How many words is a dissertation, and how long is each chapter?

Direct answer: A standard dissertation runs title page, abstract, contents, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, bibliography and appendices. Each chapter answers one question: why the study matters, what is already known, how it was done, what was found, and what the finding means (University of Westminster, n.d.).

The chapters do not have to be the same length (University of Reading, n.d.). For the whole writing journey, see the full chapter-by-chapter dissertation guide. If your budget includes a theoretical framework, how to write a theoretical framework explains it. Each chapter has its own guide: the dissertation introduction, the methodology chapter and the conclusion.

Direct answer: Greetham's rule, quoted by the University of Hull (Greetham, as cited in University of Hull, n.d.), gives the introduction 5 to 10%, each chapter 15 to 25% and the conclusion about 5%. On 10,000 words that is 500 to 1,000 for the introduction, 1,500 to 2,500 per chapter and about 500 for the conclusion.

Greetham and Hull are one source, not two: Hull's page quotes Greetham, and Hull's own line gives the conclusion 5 to 10% (Greetham, as cited in University of Hull, n.d.). The table above uses a different, single-figure split, from Marjon (Marjon Study Skills, 2019). Westminster gives the introduction roughly 10% and the conclusion 5 to 10% (University of Westminster, n.d.). A word budget is also an argument about which chapter carries the most weight, so the abstract and the conclusion deserve their own planning.

Your handbook beats any general rule

The document your marker holds is your programme handbook, and its word limit is a hard rule. Check any budget against it first; structure often varies by discipline, and looking at previously submitted work in your subject can help (University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education, n.d.). Turning budgets into dates is covered in how to plan a dissertation timeline.

Direct answer: They differ, so none is the answer for every course. On 10,000 words with results and discussion merged, Marjon gives 3,000 words to results and discussion (Marjon Study Skills, 2019) and LSE about 4,000 (Department of Media and Communications, 2021).

• LSE (taught MSc, 10,000 to 12,000 words, empirical): introduction about 700, a theoretical chapter about 3,300 (literature review about 2,500, theoretical framework about 500, objectives about 300), methodology about 1,500, results and interpretation about 4,000, conclusion about 500, written for 10,000 words and adjusted pro rata (Department of Media and Communications, 2021).
• Edinburgh SPS (15,000-word MSc): introduction about 2,500, three or four substantive chapters of about 2,500 to 3,000 each, conclusion about 1,000 to 2,000 (School of Social and Political Science, 2023).
• Staffordshire (7,500-word undergraduate project): background 30 to 35%, methodology 20 to 25%, results 10%, discussion 30 to 35%, within plus or minus 10% (Stanhope, n.d.).
• Research theses: introduction and conclusion about 10% each, and a core chapter of 8,000 to 12,000 words as a guideline (University of Melbourne, n.d.); an introduction of roughly 10% (Australian National University, n.d.). A literature review of 15 to 30% of the thesis, and probably too long above 40% (UNSW Sydney, n.d.).

Direct answer: The limit is set locally, and each university draws the line differently. Marjon excludes the abstract, contents, glossary, reference list, bibliography and appendices (Marjon Study Skills, 2019), while LSE counts footnotes and endnotes but not the bibliography or appendices (Department of Media and Communications, 2021). Confirm what sits inside your limit before you budget a single chapter.

LSE also counts abstracts in its 10,000 minimum and leaves out the table of contents (Department of Media and Communications, 2021). Edinburgh SPS counts footnotes and endnotes, in-text references, tables and diagrams but not the abstract, bibliography, appendices, cover page or contents (School of Social and Political Science, 2023). The Bristol research-degree code excludes references, appendices and lists of contents from the word count and requires postgraduate research students to include an abstract of no more than 300 words (University of Bristol, n.d.).

Direct answer: A literature-based dissertation collects no primary data, so it has no methodology and no results chapter. Themed chapters take their place. The only numeric split we found is Greetham's, quoted by Hull, at 5 to 10% for the introduction, 15 to 25% for each themed chapter and about 5% for the conclusion (University of York, n.d.).

A themed chapter does literature review work, and a literature review is selective synthesis, so see the literature review guide. The University of Sheffield (University of Sheffield, n.d.) puts it plainly: "It is about quality not quantity!"

Direct answer: Yes. In the social sciences, and often in shorter dissertations, findings and discussion may be combined into one thematically organised chapter (Oxford Brookes University, n.d.). LSE reports results and interpretation together as one chapter of about 40% of a 10,000-word dissertation (Department of Media and Communications, 2021).

Results report what you found; the discussion interprets it. Blurring the two is the usual reason a budget goes wrong (University of Southampton, n.d.). The University of Suffolk (University of Suffolk, n.d.) describes a piece that "consists of 3 main sections: introduction, main body and conclusion/summary".

Direct answer: Vietnamese guides in the sources we read count pages, so this calculator does not turn pages into words, and no source gives a conversion. Hue's internal medicine department, the VNUA IT faculty and Thuyloi University each set a page budget rather than a word budget.

Hue's internal medicine department gives 60 to 80 pages of content, with chapter 1 at 15 to 20 pages, chapter 2 at 10 to 15, chapter 3 at 15 to 20, chapter 4 at 15 to 20, and 1 to 2 pages each for the introduction and conclusion (Bộ môn Nội, n.d.). The VNUA IT faculty gives core content of 50 to 80 pages with shares of about 5 to 10%, 15 to 20%, 35 to 40%, 25 to 30% and 5% across five chapters (Khoa Công nghệ thông tin, n.d.). Thuyloi University allows at most 100 pages for a master's thesis, with at least 50% presenting your own results and discussion (Trường Đại học Thủy lợi, n.d.).