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What is an abstract.
Abstracts are often used where a paper is entered into a journal database. The keywords that you choose for your abstract assist your paper to be identified using electronic information retrieval systems. Titles and abstracts are filed electronically, and key words are put in electronic storage. When people search for information, they enter key words related to the subject, and the database will pull up the titles of articles, papers, and reports containing those keywords.
An abstract concisely describes the content and scope of the piece of writing and reviews the contents in abbreviated form. The abstract is designed to give a ‘snapshot’ of your work. Like the synopsis that you will find on the back cover of a novel, it is a summary of the work designed to entice people to read the rest of the book. Some types of dissertation will call this the executive summary instead.
Please do bear in mind that different disciplines, and individual universities, will have their own specific conventions which you must follow. This guidance should only be used in conjunction with that of your specific course programme!
An abstract should contain a brief summary of each chapter of your work in the order of presentation. For an empirical dissertation, it would follow this:
For a literature-based dissertation, the parts between introduction and conclusion would summarise your thematic chapters instead.
The abstract should be the last part of the dissertation that you write (even though it is the very first thing you will see in a completed dissertation). Its usual length is between 200 and 350 words, and it should be written in the past tense since you write it once the piece of research is complete.
An abstract is either descriptive or informative: it does not require you to provide a detailed critique as you would in the main body of your writing. Its only role is to make the reader understand the gist of your project and entice them to read on by explaining why it matters.
These tell readers what information the dissertation contains, and include the purpose, methods, and scope of the report, article, or paper. This will not provide results, conclusions, or recommendations, and is usually shorter than an informative abstract – usually under 100 words. Its purpose is to merely introduce the subject to the reader, who must then read the dissertation to find out your results, conclusions, or recommendations.
These communicate specific information from the dissertation, including the purpose, methods, and scope of the report, article, or paper. They provide the dissertation results, conclusions, and recommendations. They are short but not as short as a descriptive abstract – usually, anything from a paragraph to a page or two, depending upon the length of the overall work. In any case, informative abstracts make up 10% or less of the word count of the overall piece. The informative abstract allows your reader to decide whether they want to read the dissertation.
There is a lot of information to cram in to an abstract and not a lot of words to play with. To get a feel for abstract writing, we recommend you focus on answering the following questions with only one short sentence:
Once you have answered these questions in a concise way, you have a starting point for your abstract!
It’s a good idea to make sure ‘key words’ which are highly relevant to your research are presented in your abstract too. This might be within the text itself, or you might list these separately at the end of the abstract; it all depends on what your university prefers.
Long story short: if your abstract describes your research, your main conclusions, and the value of the study, you’ve ticked all the key boxes.
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The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is an opportunity for you to work independently on a topic that really interests you or that you think is important. It is equivalent to an A-level qualification. These articles are designed to help you if you are enrolled on an EPQ.
See previous article in series: Finding and using evidence
Being able to communicate well is an essential skill for both university and working life. One of the aims of the EPQ is to help you develop your skills in using different communication tools, so you can communicate what you have found clearly and appropriately for different audiences.
Communication is also a vital part of the research cycle. The progress of research thrives on the exchange, review and discussion of ideas. Writing is one of the ways in which we communicate what we have found out and share it with others.
Sharing the results of your research by writing well and effectively gives your readers the opportunity to learn from the work you have done.
This article offers suggestions and support for developing your skills in writing in the academic style that is needed for your EPQ dissertation.
It’s worth considering a few practical points first. The start of writing is a good time to gather your material together and get yourself organised.
You don’t want to find yourself a few days – or hours – from the submission deadline when a computer breakdown or accident means you lose everything you’ve done.
It has happened before, and you don’t want it to happen to you!
Build a routine for backups into your work pattern. For example, when you sit down to write, save a copy (named, for example, Version 1, Version 2 ... Version 25 ...) of the existing document before you make any changes.
And back up your backup. Once a week, make a backup copy of your files (your dissertation, your notes and the resources you have collected) to an external hard drive, memory stick or cloud storage.
Work out how much time you have to write your dissertation, and how much time you want to allocate to each section. (There’ll be more on this shortly under ‘Structuring the dissertation – Start with the structure’.)
Make sure you know – and have written down! – the deadlines for submitting your dissertation, including deadlines for any draft versions your teacher might want to see. Use these to help plan your writing time.
There are many tools to choose from to keep yourself on track. For example, you could create a table with a list of tasks.
Week | Task | Done |
---|---|---|
1–2 | Write research review | ✔️ |
3–4 | Write discussion of results | |
5 | Write analysis of evidence | |
6 | Write conclusion | |
7 | Write introduction and abstract | |
8 | Create and check reference list | |
9 | Swap drafts with Sam for review Check my draft for spelling and grammar | |
10 | Review Sam’s comments and make final changes Submit draft to Dr Jones |
Or you could make a simple Gantt chart, using a spreadsheet. If you use Microsoft Excel, it has some Gantt chart templates. The advantage of a Gantt chart is that it makes it easier to see how you can overlap some tasks, and you can mark important milestones such as submission deadlines .
As you have gone through the process of collecting and analysing the evidence you need to answer your research question, you will have gathered records of:
All these sources contribute to the content of your written dissertation. Hopefully you have good records, but if you got a bit behind, now is the time to sort them out and remind yourself what you did and what you found out.
If you need a reminder of what information you need to keep, look back at Article 2 – Finding and using evidence .
Organising your records and keeping a note of the sources you mention in the text as you write helps you build a comprehensive reference list.
There is more information on how to set out your reference list later in this article (see ‘Structuring the dissertation – Referencing styles’ ).
Laying out your document in a clear and neat style helps make your readers’ life easier.
For the text , use a classic font such as Arial, Helvetica or Times New Roman. It’s best to avoid quirky fonts such as Comic Sans, or difficult to read fonts such as Lucida handwriting.
For easy reading, the font shouldn’t be too small. 11 or 12 point is a popular choice for the main (or body) text, which is usually black in colour. You can use larger fonts for headings and sub-headings, and perhaps make them bold or a different colour.
Generous margins also make the document easier to read. As a guide, around half the area of the page should be white space; on an A4 page, that means margins of about 2cm all round.
Use the paragraph styling tool . It’s well worth investing some time learning to use paragraph styling in Microsoft Word and Mac Pages ; it can really speed up the creation of long documents and help you produce good-looking work.
This tool gives you control over the appearance of the text in your document. For example, you can use it to include automatic numbering for your headings ( Word or Pages ). This means you don’t have to manually change all the numbering if you insert a new heading or delete one that is no longer useful. You can also use automatic numbering for figure and table captions. Or, if you decide you don’t like the font you have used, you can change it in the paragraph style and it will be changed throughout the document.
Some kinds of evidence – such as numeric data – work well when displayed as graphs, charts and tables.
Readers should be able to make sense of the graph, chart or table without explanation.
Look at Table 2. Is it clear what information the creator wanted to share?
SUA2 | core | salt precipitates (0-30cm) | muddy |
---|---|---|---|
nose (tip of corer) | salt precipitates (30-34) | muddy |
A better example can be seen below in Table 3:
Town or city | Total population in 2020 | Male | Female |
---|---|---|---|
London | 8,960,924 | 4,494,611 | 4,466,313 |
Birmingham | 1,159,888 | 575,432 | 584,456 |
Liverpool | 589,774 | 292,878 | 296,896 |
Bristol | 580,199 | 290,344 | 289,855 |
Manchester | 566,896 | 288,714 | 278,182 |
Sheffield | 557,039 | 278,024 | 279,015 |
Leeds | 516,298 | 255,099 | 261,199 |
Leicester | 415,584 | 208,466 | 207,118 |
Coventry | 388,793 | 197,892 | 190,901 |
Bradford | 358,573 | 177,748 | 180,825 |
Graphs and charts need titles too. They should also have axis titles (naming what is plotted on each axis, with the relevant units) and axis labels (the values plotted).
When it comes to plotting graphs, using different shapes or line styles can help readers distinguish different data points or collections of data on a single graph. You can use contrasting colours, but keep in mind that too many colours can be distracting for the reader. And some readers – for example, people who are colour-blind or have vision problems – might not be able to distinguish between certain colours, so choose carefully.
