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A question about the length of people's papers
posted in Off Topic
1
#1
0 Frags +

So as I just got ready with my thesis for the "first round of revision" or whatever its called, I got curious about the length's of people's papers when you are graduating. I'm studying in college / university of applied sciences (whatever you call it) and the minimum requirement for the length of the paper is around 50 pages (depending on the subject / research that you have done of course). Mine is 78 pages long currently and it will stay the same if no changes are need to be made.

So, whatever you study and where, what are the requirements for your final work in order to graduate?

So as I just got ready with my thesis for the "first round of revision" or whatever its called, I got curious about the length's of people's papers when you are graduating. I'm studying in college / university of applied sciences (whatever you call it) and the minimum requirement for the length of the paper is around 50 pages (depending on the subject / research that you have done of course). Mine is 78 pages long currently and it will stay the same if no changes are need to be made.

So, whatever you study and where, what are the requirements for your final work in order to graduate?
2
#2
-34 Frags +

all i needed to graduate is let my p.e. teacher put his pinkee in my bum :-D

all i needed to graduate is let my p.e. teacher put his pinkee in my bum :-D
3
#3
5 Frags +

This largely depends on what you're studying and the specific requirements of your program. Most programs in the US don't require a final thesis to graduate with an undergraduate degree unless you're trying to graduate with honors or you're preparing for post-graduate work. In the sciences, it's usually better to be brief. Focus on 1) reporting the data, 2) explaining the methods used to collect the data, 3) reviewing the literature concerning similar studies, and 4) analyzing the data and drawing relevant conclusions. As long as you're doing this and meeting the minimum page requirement you should be totally fine. Let quality guide your work rather than quantity.

To answer the question, though, I wrote a 96 page philosophy paper. This shouldn't be a guideline to the length of your paper for reasons I stated above. Papers in the humanities are going to be very different than papers in the sciences.

As another tip, try look at how articles published in science journals tend to organize their information. Having helpful section headings and sub-sections can make navigating your paper much easier.

This largely depends on what you're studying and the specific requirements of your program. Most programs in the US don't require a final thesis to graduate with an undergraduate degree unless you're trying to graduate with honors or you're preparing for post-graduate work. In the sciences, it's usually better to be brief. Focus on 1) reporting the data, 2) explaining the methods used to collect the data, 3) reviewing the literature concerning similar studies, and 4) analyzing the data and drawing relevant conclusions. As long as you're doing this and meeting the minimum page requirement you should be totally fine. Let quality guide your work rather than quantity.

To answer the question, though, I wrote a 96 page philosophy paper. This shouldn't be a guideline to the length of your paper for reasons I stated above. Papers in the humanities are going to be very different than papers in the sciences.

As another tip, try look at how articles published in science journals tend to organize their information. Having helpful section headings and sub-sections can make navigating your paper much easier.
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#4
0 Frags +

#3 Thanks for your answer and yeah I agree with your points and those are basic requirements in most of the study programs in Finland. But as I have studied in both Finland and Germany the same program (doing double degree), the requirements for the same degree varied quite a lot.

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And yeah, I study International Business and my thesis topic was a market research for a new kind of a gravestone, exporting the product from Finland to Sweden
#3 Thanks for your answer and yeah I agree with your points and those are basic requirements in most of the study programs in Finland. But as I have studied in both Finland and Germany the same program (doing double degree), the requirements for the same degree varied quite a lot.
[spoiler]And yeah, I study International Business and my thesis topic was a market research for a new kind of a gravestone, exporting the product from Finland to Sweden[/spoiler]
5
#5
4 Frags +

103 pages about a specific case
Criminal Sociology
Bishop's University

103 pages about a specific case
Criminal Sociology
Bishop's University
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#6
3 Frags +

I read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpost

I read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpost
7
#7
13 Frags +
SentinelI read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpost

It's still a shitpost, u would obviously just ask your supervisor if u really wanted to know.

[quote=Sentinel]I read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpost[/quote]
It's still a shitpost, u would obviously just ask your supervisor if u really wanted to know.
8
#8
6 Frags +
the301stspartanSentinelI read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpostIt's still a shitpost, u would obviously just ask your supervisor if u really wanted to know.

