What would a typical thesis word count be & how many references?

hayser

I was curious as any thesis I have read or heard about seems to be 15000 - 20000 words. Would this be the standard amount? Also roughly how many references would a person typically put into their thesis? I understand this is an individual choice and varies depending on the topic but would like to have a ball park figure.

Improbable

hayser wrote: »

I was curious as any thesis I have read or heard about seems to be 15000 - 20000 words. Would this be the standard amount? Also roughly how many references would a person typically put into their thesis? I understand this is an individual choice and varies depending on the topic but would like to have a ball park figure.

I would imagine that it differs from degree to degree. Mine was 14,000 words and had more references than I care to remember. Probably around a hundred or so...

Victor

You will really need to check with your thesis supervisor on word count.

The word count is your words, not background notes or quotes.

I saw one thesis where the explanatory notes and references were longer than the main text!

Tar.Aldarion

Supervisor all the way, mine was 27000 words, 70 references.

djpbarry

Your institute probably has guidelines on what form the thesis should take. Both word count and number of references will vary substantially from degree to degree, discipline to discipline.

woodchuck

My PhD thesis was 81,253 words (excluding references and appendix) and I had 354 references… no wonder my supervisor nicknamed it ‘The Monster’ :rolleyes: I have seen some that are longer though and others that are a lot shorter. Generally a masters thesis will be a lot shorter than a PhD thesis. And mine was biology based, which I also think tend to be longer compared to say chemistry based ones.

But as already has been said, check with your supervisor/department/institute. There weren't any set guidelines for length where I was... there were actually instructions encase you needed 2 volumes :eek:

I wouldn’t worry about the references as much for now, you need as many as you need. If you end up with a ridiculous amount your supervisor may ask you to cull them at the last stages of corrections.