Look at Figure 3. Does it have all the elements of a good graph? Could anything be improved?
This has many of the requirements of a good graph. The title explains what the graph is about, the axes are labelled and the four search terms are each given their own colour, with a key to show which is which.
It could be made better by:
Evidently, something interesting must have happened in mid-February to cause this spike in searches – you might remember that on 18 February 2021, the NASA Mars Perseverance Rover mission landed on Mars!
Facing a blank page and the prospect of writing 5000 or so words can feel daunting. But you can structure the way you write to help make the task easier.
Starting with the structure will help you consider how you want the dissertation to flow, and how to allocate your time and effort.
This example, taken from the Edexcel documentation, gives a suggested word count for the different sections of a ‘research review’ dissertation. All the exam boards publish their requirements, so you should check the requirements for your board and the type of EPQ you are doing .
Word count | |
---|---|
Abstract (summary) | 150 |
Introduction | 650 |
Research review | 1500 |
Discussion / development / analysis | 2300 |
Conclusion | 400 |
Bibliography (reference list) | - |
A ‘research review’ dissertation would probably follow something like the structure above. For other kinds of project, check with your teacher or look at the exam board’s requirements. Knowing what structure the exam board is expecting helps you to know where to focus your effort.
In Table 4, you can see that the biggest section of the dissertation is the discussion/development/analysis of the argument, so it would make sense to spend the largest part of your writing time on this section. Look back at the Gantt chart under ‘Getting organised – Tables, graphs and charts’ for an example of time allocated in this way.
You’ve opened a new document. You know the sections you need to include.
How do you get started on the sentences that will fill the gaps in between? Two researchers offered suggestions from their experience.
Robert, a space scientist, says he usually works out the first paragraph in his head before sitting down to write.
This is how Charlotte described her approach. First step, open a Word document!
Second step, write titles and sub-headings on the page. These can be working titles that you can come back to and polish once you have developed the document. But getting that structure down on the page is a key step for Charlotte in building the document and working out how the manuscript is going to flow. Once she’s broken the document up into sections, it feels much less daunting for her. Instead of starting at word one of six thousand, she’s working on smaller, more manageable chunks – word one of a hundred, or two hundred.
Step three is to write down the aims, objectives and scope of the document. And then she goes on to write the conclusions. And she says yes, that’s not a typo – if you’ve done a good job of researching the topic, developing the aims and objectives and making your notes, then writing the conclusion first should be relatively easy. The benefit of writing the end of your manuscript before the beginning is that you’re less likely to go off on tangents when you’re writing the rest of the manuscript, because you know where you’re heading.
If you feel you’ve thoroughly researched your topic and you’re still finding it hard to work out what your conclusions are, then it may be a good idea to turn your research notes into a presentation, during which you can ask yourself ‘what key message do I want the audience to walk away with?’, and that will be your conclusion.
Step five: write the remaining sections of the dissertation, justifying and building your arguments for each conclusion.
Charlotte’s main points
Charlotte’s steps are:
Headings and sub-headings
Charlotte described how she likes to set up the headings and sub-headings that structure her writing, even though she knows they might change as the document develops.
Using descriptive headings, such as ‘The history of ...’ tells the reader what to expect in that section or chapter. This is sometimes called ‘signposting’, because the headings and sub-headings guide the reader around your work.
As well as descriptive headings, you can number your headings and sub-headings:
This means you can refer the reader back and forth (e.g. ‘see Section 1.2’), which cuts down repetition and wasted words.
Both approaches have the merit of getting something on to the blank page, which makes it look much less scary.
Whether you start with an opening paragraph, a set of headings, or another method that works for you, getting those first few words on the page is one of the biggest hurdles to clear.
Narrative – the story thread that runs through any piece of work we create – is important in any piece of writing. Stories keep people’s attention, as storytellers have known for hundreds of years. Writers, broadcasters and podcasters continue to make use of this fact today.
One way to think about how you shape your story is to consider its narrative arc. Yes, even the most ‘science-y’ of dissertations has a story.
Click on the crosses on Figure 6 to find out more about the components of the narrative arc.
Figure 6 The narrative arc
Points on the narrative arc
Description : A parabolic curve representing the narrative arc of a story. The first half of the curve rises to a peak, showing the points that build interest in the story. The second half falls back to the baseline, showing how we reflect on the details of the story and bring it to a close.
– In the Introduction , attract the reader’s attention at the start, perhaps by telling them what got you interested in the question; a personal interest, an ambition or a desire to know more about a topic.
– In the Introduction , describe the journey to your research question. Make sure you do actually tell your reader what your question is (you’d be surprised how often people forget that!)
Information
– In the Research Review section, you show the reader how you found your evidence; tell them about the keywords you used, the mindmaps, flowcharts, tables you made; what information was important and what was not; what stayed in and what didn’t.
– This is your analysis of the material you found, showing how you pulled together the information you uncovered in your review and what it meant for your question. However, this isn’t an absolute rule; where you put the analysis depends on the kind of dissertation you are writing.
– Tell the reader what you found out and how it relates to what is already known.
– Use the Conclusion to round off your story. What’s the answer to your research question? What did you discover? What’s still not known?
There are a couple of sections of the dissertation that are best dealt with towards the end of the writing process: abstract and bibliography.
The abstract
At the beginning of the dissertation, you should provide a short summary or abstract.
An abstract is like a trailer for a film or television programme. It gives the reader a sense of what’s in the dissertation. However, unlike a trailer, it’s OK to give away the ending! Someone who only reads the abstract, and never looks at the dissertation, should still understand the scope of your work.
For this reason, it’s easier to write the abstract towards the end of your writing time, when you have a complete picture of your work in your mind.
The abstract is usually quite short (perhaps only 200 words) and is written in one paragraph. That’s not much space, so what should you include?
A typical abstract would tell the reader:
One way to approach writing the abstract is to read through your dissertation section by section. For each section, write one or two sentences that summarise the main point. Click on ‘example’ to see what we mean.
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is growing rapidly among young people, but the usefulness and safety of some therapies is controversial. Therefore, I investigated the question: what are the best places to reach young people with information about CAM?
Using Google Scholar, I searched for articles using different combinations of these search terms: ‘alternative medicine’, ‘complementary medicine’, understanding, knowledge, motivation, CAM. I filtered the results to keep only articles that related to the use of CAM by young people. I defined ‘young’ as people under the age of 25. I downloaded twenty complete papers, articles and other resources from open access sources and the Open University research repository.
Use of CAM by young people has increased since 2000. Young women use CAM more than young men. The most common sources for getting information about CAM are friends and family and social media.
Key message
The best way to provide information for young people about CAM is through social media.
Take away the headings and polish the sentences and you have an abstract:
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is growing rapidly among young people, but the usefulness and safety of some therapies is controversial. Therefore, I investigated the question: what are the best places to reach young people with information about CAM? Using Google Scholar, I searched for articles using different combinations of these search terms: ‘alternative medicine’, ‘complementary medicine’, understanding, knowledge, motivation, CAM. I filtered the results to keep only articles that related to the use of CAM by young people. I defined ‘young’ as people under the age of 25. My search found twenty relevant papers, articles and other resources, which I downloaded from open access sources and the Open University research repository. My results show that young people’s most common sources for information about CAM are friends and family and social media. Therefore, I believe that using social media is the best way to provide information about CAM for young people.
The last thing to include in your dissertation is the bibliography or reference list * .
Your reference list shows the people who read (and mark!) your dissertation how well you have researched your subject and how your arguments are supported by evidence from other people’s research.
It is also evidence of how you have been open and honest in your work. Readers can use it to find the sources that you used and check that you have read and used them correctly.
Using your reference list, a reader should be able to find that source for themselves if they want to follow up an idea or check something you have written. Including a reference list helps you avoid plagiarism (passing off someone else’s work as your own), because readers can check the original source if they have any doubts.
If you need a reminder of what information you should keep, look back at ‘Finding and using evidence – Keeping track’ .
* A reference list is a list of all references to other people’s work that you have mentioned in your dissertation. A bibliography is a list of references, plus the background readings or other material that you have read but not actually mentioned.
The Open University Library Services’ Referencing and plagiarism page has lots of help and pointers to further information about references and referencing styles.
