
| Conclusion | 10% to 15% |
A dissertation introduction explains all essential reasons that demonstrate the significance of the selected topic. The discussion contains essential information related to the studied topic. The introduction should explain your selection of the subject matter plus its significance for readers. For the average introduction section, a dissertation should contain 10 to 15 pages. A length of 10 to 15 pages functions perfectly for this reason since it maintains a concise presentation of ideas. You can also consider that the introduction must be 5 to 10% of your total word count. You must establish curiosity in your audience before showing any comprehensive details. The dissertation introduction functions better as an enticing preview.
The next chapter is your literature review. This is an important section where you will have to write around 15 to 20% of the total word count. We are taking 80,000 to be our total word count, so in words, you will have to write around 12,000 to 16,000 words.
If you know how to write a systematic literature review, then you can skip to the next part but if not then understand that a literature review is the part where you have to go through various published articles related to your topic and discuss their findings and gaps in their research, which left some research questions unanswered. You must take more than 4 articles for this part and discuss their findings and research gaps.
Methodology is your next chapter/section, has a diversification of one to three steps and requires ten to fifteen pages in the final work. You need to give at least 10% to 15%. This part details the procedures which researchers applied for their investigation. The exact method, together with the data-selection methods, is defined specifically here. The methods of contacting participants who make up the analytical sample and how data were obtained should be included here. Details of the encountered obstacles should also find their place in the document.
A dissertation results section should remain within 10% of the total words. The section displays both the findings list and their proper explanation. The research findings support the hypotheses following their explicit explanation. The status of your hypotheses requires a description as either refuted or confirmed. In this section, you must summarize the entire investigative work that your research has involved. Learning how to write a dissertation results section will make things easy for you and get everything done with ease.
Here, you need to relate the result of your dissertation to the research question. You need to explain your result, you have to simply evaluate and elaborate on your research findings and discuss the importance of your findings. This is also an important section as here you will relate all your findings with the research question you have. Here, you need to invest around 25% to 30% of your total word count. This means in 80,000 words, you have to give around 24,000 to 30,000 words for this section.
The discussion section functions as the main conclusion of the document. The discussion section spans between 10% to 15% of the total word count. The researcher describes the implications of the investigation within this section. The research needs context from present times and an overview on the bigger scale. The existing evidence base needs to become more diverse about this particular subject. Include recommendations together with limitation statements in this part. You must learn how to write a dissertation conclusion as well.
What determines the specific duration requirement for dissertation length? A definite solution does not exist. Psychology, along with history and communication, in addition to nursing and management, have a maximum limit of 300 pages. Documents on Education and Environmental Health, along with Political Science, usually consist of content spanning approximately 100 pages. Research nature, together with the necessary data content, determines the acceptable length of the document, and according to that, you need to write around 10 to 15% of the total word count.
The length of the dissertation word count has found its answer, thus eliminating your inquiry about the matter. The length of your proposal must be a concern if you are reading this. The document does not require any specific length limitation. A dissertation proposal stands as a lengthy official document, although there is no set page count.
Academic institutions normally set the page limit at fifteen to twenty pages. If you know how to write a research proposal, you must also know the duration of a proposal depends on multiple elements, which include the investigation subjects and their rationale sourcing approaches and selected information methods.
The document specifies the work requirements within it. Your main objective with this text should be to demonstrate why your research question deserves examination by your faculty thesis committee.
Your curiosity may centre around determining what the appropriate length should be for the abstract section of your dissertation. Each document contains one abstract page appearing apart from the main document. An abstract summarizes the entire dissertation. The abstract summarizes the research objectives along with reporting the research results.
Viewers can comprehend what your document presents through reading its abstract. The author should finalize this segment after developing all other parts of the document. The abstract needs to include research goals and problem identification followed by approaches, essential findings, and conclusions.
The abstract of a dissertation needs to fall within the word count of 150 to 300 words. If you know how to write an abstract for a research paper, you can write one for a dissertation as well without any issue. Similar to the other main sections of a dissertation, authorities enforce word limits on abstract contents. Consult the journal or university where you are submitting your dissertation before determining the word limit.
In conclusion, your university will decide the word count you need to write in your dissertation. Every university gives you a complete overview of how your dissertation must be, this includes the research you do, the word count of your dissertation, and the sources you can go through to gain the information. But in case your university has given you complete freedom to write the dissertation, then you have this blog for everything.
As mentioned in this blog, a PhD Dissertation must be around 80,000 words, this is an ideal word count for a PhD dissertation. PhD dissertation is one of the longest pieces of writing. PhD dissertation needs to be written in a proper, detailed manner, as it is the highest level of degree, and one cannot simply include casual writing in this. Explaining each section and mentioning the word count for each section will help you get an understanding of how you can divide your word count.
Proofreading is the final step of your dissertation, where you go through your complete dissertation and check whether everything is accurate or not. You have to go through your university guidelines and your tutor’s instructions to make sure that you haven’t missed anything. Prepare a checklist and then check everything according to that; do this process at least 2 to 3 times to make sure everything is accurate.
If you think that your writing skills are not up to the mark, you can either seek a dissertation helper or you can spend a little extra time on your writing. In this extra time, you must first start with writing a draft of how you are going to write. Make as many drafts as you can to find that one perfect draft. You include everything in your draft: how many words to give to each section, what to write in that section, your sources, where you are going to take your information and all.
When writing a dissertation for PhD you have to make sure that you give enough time for it to be accurate. This isn’t something that you can complete in just a week, you will require at least 3 to 4 months to complete this dissertation. You must either decide the days on which you will do your dissertation or give at least 1-2 hours daily.
The biggest helping hand in your PhD dissertation is supposed to be your Tutor, your supervisor and even your seniors. They can help you at every step of your dissertation; wherever you get stuck, you can reach out and seek advice. For better convenience, write down all your issues on a paper and reach out to them to ask all of the issues at once.
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