Hi,

I have a written up a qualitative chapter and it is 20,000 words. I have reduced it as far as possible and tried to be as succinct as possible. I don't really want to remove any more sections from the findings.

Is a 20,000 word chapter OK?

I think it's ok. My longest one (so far!) is 15,000.

I hope it's okay. I also have one chapter of around 20000 words. Waiting to see what my supervisor says.

I would say it is too long.

If a PhD is 6 main chapters plus introduction and conclusion, then each main chapter should be around 10.000 words (did a science PhD, maybe it is different in other disciplines). I broke my methodology into two chapters of 10K.

I have the same kind of problem but from the opposite direction - my supervisor is suggesting something needs a chapter of its own, but it's going to be a silly little chapter compared to the others and I'm reluctant to do that. I have a sense, as Dr Jeckyll has described, that chapters should be roughly balanced, especially since I got criticised for that very issue at Masters level!

Does it really matter though if you have some chapters longer than others? Mine aren't going to be of equal length because some have more data than others. So far one of my data chapters is 30 pages, 10,000 words and the other is 50 pages, 15,000 words. I know of other people who have 5000 word chapters.

I think it's quite common to have long qualitative chapters. Have a think, though, about whether it might be broken down into a couple of main themes, or segments of your argument, that could form separate chapters. This might make it more readable and easier for the examiners to digest.

My main qualitative chapter was between 20000 and 25000 words. I was convinced I would be told at the viva that I have too shorten it, but they didn't say anything, just commented on how thorough the analysis was. (Trying to squeeze it into a paper is rather hard though...)

So I would say it probably depends on your examiners!

Good luck. :)

Thanks all! :)