If you go on to study at university, and have to write essays, assignments and reports, you will be asked to set out – or ‘style’ – reference lists in a specific way. There are many different referencing styles; which one you are asked to use will depend on the subject you are studying and the university’s requirements.
For the EPQ, check the requirements of your exam board or ask your teacher what these are.
Even if you aren’t asked to use a specific style, you should aim to include as much information about the sources as possible. The minimum information would be:
*The date you found the article is important for online sources, as websites sometimes disappear or are changed. If the reader can’t find the same article but knows when you found it, that suggests they can trust the source.
These examples are laid out in the Harvard referencing style, which is a style used in many university subjects.
Books and ebooks
Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.
Mukherjee, S. (2011) The Emperor of all Maladies . London: Fourth Estate.
Article from an academic journal
Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Doi: doi number if available OR Available at: URL (Accessed date)
Ungar, S. (2008) ‘Global bird flu communication: hot crisis and media reassurance’, Science Communication , 29(4), 472-497. DOI: 10.1177/1075547008316219
Article from a newspaper or magazine
Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).
Rice-Oxley, M. (2021) ‘Do good things come to those who wait?’, The Guardian , 26 February. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/26/do-good-things-come-to-those-who-wait (Accessed 26 February 2021).
Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).
BBC Online (2020) How New Zealand relied on science and empathy . Available at: bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52344299 (Accessed 17 September 2020).
Writing clearly .
Good writing takes time, effort and energy. Being able to produce clear, readable, logical and well-argued pieces of writing is important in both university and in your working life.
Blaise Pascal was a seventeenth-century mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher and writer. He once wrote:
‘ Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte ’ .
–Blaise Pascal, Provincial Letters, Letter XVI, December 1656.
Translation: ‘I wrote this very long [letter] because I didn’t have the time to make it shorter’.
What do you think Pascal meant by this?
Claire, whose research looks for evidence of how we might ‘ sniff’ for life , produced a mind map of what she thinks Pascal meant (Figure 9). The audio below describes her process.
Claire’s mind map takes us on quite a journey. Starting from Pascal’s premise that it’s better to write short than long, slower than quicker, makes her think about the need for concision, to look for concise words, words that are specific and measured, not being confusing, the need to choose the right word. Not always easy in English, where one word can have a variety of meanings.
She suggest perhaps using a thesaurus, but that could lead down the pathway of having too many words to choose from and not being able to decide which one to pick. Thinking about the dissertation, she introduces a word we all dread – waffling! No one wants to be a waffler, and giving too much information might make your readers’ heads explode.
And yet we must explain our concepts, because we want our writing to be understood by everyone but that means a balance with explaining too much. We need to give enough detail to make our point understood, and scientific, if it’s that kind of research question, without being too complicated. All in all, it comes down to the need to simplify.
More tips from Ann
As Pascal – and Claire – suggest, taking out what isn’t needed is as important as putting in what is.
Writing clearly and to the point takes time, effort and energy. Allow yourself plenty of time to draft, review, get feedback, edit ... draft again, review again, get more feedback, edit again … … check, proof-read, finish.
As we established earlier, your dissertation will have a word allowance. EdExcel, for example, suggests a research review dissertation should be around 6000 words. That sounds like a lot, but then, you’ve done a lot of work that needs to be included.
The exact figure will depend on the exam board’s requirements and the kind of EPQ you have carried out, so check before you start writing, or ask your teacher.
The best writers keep things as simple as possible. It’s a way of being kind to your readers and making the task of reading easier.
However, keeping things simple isn’t simple. As Steve Jobs, the designer and co-founder of Apple said: ‘Simple can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple’. The same applies to writing.
When you’ve done a complex piece of work, it’s tempting to think you can only describe it in complex language. But you should try to avoid the pitfall of using over-complicated language. You don’t want to run the risk of sounding pompous or making your text too difficult to understand.
You’ve almost certainly come across simple questions with unnecessarily complicated answers before. Here’s an example. Which is the best answer to this question?
The Up Goer Five challenge
To practise writing in simple language, you can take the Up Goer Five challenge. This is a project by the artist Randall Monroe, creator of XKCD .
The challenge is to explain a hard idea using only the ‘ten hundred’ most common words in the English language. As an example, how might we explain ‘astrobiology’?:
We think about where we might find living things. We take stuff from places – dry places, cold places, hot places – and we put it in stuff that we think has what living things need to grow. We wait, then we use a seeing-small-things tool to look for the living things. At the moment, we look at stuff from here but one day, we want to look at stuff from other stars.
Have a go at using the Up Goer Five text editor (which has a link to the ten hundred most common words ) to explain an idea related to your research topic. If you find it tricky to think of an idea, here are a few to get you started:
You wouldn’t write your dissertation in this style, but experimenting with writing like this helps develop skills in keeping things simple, avoiding jargon and complicated language and writing in short sentences and paragraphs.
We all write in different ways every day, depending on who we’re writing for. The style of a textbook is different from the style of a WhatsApp message; we write an email to a family member in a different style from the way we would write a personal statement for a university application.
When we write anything, we start by thinking about our readers and the kind of writing they are expecting to see.
For the EPQ dissertation, start by checking the requirements of the exam board you are studying with. It is very likely that the exam board will want the dissertation to be written in a formal style; the kind of style you will have seen in the academic articles and books you drew on in your research.
Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as your own. It is, essentially, theft of someone else’s work.
Learning alongside a friend, discussing ideas or sharing your thoughts can be helpful and valuable. We have also encouraged you to take notes on everything that you find. So, it is likely that you have ideas you want to present in your report that are not entirely your own.
Plagiarism can occur in a variety of ways. It can mean copying someone else’s text and passing it off as your own, or copying and pasting text/images from a web page and pretending they are your own work. It can also overlap with what is called ‘collusion’, which means collaborating with someone to share work on a task that you are expected to complete by yourself.
Try this interactive resource from OpenLearn to understand some of the challenges and ways to avoid plagiarism. This is aimed at university students, but it will be relevant for the EPQ.
Plagiarism comes in all shapes and forms. Step into the shoes of a university student to learn the challenges and temptations facing her during her assignment, and help make it all her own work.
Level: 1 Introductory
There will be points in your dissertation when you want to present ideas that have come from someone else’s work. How can you do this while avoiding plagiarism?
If you have used an image, graph or chart created by someone else, identify where the image has come from and who made it.
You might remember this image from Article 1 , in the section on dealing with feedback.
This image comes from an online picture library, creazilla.com. They have placed it in the ‘public domain’, which means it can be re-used freely. Show this information in the image caption within your work.
If you create a graph, chart or table yourself, identify the source of the data, as you saw earlier in ‘ Getting organised – Tables, graphs and charts ’.
If you find a phrase or a sentence in a source that helpfully illustrates a point you are trying to make, you can quote that in your work. You must quote it exactly as the authors wrote it. After the quote, you give the name of the author, the date of publication and the page where the quote is from. Then give the full reference in your reference list (see ‘ Structuring the dissertation – Referencing styles ’). For example:
This shows that the format of an infographic can influence people’s responses to the evidence. For example, ‘ graphs commonly used to show descriptive statistics, such as line or area graphs, may also appear “scientific” and create a pseudo sense of trustworthiness ’ (Li et al., 2018, p. 4).
The quote marks (‘…’) show which words are the quote.
We use the Latin phrase ‘et al.’ (meaning ‘and others’) when an article has more than three authors, so that the reader doesn’t have to read through a long list of names. In the reference list, you would see the full list of authors along with the other source details:
Li, N., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D., Wilson, P. and Rose, K. (2018) ‘Communicating data: interactive infographics, scientific data and credibility’, Journal of Science Communication, 17(2), A06. DOI: 10.22323/2.17020206
When you paraphrase, you express an idea that has come from someone else in your own words. You might do this to re-state the idea in simpler language, or to bring together the ideas of several writers on the same topic. Paraphrasing can also help you show that any new ideas you’ve put together from your research are supported by earlier research.
