Chickpea- we won't be working at Tesco...surely PhD graduates work at Waitrose? ;) I joke, I joke!

Recruitment and data collection will end, I promise! I know the feeling though, as mine began in April 2014 and ended in January this year- I felt the same at the time! It is good that you have given yourself some extra time. The chapter I am finishing up turned out to be a long one and it took me over my own deadline for it. I have found it the toughest one since it is the last findings chapter and it felt like my 'last chance' to squeeze everything I wanted to be in the thesis into it. How long will your big chapter be? Hang in there :)

I could quite look forward to a job in Waitrose :)

I got my ethics approval to start recruiting in April 2014, and it has just been a slog ever since then! If I could change one thing with hindsight, it would be the study that relies on this recruitment, as it has been stupidly unproductive, but 20:20 hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I've allocated 15000 words to my 'big' chapter, but it may go over and I may even look at whether it's more sensible to split it over two chapters. How big is the one you're working on?

Two of my chapters are 15,000 words, and I have considered splitting it up but how? The introduction and methods aren't enough words to constitute a seperate chapter, and I don't want to split the results and discussion.

I know - that's my thinking too. Length-wise, it might be more comfortable to have it in two chapters, but content-wise, I'll have to see if there is any sensible way to do that.

My current chapter is 20k :o my two previous findings/discussion chapters are also 20k and 15k. My supervisor hasn't had any major issues with the length of these chapters though, and reassured me to not worry abut word counts until later.

I will need to do some serious chopping of my thesis when it is complete though. I have budgeted about 7k for conclusions, but even then it takes me 10k over the very maximum word limit. I have ideas of where I can cut from- one being my two part literature review as one part of this is 15k. I had a skim over it the other day and a lot of it is no longer that relevant and can easily be made more coherent and concise.

I think (personally) it is more important to see how it 'flows'. If those longer chapters would no longer make sense divided into two, it is probably best to keep it as one.

Hiya folks, FINALLY cleared the marking decks, whoop! So returning to the thesis. I suppose the summaries are showing me where the gaps are- the stuff I really need to update, eek! Would recommend :D You sound so far on Zutterfly, bit intimidated!
I went for less chapters so pretty much all mine are 20k plus. Heavy.

Well done myoldmonkey :)

I don't know why my supervisor keeps telling me that 15K is too large a chapter, and that it's dangerous. I think if it's well sign posted and easy to follow, the length of the chapter shouldn't be a problem.

I think chapter length is another of those lovely things where opinions vary so much that you just have to hope for the best! I remember being told that one of my Masters chapters should have been split, and the whole Masters dissertation was only 15k! I agree with others here that it does depend on the flow of the chapter and whether it logically can be split, but I have heard of some supervisors wanting chapters of roughly equal length, which seems a bit 'style over substance' to me.

How long are your literature reviews? I think mine will be about 15K.

I've also got a question about how to be critical when writing the literature review, would appreciate your response!

There has always been a rumor in my department that if the thesis is over 80k (very max is 110k) that the examiners will get annoyed and you will get major corrections. I asked a few academics in my department about this and they confirmed it is just a silly rumor- what I was advised was that a longer thesis only gets frustrating when information is repeated and when it lacks coherence. I think the key is then being able to justify all of your content.

Hugh- my LR is in two chapters; one is about 11k and the other is 14k, but I am hoping to cut the 14k one down a little as there are a couple of 'rambly' sections!

I think 80k is our absolute max - I'm unlikely to go over that as I tend to err on the 'succinct' side, and I've had it drummed into me through years of study with the OU that markers can just mark up to the maximum and ignore the rest - I know that wouldn't happen with a PhD thesis, but it has shaped the way I think about word limits!

My literature review is sitting at about 17k just now, but it needs an overhaul and part of it moved into other sections.

Thanks Zutterfly and chickpea!

We have a very very strict deadline of 70K. The graduate office will not let us submit even if it's one word over the word count. I need to keep my literature review to a minimum but it's already looking lengthy.

Man I would really struggle with a 70k limit!

After writing my conclusion I think editing my literature review will be the first point of call which I am dreading :/ It is so difficult as I think there is always that fear of the examiners asking 'Why have you not included...?'

Could you move some of it to appendices?

My literature review is 4K. I am forced to cut it short due to publication requirements.
About how to be critical.... that's always hard. I would suggest that you first write the last alinea of the introduction, saying something like: "In this review, we describe/discuss etc..."
Then you'll end up with 1 or 2 sentences and you restrict your literature research to the topics mentioned in those 2 sentences at first.

Only after reviewing/writing those articles, you start to look where things are missing to complete your review.