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Moderator: If this question is too specific and potentially violates academic integrity, please let me know immediately and feel free to delete the thread. My questions are intended to be presentational and not about the content--which is why I have left the topic vague.
So the initial draft of my research paper is going to clock in at about 25 pages over what is usually "suggested" (there's no hard rule, but the department suggests a length).
This is a paper in the field of the Social Sciences. A couple of things:
1. There's about 10 figures and tables in the results section pushing up the length.
2. Our department want's turabian citation style, which as you know is footers, so it can also make the paper appear longer than it has (up until now I've always used in-text citation on my projects). This matters because we're given the suggested length in pages, not words.
3. Good chunks of my discussion section are already deleted. They're in track changes and can be added in if I'm forced to elaborate more.
My worries are that sometimes in a research paper, professors will write something like "unpack this" or "explain more".....yet at the same time there is a page limit. I guess it's a tension and a skill to learn, but how do you handle that?
I'm thinking my initial strategy might just be to take a meat axe to the discussion section. Leave it very short, and almost boring and generic, and hope that the Lit Review and Methods carry the paper. Is the discussion section of a paper usually the shortest one?
Something else I might do is cite less, but I keep hearing to err on overciting, yet there's that length thing......
How do you all handle going over length in your papers?
The length needs to be in line with the amount of content. If you have an excess of content, it is okay to have a longer length. If you are inefficient with your writing, you could end up with too much length and not enough content.
I know there are big differences between a chemistry thesis and a social science thesis, but I would imagine some of the writing mistakes are the same. I send rough drafts back to PhD students all the time telling them to cut the length in half without cutting content. The thesis is not meant to be an information dump. It is supposed to be organized, economical with the use of words, and dense in content. Every sentence should have a distinct purpose, and you should not repeat yourself often.
It usually comes down to good editing. I don't know what your writing looks like so I can't tell you how much editing it needs, but many students haven't had to deal with an editor all that often, so the first few edits of a thesis can be quite a shock. I would suggest that you write it as long as you need to get all of the content included, then edit as hard as you can.
MS theses that came out of the lab I was in ranged from just under 50 pages to over 300 pages. Appendices were, by far, the biggest determinant on length. Discussion was always the longest section in the papers coming out of our lab (a geography lab), but that could be because geography considers it acceptable to break out step by step methodology guides as an appendix. Lit review is important, but discussion is where you really make your argument and analysis.
I clocked in just under 200 pages, but only 85 pages was writing (and our binding standards meant only a couple hundred words per page) with over 100 pages of appendices. The appendices were almost all database diagrams and written code, so not really something I could reduce in length without affecting the integrity of what was published. My reviewers had no trouble at all getting through all of the writing in a few hours.
Your department's format is going to dictate a lot about length in pages. If you can move some of the hard data or methodology out into appendices, this shortens the page length of the writing considerably.
My graduate advisor made it clear that brevity was far better than other options. Not being a dummy, I took him at his word and my paper was one page. I made an A.
typically clarity and brevity trumps bulk. is this an MS thesis or PhD dissertation? in the former its almost a no-brainer to trim it. for the latter, there could be some justifications for a longer work
typically clarity and brevity trumps bulk. is this an MS thesis or PhD dissertation? in the former its almost a no-brainer to trim it. for the latter, there could be some justifications for a longer work
i was asking OP but let me get this straight... your thesis was one page? i feel perhaps i misunderstand this:
Quote:
I took him at his word and my paper was one page
if your MS program really goes around calling one page papers "theses" then that's just bizarre. usually, if they don't require a real thesis they call something like this a "project" or whatever
i was asking OP but let me get this straight... your thesis was one page? i feel perhaps i misunderstand this:
if your MS program really goes around calling one page papers "theses" then that's just bizarre. usually, if they don't require a real thesis they call something like this a "project" or whatever
Moderator: If this question is too specific and potentially violates academic integrity, please let me know immediately and feel free to delete the thread. My questions are intended to be presentational and not about the content--which is why I have left the topic vague.
There's nothing inherently unethical about formatting questions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by superseiyan
So the initial draft of my research paper is going to clock in at about 25 pages over what is usually "suggested" (there's no hard rule, but the department suggests a length).
I'm not clear on what kind of assignment this is. At first, I read master's thesis, but here you're referring to the document as a 'research paper,' which could be inclusive to a wide array of genres. If it's a master's thesis, it's probably going to be five chapters, and assignment length typically ranges anywhere from 40 to 60 pages, including references and appendices. My feeling is that 25 pages isn't really that deep at all, and you'd be in danger of having it sent back to you for a re-submission. However, each institution, and the departments within these institutions, essentially have their own standards. You might be okay, irrespective of my concerns, but I would think that it would be atypical for a 25-page submission to pass; it's probably more likely to be anywhere from 45 to 70 pages.
Quote:
Originally Posted by superseiyan
My worries are that sometimes in a research paper, professors will write something like "unpack this" or "explain more".....yet at the same time there is a page limit. I guess it's a tension and a skill to learn, but how do you handle that?
Most departments that I know of clearly promulgate their expectations and rules for submissions. You should investigate more on your own to see what the requirements are. Also, a lot of departments have thesis courses in which you are essentially run through the process of how to develop a thesis and you might be asked to submit Chapter One for initial review. All of these questions would be addressed in such a course, I feel. A good rule of thumb is elaborate and cut later if you need to.
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