You should show where the ideas you have paraphrased came from, but because you are not directly quoting, you need only give the authors’ names and the date of publication. For example:
My survey of fifty young people aged 16 to 18 showed that their social media posts were most often connected with current events. This is supported by earlier research, which shows that the most common topics for young people’s posts are current events, health and fitness, and celebrity and entertainment news, closely followed by science and technology (Hargittai, Füchslin & Schäfer, 2018) .
In the reference list, you would see:
Hargittai, E., Füchslin, T. and Schäfer, M. (2018) ‘How do young adults engage with science and research on social media?’, Social Media + Society, July-September 2018, 1-10, DOI: 10.1177/205630511879772
Although your dissertation must be all your own work, you can ask for help to review what you have written.
How do you ask for help, then, while keeping the dissertation all your own work and avoiding plagiarism?
Before you ask someone to review your work, you can check some things for yourself.
Check the spelling and grammar . Microsoft Word has built-in tools, or you can use online ones such as Grammarly . The more technically correct your writing is, the more your reviewers will be able to focus their energy on the content.
Then read it all through yourself . Some people like to read through silently, line by line, others prefer to read the text out loud. You can record yourself and listen back later, or use the Read Aloud function in Word, if you’re using that software. This has the advantage of using a different part of your brain – when you listen, you hear mistakes that you just don’t see in writing.
After you have reviewed it yourself, ask others to do the same. Getting someone else’s feedback on your work is immensely valuable. This is where you can collaborate with friends or classmates – if you ask them to review your work, you can offer to review theirs. And families can help too; even if they don’t know anything about your topic, the questions they ask will help you review your work.
Listen to the audio in the next tab about how Michael, who is a microbiologist, asks for help. When does he do this, and who does he ask?
Michael turns to his colleagues, his family and his senior colleagues at work. He asks for help at different stages: perhaps when he’s struggling a little, when he’s written the first draft and later on at the final stages, when he’s finished editing.
For Michael, feedback is incredibly important, not only for the actual content of the work, but for assessing how easy it is to understand. And he felt it’s always important to consider reviews of our writing from the viewpoint that the reviewer wants to help us improve our work, not criticise it. In terms of who he asks, first he calls on his peers; when he was at school, friends in his class and year, and now his colleagues, who can comment on the content of the work and how easy it is for them to follow. When he was at school, he also turned to his parents. During high school, his parents helped with input on grammar, spelling and how easy it was to understand. Now, his wife performs that role. As he says, by having someone from outside the field review your work, you can gain valuable insights. He also thinks about his seniors – in his current job, his senior colleagues will read multiple drafts of a manuscript before it’s complete. This is always an advantage – it allows him to get input from someone more experienced and means the work is improved.
In terms of when, he asks for help when he’s struggling, perhaps to find the right direction for a piece of work. Discussing the work with a friend or a teacher can start him developing insights on where it should start. Certainly after completing and spell-checking a first draft, he’ll ask for help.
And of course it’s always important to go back and review after editing, because when you change a piece of work, it’s easy to introduce errors, as well as fix them.
Conclusion.
You’ve already decided to do an EPQ, so it might seem a little odd to start this resource by asking you to consider why you want to do a research project. People do an EPQ for all sorts of reasons. Why do you want to do an EPQ?
Finding the evidence that will help you understand a topic or answer a question is an important stage in the research process. And once you have found it, you will need to examine it closely and carefully, to judge how reliable it is and whether it is useful to help you answer your question.
What are the guidelines for the presentation?
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For further information, take a look at our frequently asked questions which may give you the support you need.
Getting to the main article
Choosing your route
Setting research questions/ hypotheses
Assessment point
Building the theoretical case
Setting your research strategy
Data collection
Data analysis
Word count issues.
Most students run out of words when writing up. At the start of the process, especially if you're an undergraduate doing a dissertation for the first time, 10,000, 12,000, or 15,000 words (and up) sound like a lot, but they soon get eaten up. Worst still, they get eaten up in the wrong places, so you have a lop-sided dissertation, with some chapters receiving more focus than they should, whilst others are relatively neglected. Your dissertation guidelines might provide some instructions or recommendations on word count per chapter, but this is not always the case. Since you're likely to run out of words at some point during the writing up process, we'd recommend the following:
Always leave extra words for your Results chapter. This chapter can be concisely written, especially when you know how to summarize data well and make good use of Appendices . However, more often than not, too much is included and it becomes excessively large. The problem is that you can suddenly find the Results chapter becoming 1,000 to 2,000 words too long (sometimes more), and it's very hard to either shorten the chapter or reduce the word count in other chapters. Leaving a little extra in terms of word count for this chapter is advisable, but when it comes down to it, knowing how to write up the Results chapter properly is important and will help you get this right first time.
Don't waste words on peripheral sections within chapters. Every chapter has a number of sections that are useful, and often have to be included to some extent, but (a) can eat into your word count and (b) won't give you lots of extra marks by themselves. Obvious examples include the Chapter Summaries section within the Introduction chapter, as well as necessary components such as Acknowledgements . In the case of Acknowledgements , this is sometimes even included in your word count, despite having no influence on the mark you are awarded, even though you would be expected to include it.
Don't waste words (a) waffling or (b) going off-point in your Literature Review , Research Strategy and Results chapters. Now there is a difference between waffling and going off-point:
Going off-point When writing a dissertation as a student, as opposed to a conference paper or journal as an academic, you have to provide a lot more explanation of possible choices you could have made, rather than simply justifying the choices you made. For example, in the Research Strategy chapter, you'll often be expected to explain the differences between research designs, research methods or sampling strategies that could have been used. This is sometimes the result of a marker needing to know that you have read up about the available options and can demonstrate this by briefly summarising these different components of research strategy. This is what we mean by going off-point , and it can be a real word hog, eating into your available word count. You need to try and avoid this by keeping these sections short, but also focusing on justifications (i.e., why you are using one research method or sampling strategy over another), which when written well, demonstrate your understanding of different components of research strategy, without having to waste words explaining each component in turn.
Waffling Ignoring waffling that comes from laziness - we know this happens! - waffling is often a problem of the Literature Review and Results chapters. Waffling is simply similar to dumping everything you know on the page, which can happen when (a) you don't know the material very well or (b) you're struggling to gauge which content is important and which can be left out, something that is a real challenge for the first-time dissertation student. As a result, you add too much content. This happens a lot in the Literature Review chapter because it is hard to be selective and critical, and in the Results chapter when you don't know (a) what analysis should be included, (b) what can be omitted entirely, and (c) what can be removed and put into the Appendix . In these chapters within the Route #1: Chapter-by-Chapter section of Lærd Dissertation, we help you to avoid this kind of waffling, which not only saves words, but makes your argument much more coherent.
Finally, there can be an obsession with word count when doing marked work. You're doing an essay of 1,500 words or 3,000 words, and you try to use every single word available. This can make sense when you have a small word count and lots of worthwhile things to say in such a small space. However, when taking on a much larger document (i.e., 10,000 words or more), it is not only important what is being said, but also what you leave out. Rather than thinking too hard about word count, focus on making sure that everything being said is worthwhile. All chapters, but especially your Literature Review and Results chapter can lose a lot of quality simply because of three or four unnecessary paragraphs that disrupt the flow and logic of your arguments and results. Despite the added word count of dissertations compared with essays, less can be more.
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Three months ago you considered whether you required a restriction to the access of your thesis, and you submitted your ‘Approval of Research Degree Thesis Title’ form. You’ve now finished writing up your thesis and it’s time to submit. We require your thesis to be presented and formatted in a certain way, so it’s important you read through the requirements below, before submitting your thesis. Find out more about thesis submission policy (.pdf)
The completed thesis should be saved in PDF format. Once saved, please review the file to ensure all pages are displayed correctly.
Illustrations embedded within the thesis should be formatted, numbered and titled accordingly:
a) Illustration upright - Caption at the bottom, Illustration number immediately above the
Illustration.
b) Illustration sideways - Caption at right-hand side with Illustration number above it.
Numbers for graphs, diagrams and maps are best located in the bottom right hand corner.
For further advice, please consult your supervisor.
The following word counts are the maximum permitted for each level of award*:
Award | Word count |
PhD** | 80,000 |
Professional Doctorate | 40,000 |
MD | 65,000 |
MPhil | 50,000 |
MA/MSC by Dissertation | 30,000 |
*In all cases above, the word count includes quotations but excludes appendices, tables (including tables of contents), figures, abstract, references, acknowledgements, bibliography and footnotes (as long as the latter do not contain substantive argument). Please note these are word limits, not targets.