What if your project supervisor is a TFTV shitposter??

[quote=the301stspartan][quote=Sentinel]I read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpost[/quote]
It's still a shitpost, u would obviously just ask your supervisor if u really wanted to know.[/quote]
What if your project supervisor is a TFTV shitposter??
9
#9
0 Frags +

#7 I am fully aware of the requirements I need to have, this post is merely for my interest to see what other people have had.

#7 I am fully aware of the requirements I need to have, this post is merely for my interest to see what other people have had.
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#10
0 Frags +

through all of my education the mantra for paper length was "enough to prove your point"
im an english / journalism major so i dont know how it matters for other professions

through all of my education the mantra for paper length was "enough to prove your point"
im an english / journalism major so i dont know how it matters for other professions
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#11
1 Frags +
Gritomathrough all of my education the mantra for paper length was "enough to prove your point"
im an english / journalism major so i dont know how it matters for other professions

Same for me here.

[quote=Gritoma]through all of my education the mantra for paper length was "enough to prove your point"
im an english / journalism major so i dont know how it matters for other professions[/quote]
Same for me here.
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#12
3 Frags +

https://i.imgur.com/HmUPTkL.png

[img]https://i.imgur.com/HmUPTkL.png[/img]
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#13
7 Frags +
Zestyhttps://i.imgur.com/HmUPTkL.png

R O C K S love em

[quote=Zesty][img]https://i.imgur.com/HmUPTkL.png[/img][/quote]

R O C K S love em
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#14
3 Frags +

large fan of ronck

large fan of ronck
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#15
3 Frags +
Zestyhttps://i.imgur.com/HmUPTkL.png

Nice.

[quote=Zesty][img]https://i.imgur.com/HmUPTkL.png[/img][/quote]
Nice.
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#16
3 Frags +

Mine was 72 pages and I wrote it in a single evening with a bottle of wine and 340 note cards.

It then went through revision and I actually worked on it a bit and I cut it down to 68 pages. Having had 4 years to plan it I'd basically already written the thing in my head I just had to actually sit down and do it.

Mine was 72 pages and I wrote it in a single evening with a bottle of wine and 340 note cards.

It then went through revision and I actually worked on it a bit and I cut it down to 68 pages. Having had 4 years to plan it I'd basically already written the thing in my head I just had to actually sit down and do it.
17
#17
1 Frags +

Is that for a Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD? My Chemistry Bachelor's thesis was only 20 pages. I know as you go up in degrees papers tend to get longer and longer

Is that for a Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD? My Chemistry Bachelor's thesis was only 20 pages. I know as you go up in degrees papers tend to get longer and longer
18
#18
0 Frags +

really depends on subject and level i am a chemist so mine is as part of a research project and quite concise where as my girlfriend does law and hers is many many pages

really depends on subject and level i am a chemist so mine is as part of a research project and quite concise where as my girlfriend does law and hers is many many pages
19
#19
1 Frags +
MarxistMine was 72 pages and I wrote it in a single evening with a bottle of wine and 340 note cards.

It then went through revision and I actually worked on it a bit and I cut it down to 68 pages. Having had 4 years to plan it I'd basically already written the thing in my head I just had to actually sit down and do it.

should of made it 69

[quote=Marxist]Mine was 72 pages and I wrote it in a single evening with a bottle of wine and 340 note cards.

It then went through revision and I actually worked on it a bit and I cut it down to 68 pages. Having had 4 years to plan it I'd basically already written the thing in my head I just had to actually sit down and do it.[/quote]

should of made it 69
20
#20
1 Frags +
the301stspartanSentinelI read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpostIt's still a shitpost, u would obviously just ask your supervisor if u really wanted to know.

did you read the op? He knew what his minimum was and was curious as to what other people's would be.

