I'm just starting to write my first chapter of my thesis- however its pretty much a null result chapter, and therefore it seems to be fairly short.
Just wondering if anyone else has really short chapters? Its likely the rest of the thesis won't be like this- and if i add any more in its likley to just end up waffley.....

Would it make any sense to combine it with another chapter / other studies? I had a really short study, was just a check of something related to some other studies really, and my supervisor said to combine them all in one chapter so it doesnt stand out as being so short...

I have a short chapter (11 pages) and it sits between two beasts of chapters (both more than 40 pages). The data was not relevant to any other chapter, so it had to stand alone. I wouldn't worry about having a short chapter at all - if it is relevant and necessary for your thesis, just leave it where it is.

My first chapter is just 10 pages... it's a short introduction and summary which sets up the rest of the chapters, so wouldn't be expected to be much longer, I don't think.

Another one who thinks it is fine to have a short chapter.

cheers for your help- it looks like its going to be about 15-18 pages long- unfortunatly its pretty seperate from the rest of my chapter so it has to stand alone, but i think it will be ok.

Hey there, personally I think it's much better to have a short, easily read and followed chapter than a mammoth chapter. I made the mistake of writing up one of my major analyses in one whole chapter (there were the same data collection, methods, similar analyses just different looks at the data)... it ended up being 70 pages (with lots of pictures!!!). It's very difficult both to write such a long chapter (and make it coherent and a nice story) and to read (supervisor has had it for 3 months). So don't worry about it. Short chapters are great!!!!

I do think its good to have a short chapter, depending on the discipline and area of your study and the methodology applied.

I've seen a one page introduction - seriously - and even if we take this as the abstract, the proper intro is 9 pages... (not a UK thesis, but one that passed!)

Hi Dan