For degrees which involve Practice as Research (PaR), no less than 50% of the research output should be the written thesis. The written thesis for PaR degrees may be comprised of a range of written elements including, but not limited to, a critical review, a portfolio, and/or a statement on theoretical discourse or methodology.
**In cases of practice-based PhD’s or MPhil’s these suggested word counts may be different. It is normally expected that the written component would comprise no less than 50% of the overall output.
Each copy of the thesis should contain a summary or abstract not exceeding 300 words.
As an example, see how the layout of your title page (.pdf) should be.
About the university, research at cambridge.
Candidates should write as concisely as is possible, with clear and adequate exposition. Each Degree Committee has prescribed the limits of length and stylistic requirements as given below. On submission of the thesis you must include a statement of length confirming that it does not exceed the word limit for your Degree Committee.
These limits and requirements are strictly observed by the Postgraduate Committee and the Degree Committees and, unless approval to exceed the prescribed limit has been obtained beforehand (see: Extending the Word Limit below), a thesis that exceeds the limit may not be examined until its length complies with the prescribed limit.
Thesis word limits are set by Degree Committees. If candidates need to increase their word limits they will need to apply for permission.
Information on how to apply (via self-service account) is available on the ‘ Applying for a change in your student status’ page. If following your viva, you are required to make corrections to your thesis which will mean you need to increase your word-limit, you need to apply for permission in the same way.
Archaeology and anthropology, architecture and history of art, asian and middle eastern studies, business and management, clinical medicine and clinical veterinary medicine, computer laboratory, earth sciences and geography, scott polar institute, engineering, history and philosophy of science, land economy, mathematics, modern and medieval languages and linguistics, physics and chemistry, politics and international studies, archaeology and social anthropology.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words (approx. 350 pages) for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. These limits include all text, figures, tables and photographs, but exclude the bibliography, cited references and appendices. More detailed specifications should be obtained from the Division concerned. Permission to exceed these limits will be granted only after a special application to the Degree Committee. The application must explain in detail the reasons why an extension is being sought and the nature of the additional material, and must be supported by a reasoned case from the supervisor containing a recommendation that a candidate should be allowed to exceed the word limit by a specified number of words. Such permission will be granted only under exceptional circumstances. If candidates need to apply for permission to exceed the word limit, they should do so in good time before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit the thesis, by application made to the Graduate Committee.
Students may choose between two alternative thesis formats for their work:
either in the form of a thesis of not more than 80,000 words in length for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. The limits include all text, in-text citations, figures, tables, captions and footnotes but exclude bibliography and appendices; or
in the form of a collection of at least three research articles for the PhD degree and two research articles for the MSc or MLitt degree, formatted as an integrated piece of research, with a table of contents, one or more chapters that outline the scope and provide an in-depth review of the subject of study, a concluding chapter discussing the findings and contribution to the field, and a consolidated bibliography. The articles may be in preparation, submitted for publication or already published, and the combined work should not exceed 80,000 words in length for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. The word limits include all text, in-text citations, figures, tables, captions, and footnotes but exclude bibliography and appendices containing supplementary information associated with the articles. More information on the inclusion of material published, in press or in preparation in a PhD thesis may be found in the Department’s PhD submission guidelines.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree. Footnotes, references and text within tables are to be counted within the word-limit, but captions, appendices and bibliographies are excluded. Appendices should be confined to such items as catalogues, original texts, translations of texts, transcriptions of interview, or tables.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree. To include: footnotes, table of contents and list of illustrations, but excluding acknowledgements and the bibliography. Appendices (of no determined word length) may be permitted subject to the approval of the candidate's Supervisor (in consultation with the Degree Committee); for example, where a catalogue of works or the transcription of extensive primary source material is germane to the work. Permission to include such appendices must be requested from the candidate's Supervisor well in advance of the submission of the final thesis. NB: Permission for extensions to the word limit for most other purposes is likely to be refused.
The thesis is for the PhD degree not to exceed 80,000 words exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words exclusive of bibliography. For the MLitt degree not to exceed 60,000 words inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography and appendices.
The thesis for the PhD is not to exceed 60,000 words in length (80,000 by special permission), exclusive of tables, footnotes, bibliography, and appendices. Double-spaced or one-and-a-half spaced. Single or double-sided printing.
The thesis for the MPhil in Biological Science is not to exceed 20,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, footnotes, bibliography, and appendices. Double-spaced or one-and-a-half spaced. Single or double-sided printing.
For the PhD Degree the thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words, EXCLUDING bibliography, but including tables, tables of contents, footnotes and appendices. It is normally expected to exceed 40,000 words unless prior permission is obtained from the Degree Committee. Each page of statistical tables, charts or diagrams shall be regarded as equivalent to a page of text of the same size. The Degree Committee do not consider applications to extend this word limit.
For the Doctor of Business (BusD) the thesis will be approximately 200 pages (a maximum length of 80,000 words, EXCLUDING bibliography, but including tables, tables of contents, footnotes and appendices).
For the MSc Degree the thesis is not to exceed 40,000 words, EXCLUDING bibliography, but including tables, tables of contents, footnotes and appendices.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words including footnotes, references, and appendices but excluding bibliography; a page of statistics shall be regarded as the equivalent of 150 words. Only under exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed this limit. Candidates must submit with the thesis a signed statement giving the length of the thesis.
For the PhD degree, not to exceed 60,000 words (or 80,000 by special permission of the Degree Committee), and for the MSc degree, not to exceed 40,000 words. These limits exclude figures, photographs, tables, appendices and bibliography. Lines to be double or one-and-a-half spaced; pages to be double or single sided.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words including tables, footnotes and equations, but excluding appendices, bibliography, photographs and diagrams. Any thesis which without prior permission of the Degree Committee exceeds the permitted limit will be referred back to the candidate before being forwarded to the examiners.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and the MLitt degree, including footnotes, references and appendices but excluding bibliography. Candidates must submit with the thesis a signed statement giving the length of the thesis. Only under exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed this limit for the inclusion of an appendix of a substantial quantity of text which is necessary for the understanding of the thesis (e.g. texts in translation, transcription of extensive primary source material). Permission must be sought at least three months before submission of the thesis and be supported by a letter from the supervisor certifying that such exemption from the prescribed limit of length is absolutely necessary.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree, including the summary/abstract. The table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, appendices, bibliography and acknowledgements to not count towards the word limit. Footnotes are not included in the word limit where they are a necessary part of the referencing system used.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 275 numbered pages of which not more than 225 pages are text, appendices, illustrations and bibliography. A page of text is A4 one-and-a-half-spaced normal size type. The additional 50 pages may comprise tables of data and/or computer programmes reduced in size.
If a candidate's work falls within the social sciences, candidates are expected to observe the limit described in the Department of Geography above; if, however, a candidate's work falls within the natural sciences, a candidate should observe the limit described in the Department of Earth Sciences.
Applications for the limit of length of the thesis to be exceeded must be early — certainly no later than the time when the application for the appointment of examiners and the approval of the title of the thesis is made. Any thesis which, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, exceeds the permitted limit of length will be referred back to the candidate before being forwarded to the examiners.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words including tables, footnotes, bibliography and appendices. The Degree Committee points out that some of the best thesis extend to only half this length. Each page of statistical tables, charts or diagrams shall be regarded as equivalent to a page of text of the same size.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD and EdD degrees and 60,000 words for the MSc and MLitt degrees, in all cases excluding appendices, footnotes, reference list or bibliography. Only in the most exceptional circumstances will permission be given to exceed the stated limits. In such cases, you must make an application to the Degree Committee as early as possible -and no later than three months before it is proposed to submit the thesis, having regard to the dates of the Degree Committee meetings. Your application should (a) explain in detail the reasons why you are seeking the extension and (b) be accompanied by a full supporting statement from your supervisor showing that the extension is absolutely necessary in the interests of the total presentation of the subject.