[quote=the301stspartan][quote=Sentinel]I read papers as peepers and thought this was going to be a shitpost[/quote]
It's still a shitpost, u would obviously just ask your supervisor if u really wanted to know.[/quote]

did you read the op? He knew what his minimum was and was curious as to what other people's would be.
21
#21
Momentum Mod
0 Frags +

my undergrad didn't have a requirement, it was case by case. I ended up with ~37 pages

For masters and PhD i think it's the same? The shortest I've seen here for masters is ~50 pages but that was for mathematics. For computer science masters, theses are usually around 90-150 I'd say. Not sure about PhD, but those are significantly longer like 200-300 easy (i think), although I hear the record is around ~10 pages :o

weird that they would put a requirement tbh

my undergrad didn't have a requirement, it was case by case. I ended up with ~37 pages

For masters and PhD i think it's the same? The shortest I've seen here for masters is ~50 pages but that was for mathematics. For computer science masters, theses are usually around 90-150 I'd say. Not sure about PhD, but those are significantly longer like 200-300 easy (i think), although I hear the record is around ~10 pages :o

weird that they would put a requirement tbh
22
#22
-1 Frags +
Hellbent

well, its Finnish education. And particularly this school is known for some quirky shit... :/

[quote=Hellbent][/quote]
well, its Finnish education. And particularly this school is known for some quirky shit... :/
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#23
-1 Frags +

I had to write like a 5 paragraph paper when I did my GED.

I had to write like a 5 paragraph paper when I did my GED.
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#24
0 Frags +

Echoing others upthread, I did my master's thesis in around 50 pages. In general, math papers tend to be shorter, since five lines of formulae can contain a month of focused thinking. It also sort of depends on what you're including when counting pages -- for computer scientists or engineers, most of the work of the thesis may be part of one or more appendices which you may not want to count as part of the actual body of text.

Generally speaking, if you're worried about your thesis not being long enough, it indicates that you yourself aren't fully convinced by the ideas you're presenting in the text, which is sort of a bad sign. With that said, putting up a hard lower limit on the length of a paper seems like a bad idea to me, but my experience at university has been that most of the staff is very willing to accommodate students who are able to argue that they need some kind of exception from a rule. I imagine an advisor would be open to waiving a page limit if he or she felt that the matter was thoroughly discussed in a student's work.

For the purposes of a paper, it's far more important that the text forms a coherent whole than that it reaches some arbitrary length. I cut about a dozen proofs from my master's thesis -- they were neat, but didn't ultimately contribute to the unified treatment I wanted to present.

Echoing others upthread, I did my master's thesis in around 50 pages. In general, math papers tend to be shorter, since five lines of formulae can contain a month of focused thinking. It also sort of depends on what you're including when counting pages -- for computer scientists or engineers, most of the work of the thesis may be part of one or more appendices which you may not want to count as part of the actual body of text.

Generally speaking, if you're worried about your thesis not being long enough, it indicates that you yourself aren't fully convinced by the ideas you're presenting in the text, which is sort of a bad sign. With that said, putting up a hard lower limit on the length of a paper seems like a bad idea to me, but my experience at university has been that most of the staff is very willing to accommodate students who are able to argue that they need some kind of exception from a rule. I imagine an advisor would be open to waiving a page limit if he or she felt that the matter was thoroughly discussed in a student's work.

For the purposes of a paper, it's far more important that the text forms a coherent whole than that it reaches some arbitrary length. I cut about a dozen proofs from my master's thesis -- they were neat, but didn't ultimately contribute to the unified treatment I wanted to present.
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#25
0 Frags +

i just handed in last week a final report on an assignment in a class in cegep (between high school and uni) it's a super basic class, not even a specific field it's just to learn methodology in social studies or something. 72 pages total. it's not a thesis or anything like that. just an assignment.

if the quebec school system requires regular cegep assignments to be 72 pages long i dont even want to know what they will ask for a fuckin thesis

i just handed in last week a final report on an assignment in a class in cegep (between high school and uni) it's a super basic class, not even a specific field it's just to learn methodology in social studies or something. 72 pages total. it's not a thesis or anything like that. just an assignment.

if the quebec school system requires regular cegep assignments to be 72 pages long i dont even want to know what they will ask for a fuckin thesis
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