For the PhD degree, not to exceed, without prior permission of the Degree Committee, 65,000 words, including appendices, footnotes, tables and equations not to contain more than 150 figures, but excluding the bibliography. A candidate must submit with their thesis a statement signed by the candidate themself giving the length of the thesis and the number of figures. Any thesis which, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, exceeds the permitted limit will be referred back to the candidate before being forwarded to the examiners.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words or go below 60,000 words for the PhD degree and not to exceed 60,000 words or go below 45,000 words for the MLitt degree, both including all notes and appendices but excluding the bibliography. A candidate must add to the preface of the thesis the following signed statement: 'The thesis does not exceed the regulation length, including footnotes, references and appendices but excluding the bibliography.'
In exceptional cases (when, for example, a candidate's thesis largely consists of an edition of a text) the Degree Committee may grant permission to exceed these limits but in such instances (a) a candidate must apply to exceed the length at least three months before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit their thesis and (b) the application must be supported by a letter from a candidate's supervisor certifying that such exemption from the prescribed limit of length is absolutely necessary.
It is a requirement of the Degree Committee for the Faculty of English that thesis must conform to either the MHRA Style Book or the MLA Handbook for the Writers of Research papers, available from major bookshops. There is one proviso, however, to the use of these manuals: the Faculty does not normally recommend that students use the author/date form of citation and recommends that footnotes rather than endnotes be used. Bibliographies and references in thesis presented by candidates in ASNaC should conform with either of the above or to the practice specified in Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England.
Thesis presented by candidates in the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics must follow as closely as possible the printed style of the journal Applied Linguistics and referencing and spelling conventions should be consistent.
A signed declaration of the style-sheet used (and the edition, if relevant) must be made in the preliminary pages of the thesis.
PhD theses MUST NOT exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length.
A minimum word length exists for PhD theses: 70,000 words (50,000 for MLitt theses)
The word limit includes appendices and the contents page but excludes the abstract, acknowledgments, footnotes, references, notes on transliteration, bibliography, abbreviations and glossary. The Contents Page should be included in the word limit. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Maps, illustrations and other pictorial images count as 0 words. Graphs, if they are the only representation of the data being presented, are to be counted as 150 words. However, if graphs are used as an illustration of statistical data that is also presented elsewhere within the thesis (as a table for instance), then the graphs count as 0 words.
Only under exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed this limit. Applications for permission are made via CamSIS self-service pages. Applications must be made at least four months before the thesis is bound. Exceptions are granted when a compelling intellectual case is made.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree, in all cases including footnotes and appendices but excluding bibliography. Permission to submit a thesis falling outside these limits, or to submit an appendix which does not count towards the word limit, must be obtained in advance from the Degree Committee.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree, both including footnotes, references and appendices but excluding bibliographies. One A4 page consisting largely of statistics, symbols or figures shall be regarded as the equivalent of 250 words. A candidate must add to the preface of their thesis the following signed statement: 'This thesis does not exceed the regulation length, including footnotes, references and appendices.'
For the PhD degree the thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words (exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography) but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words (exclusive of bibliography, table of contents and any other preliminary matter). Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy. For the MLitt degree the thesis is not to exceed 60,000 words inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography, appendices, table of contents and any other preliminary matter. Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy.
For the PhD degree submission of a thesis between 55,000 and 80,000 words (exclusive of footnotes, appendices and bibliography) but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words (exclusive of bibliography, table of contents and any other preliminary matter). Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy. For the MLitt degree the thesis is not to exceed 60,000 words inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of bibliography, appendices, table of contents and any other preliminary matter. Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 200 words for each A4 page, or part of an A4 page, that they occupy.
There is no standard format for the thesis in Mathematics. Candidates should discuss the format appropriate to their topic with their supervisor.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree, including footnotes and appendices but excluding the abstract, any acknowledgements, contents page(s), abbreviations, notes on transliteration, figures, tables and bibliography. Brief labels accompanying illustrations, figures and tables are also excluded from the word count. The Degree Committee point out that some very successful doctoral theses have been submitted which extend to no more than three-quarters of the maximum permitted length.
In linguistics, where examples are cited in a language other than Modern English, only the examples themselves will be taken into account for the purposes of the word limit. Any English translations and associated linguistic glosses will be excluded from the word count.
In theses written under the aegis of any of the language sections, all sources in the language(s) of the primary area(s) of research of the thesis will normally be in the original language. An English translation should be provided only where reading the original language is likely to fall outside the expertise of the examiners. Where such an English translation is given it will not be included in the word count. In fields where the normal practice is to quote in English in the main text, candidates should follow that practice. If the original text needs to be supplied, it should be placed in a footnote. These fields include, but are not limited to, general linguistics and film and screen studies.
Since appendices are included in the word limit, in some fields it may be necessary to apply to exceed the limit in order to include primary data or other materials which should be available to the examiners. Only under the most exceptional circumstances will permission be granted to exceed the limit in other cases. In all cases (a) a candidate must apply to exceed the prescribed maximum length at least three months before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit their thesis and (b) the application must be accompanied by a full supporting statement from the candidate's supervisor showing that such exemption from the prescribed limit of length is absolutely necessary.
It is a requirement within all language sections of MMLL, and also for Film, that dissertations must conform with the advice concerning abbreviations, quotations, footnotes, references etc published in the Style Book of the Modern Humanities Research Association (Notes for Authors and Editors). For linguistics, dissertations must conform with one of the widely accepted style formats in their field of research, for example the style format of the Journal of Linguistics (Linguistic Association of Great Britain), or of Language Linguistic Society of America) or the APA format (American Psychology Association). If in doubt, linguistics students should discuss this with their supervisor and the PhD Coordinator.
The thesis is not to exceed 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MLitt degree, both excluding notes, appendices, and bibliographies, musical transcriptions and examples, unless a candidate make a special case for greater length to the satisfaction of the Degree Committee. Candidates whose work is practice-based may include as part of the doctoral submission either a portfolio of substantial musical compositions, or one or more recordings of their own musical performance(s).
PhD (MLitt) theses in Philosophy must not be more than 80,000 (60,000) words, including appendices and footnotes but excluding bibliography.
The thesis is not to exceed, without prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words, including summary/abstract, tables, footnotes and appendices, but excluding table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, list of figures/diagrams, list of abbreviations/acronyms, bibliography and acknowledgements.
The thesis is not to exceed, without prior permission of the Degree Committee, 60,000 words, including summary/abstract, tables, and footnotes, but excluding table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, list of figures/diagrams, list of abbreviations/acronyms, bibliography, appendices and acknowledgements. Appendices are relevant to the material contained within the thesis but do not form part of the connected argument. Specifically, they may include derivations, code and spectra, as well as experimental information (compound name, structure, method of formation and data) for non-key molecules made during the PhD studies.
Applicable to the PhDs in Politics & International Studies, Latin American Studies, Multi-disciplinary Studies and Development Studies for all submissions from candidates admitted prior to and including October 2017.
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length. The word limit includes appendices but excludes footnotes, references and bibliography. Footnotes should not exceed 20% of the thesis. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text, and thus to circumvent the word limits. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
Applicable to the PhDs in Politics & International Studies, Latin American Studies, Multi-disciplinary Studies and Development Studies for all submissions from candidates admitted after October 2017.
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, including footnotes. The word limit includes appendices but excludes the bibliography. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
Only applicable to students registered for the degree prior to 1 August 2012; all other students should consult the guidance of the Faculty of Biological Sciences.
Applicable to the PhD in Psychology (former SDP students only) for all submissions made before 30 November 2013
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length. The word limit includes appendices but excludes footnotes, references and bibliography. Footnotes should not exceed 20% of the thesis. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text, and thus to circumvent the word limits. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
Applicable to the PhD in Psychology (former SDP students only) for all submissions from 30 November 2013
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be near that length. The word limit includes appendices but excludes footnotes, references and bibliography. Footnotes should not exceed 20% of the thesis. Discursive footnotes are generally discouraged, and under no circumstances should footnotes be used to include material that would normally be in the main text, and thus to circumvent the word limits. Statistical tables should be counted as 150 words per table. Only under exceptional circumstances, and after prior application, will the Degree Committee allow a student to exceed these limits. Applications should be made in good time before the date on which a candidate proposes to submit the thesis, made to the Graduate Committee. A candidate must submit, with the thesis, a statement signed by her or himself attesting to the length of the thesis. Any thesis that exceeds the limit will be referred back to candidate for revision before being forwarded to the examiners.
A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be over 60,000 words. This word limit includes footnotes and endnotes, but excludes appendices and reference list / bibliography. Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 150 words for each page, or part of a page, that they occupy. Other media may form part of the thesis by prior arrangement with the Degree Committee. Students may apply to the Degree Committee for permission to exceed the word limit, but such applications are granted only rarely. Candidates must submit, with the thesis, a signed statement attesting to the length of the thesis.
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The importance of titles.
The title of your manuscript is usually the first introduction readers (and reviewers) have to your work. Therefore, you must select a title that grabs attention, accurately describes the contents of your manuscript, and makes people want to read further.
An effective title should:
Writing a good title for your manuscript can be challenging. First, list the topics covered by the manuscript. Try to put all of the topics together in the title using as few words as possible. A title that is too long will seem clumsy, annoy readers, and probably not meet journal requirements.
Does Vaccinating Children and Adolescents with Inactivated Influenza Virus Inhibit the Spread of Influenza in Unimmunized Residents of Rural Communities?
This title has too many unnecessary words.
Influenza Vaccination of Children: A Randomized Trial
This title doesn’t give enough information about what makes the manuscript interesting.
Effect of Child Influenza Vaccination on Infection Rates in Rural Communities: A Randomized Trial This is an effective title. It is short, easy to understand, and conveys the important aspects of the research.
Think about why your research will be of interest to other scientists. This should be related to the reason you decided to study the topic. If your title makes this clear, it will likely attract more readers to your manuscript. TIP: Write down a few possible titles, and then select the best to refine further. Ask your colleagues their opinion. Spending the time needed to do this will result in a better title.
The Abstract is:
Many readers will only read the Abstract of your manuscript. Therefore, it has to be able to stand alone . In most cases the abstract is the only part of your article that appears in indexing databases such as Web of Science or PubMed and so will be the most accessed part of your article; making a good impression will encourage researchers to read your full paper.
A well written abstract can also help speed up the peer-review process. During peer review, referees are usually only sent the abstract when invited to review the paper. Therefore, the abstract needs to contain enough information about the paper to allow referees to make a judgement as to whether they have enough expertise to review the paper and be engaging enough for them to want to review it.
Your Abstract should answer these questions about your manuscript:
Answering these questions lets readers know the most important points about your study, and helps them decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Make sure you follow the proper journal manuscript formatting guidelines when preparing your abstract.
TIP: Journals often set a maximum word count for Abstracts, often 250 words, and no citations. This is to ensure that the full Abstract appears in indexing services.
Keywords are a tool to help indexers and search engines find relevant papers. If database search engines can find your journal manuscript, readers will be able to find it too. This will increase the number of people reading your manuscript, and likely lead to more citations.
However, to be effective, Keywords must be chosen carefully. They should:
Manuscript title: Direct observation of nonlinear optics in an isolated carbon nanotube
Poor keywords: molecule, optics, lasers, energy lifetime
Better keywords: single-molecule interaction, Kerr effect, carbon nanotubes, energy level structure
Manuscript title: Region-specific neuronal degeneration after okadaic acid administration Poor keywords: neuron, brain, OA (an abbreviation), regional-specific neuronal degeneration, signaling
Better keywords: neurodegenerative diseases; CA1 region, hippocampal; okadaic acid; neurotoxins; MAP kinase signaling system; cell death
Manuscript title: Increases in levels of sediment transport at former glacial-interglacial transitions
Poor keywords: climate change, erosion, plant effects Better keywords: quaternary climate change, soil erosion, bioturbation
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February 24, 2020
Dr Jana Martiskova
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Table of Contents
Underwriting or overwriting; are two of the most common errors that students make while composing their dissertations..
That is why it is important to know from the beginning how much the dissertation word count of each of the chapters should be. After you have the details of the word count of each of the sections, you can then design your schedule accordingly.
The dissertation word limit is allotted by the university where you study and the Master’s Dissertation word count may vary from the undergraduate dissertation word count or the Ph.D. dissertation word count.
But despite the total dissertation word count allotted, the main problem begins when students have to break down that word ratio into the headings of the dissertation . Here they make the common error of writing more words for a section that can be explained in less count and less count for a section that deserves more words.
Well, there are many online dissertation word count breakdown calculator websites available that can help you in that aspect. One advantage that they have is that they give an option to select degree level and word count is given accordingly.
However, a disadvantage that they serve is that not all of those calculators may be accurate.
Navigating the complexity of dissertation word count.
If you’re wrestling with the intricacies of managing your dissertation word count, you’re not alone. Online tools and calculators, such as our dissertation word count breakdown calculator, aim to simplify this process. However, the accuracy of these tools can vary, underscoring the importance of choosing a reliable platform.
When exploring solutions for your dissertation word count, it’s essential to prioritize accuracy. Our online calculator stands out by allowing you to select your degree level, offering a tailored and more precise estimation of your word count.
For a more detailed breakdown based on a 10,000-word limit, let’s delve deeper into the word count allocation for each section of your dissertation:
The introduction lays the groundwork for your dissertation, addressing the ‘whys’ behind your research. Dedicate 10% of your word count, equivalent to 1000 words, to this crucial section.
Analyzing past issues, the literature review is a substantial component, constituting 25% of your total word count, translating to 2500 words.
Answering the ‘how’ of your research, the methodology section encompasses 15-20% of your word count, ranging from 1500 to 2000 words.
Presenting collected data, this section occupies 15% of your word count, totaling 1500 words.
Offering insights into your findings, this segment covers 15-20% of your word count, spanning from 1500 to 2000 words.
Concluding your dissertation, this final section constitutes 15% of your entire dissertation or 1500 words.
By adhering to the prescribed word count percentages for each section, you can efficiently manage your dissertation. This structured approach ensures that you allocate the appropriate word count to each vital component, facilitating a well-organized and coherent dissertation.
If you’re ready to streamline your dissertation word count management, consider using our dissertation word count breakdown calculator. For personalized assistance, feel free to reach out to our expert team . We’re here to help you navigate the challenges of dissertation writing and ensure your success. Don’t let the word count complexities hold you back—empower your dissertation journey today!
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Authorship confers credit and has important academic, social, and financial implications. Authorship also implies responsibility and accountability for published work. The following recommendations are intended to ensure that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to a paper are given credit as authors, but also that contributors credited as authors understand their role in taking responsibility and being accountable for what is published.
Editors should be aware of the practice of excluding local researchers from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) from authorship when data are from LMICs. Inclusion of local authors adds to fairness, context, and implications of the research. Lack of inclusion of local investigators as authors should prompt questioning and may lead to rejection.
Because authorship does not communicate what contributions qualified an individual to be an author, some journals now request and publish information about the contributions of each person named as having participated in a submitted study, at least for original research. Editors are strongly encouraged to develop and implement a contributorship policy. Such policies remove much of the ambiguity surrounding contributions, but leave unresolved the question of the quantity and quality of contribution that qualify an individual for authorship. The ICMJE has thus developed criteria for authorship that can be used by all journals, including those that distinguish authors from other contributors.
The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.
All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged—see Section II.A.3 below. These authorship criteria are intended to reserve the status of authorship for those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work. The criteria are not intended for use as a means to disqualify colleagues from authorship who otherwise meet authorship criteria by denying them the opportunity to meet criterion #s 2 or 3. Therefore, all individuals who meet the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in the review, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript.
The individuals who conduct the work are responsible for identifying who meets these criteria and ideally should do so when planning the work, making modifications as appropriate as the work progresses. We encourage collaboration and co-authorship with colleagues in the locations where the research is conducted. It is the collective responsibility of the authors, not the journal to which the work is submitted, to determine that all people named as authors meet all four criteria; it is not the role of journal editors to determine who qualifies or does not qualify for authorship or to arbitrate authorship conflicts. If agreement cannot be reached about who qualifies for authorship, the institution(s) where the work was performed, not the journal editor, should be asked to investigate. The criteria used to determine the order in which authors are listed on the byline may vary, and are to be decided collectively by the author group and not by editors. If authors request removal or addition of an author after manuscript submission or publication, journal editors should seek an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.
The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities are properly completed and reported, although these duties may be delegated to one or more co-authors. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer-review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way, and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication. Although the corresponding author has primary responsibility for correspondence with the journal, the ICMJE recommends that editors send copies of all correspondence to all listed authors.
When a large multi-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be an author before the work is started and confirm who is an author before submitting the manuscript for publication. All members of the group named as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, including approval of the final manuscript, and they should be able to take public responsibility for the work and should have full confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of other group authors. They will also be expected as individuals to complete disclosure forms.
Some large multi-author groups designate authorship by a group name, with or without the names of individuals. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should specify the group name if one exists, and clearly identify the group members who can take credit and responsibility for the work as authors. The byline of the article identifies who is directly responsible for the manuscript, and MEDLINE lists as authors whichever names appear on the byline. If the byline includes a group name, MEDLINE will list the names of individual group members who are authors or who are collaborators, sometimes called non-author contributors, if there is a note associated with the byline clearly stating that the individual names are elsewhere in the paper and whether those names are authors or collaborators.
Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Examples of activities that alone (without other contributions) do not qualify a contributor for authorship are acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading (e.g. "Clinical Investigators" or "Participating Investigators"), and their contributions should be specified (e.g., "served as scientific advisors," "critically reviewed the study proposal," "collected data," "provided and cared for study patients," "participated in writing or technical editing of the manuscript").
Because acknowledgment may imply endorsement by acknowledged individuals of a study’s data and conclusions, editors are advised to require that the corresponding author obtain written permission to be acknowledged from all acknowledged individuals.
Use of AI for writing assistance should be reported in the acknowledgment section.
At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work in the appropriate section if applicable, how they used it. For example, if AI was used for writing assistance, describe this in the acknowledgment section (see Section II.A.3). If AI was used for data collection, analysis, or figure generation, authors should describe this use in the methods (see Section IV.A.3.d). Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship (see Section II.A.1). Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.
Next: Disclosure of Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest
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Modern neural networks (NNs), trained on extensive raw sentence data, construct distributed representations by compressing individual words into dense, continuous, high-dimensional vectors. These representations are specifically designed to capture the varied meanings, including ambiguity, of word occurrences within context. In this thesis, our objective is to examine the efficacy of distributed representations from NNs in encoding lexical meaning. Initially, we identify four sources of ambiguity - homonymy, polysemy, semantic roles, and multifunctionality - based on the relatedness and similarity of meanings influenced by context. Subsequently, we aim to evaluate these sources by collecting or constructing multilingual datasets, leveraging various language models, and employing linguistic analysis tools.
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Write "Abstract" (bold and centered) at the top of the page. Place the contents of your abstract on the next line. Do not indent the first line. Double-space the text. Use a legible font like Times New Roman (12 pt.). Limit the length to 250 words. List 3-5 keywords directly below the content. Indent the first line 0.5 inches.
The abstract will appear in the online and bound versions of the dissertation and will be published by ProQuest. There is no maximum word count for the abstract. The abstract text should be: double-spaced; left-justified; indented on the first line of each paragraph; The top of the abstract page should include: The author's name, right justified
Checklist: Abstract 0 / 8. The word count is within the required length, or a maximum of one page. The abstract appears after the title page and acknowledgements and before the table of contents. I have clearly stated my research problem and objectives. I have briefly described my methodology. I have summarized the most important results.
Abstract Format. recommended fonts: 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or 10-point Computer Modern2. 1-in. margins on all sides. placement: second page of the paper. section label: "Abstract". ° centered and in bold. ° written on the first line of the page.
Word count - The average abstract is about 200 words, but you should adjust this figure to match the context in which you are writing. For example, if submitting an article to a journal, you should follow that journal's publishing guidelines. Similarly, your school/faculty may suggest a word count for dissertation abstracts.
Having seen an example of a bad thesis abstract, now lets look at an example of a good PhD thesis abstract written about the same (fictional) project: ... a much clearer flow through these different points in how it's written and has made much better use of the available word count. Acronyms have even been used twice in this good abstract but ...
The word count covers everything within the main text of the Dissertation, including: the abstract and contents page; lists of tables and illustrative material; any tables, diagrams, subtitles, footnotes and references which are included within the main text. Does not Count toward word count.
The dissertation abstract (or executive summary for some degrees) serves to provide the first-time reader (and marker or moderator) ... Appendices should not be used as a way to cut down word count (see this post which covers how to reduce word count). In other words, don't place content that is critical to the core analysis here, just to ...
An abstract for a thesis or dissertation is usually around 150-300 words. There's often a strict word limit, so make sure to check your university's requirements. There's often a strict word limit, so make sure to check your university's requirements.
The word count limit for the abstract is also set by the publisher or professor; abstract word limits vary from journal to journal and typically range from 150 to 250 words (for student assignments, the limit is typically 250 words as well). ... Your article (or dissertation or conference presentation) uses a ploy similar to that of an ...
tables/diagrams are included in the overall word count Abstract 200 word maximum abstract, not counted towards total word count 5 keywords maximum Appendices If appendices are used, they should not be excessive, and should not be 'essential reading'. Electronic Submission Submitted to your Dissertation Learn page. What to Submit
Limits vary widely and are dependent on the nature of the article you are writing—for example, a brief report will be short but a dissertation quite long. The word count limit for the abstract is also set by the publisher or professor; abstract word limits vary from journal to journal and typically range from 150 to 250 words (for student ...
An abstract is a 150- to 250-word paragraph that provides readers with a quick overview of your essay or report and its organization. It should express your thesis (or central idea) and your key points; it should also suggest any implications or applications of the research you discuss in the paper. According to Carole Slade, an abstract is ...
In any case, informative abstracts make up 10% or less of the word count of the overall piece. The informative abstract allows your reader to decide whether they want to read the dissertation. There is a lot of information to cram in to an abstract and not a lot of words to play with.
Abstract. The following table offers a suggested structure and approximate word counts for dissertations, relative to the degree being pursued. This is designed to be altered according to the ...
Table 4 Structuring the dissertation by word count; Word count; Abstract (summary) 150: Introduction: 650: Research review: 1500: Discussion / development / analysis ... However, unlike a trailer, it's OK to give away the ending! Someone who only reads the abstract, and never looks at the dissertation, should still understand the scope of ...
Word count issues. Most students run out of words when writing up. At the start of the process, especially if you're an undergraduate doing a dissertation for the first time, 10,000, 12,000, or 15,000 words (and up) sound like a lot, but they soon get eaten up. Worst still, they get eaten up in the wrong places, so you have a lop-sided ...
What's excluded from the word count *In all cases above, the word count includes quotations but excludes appendices, tables (including tables of contents), figures, abstract, references, acknowledgements, bibliography and footnotes (as long as the latter do not contain substantive argument). Please note these are word limits, not targets.
The thesis is not to exceed, without the prior permission of the Degree Committee, 80,000 words for the PhD degree and 60,000 words for the MSc or MLitt degree, including the summary/abstract. The table of contents, photographs, diagrams, figure captions, appendices, bibliography and acknowledgements to not count towards the word limit.
TIP: Journals often set a maximum word count for Abstracts, often 250 words, and no citations. This is to ensure that the full Abstract appears in indexing services. Keywords are a tool to help indexers and search engines find relevant papers. If database search engines can find your journal manuscript, readers will be able to find it too.
The dissertation word limit is allotted by the university where you study and the Master's Dissertation word count may vary from the undergraduate dissertation word count or the Ph.D. dissertation word count. Mostly the dissertation word length is between 10,000 words to 15,000 words but some may even go up to the level of 30,000 words.
Mission. The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives.
The following recommendations are intended to ensure that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to a paper are given credit as authors, but also that contributors credited as authors understand their role in taking responsibility and being accountable for what is published. Editors should be aware of the practice of ...
Modern neural networks (NNs), trained on extensive raw sentence data, construct distributed representations by compressing individual words into dense, continuous, high-dimensional vectors. These representations are specifically designed to capture the varied meanings, including ambiguity, of word occurrences within context. In this thesis, our objective is to examine the efficacy of ...