A dissertation is a fruit of your labor in more senses than one. It extracts your mental reserves with as much sincerity as it takes toll on your physical agility. It is a job keeping a fresh mind through the whole task.
Thus, a common temptation is to cut it so significantly that it stops being such a pain. The fact still remains that this is your most coveted and difficult project and you cannot rare do any of its venison.
The big question that stares most of you students is – How many words should the dissertation consume? The answer would be different to different students and will also be impacted by the subject in hand.
The logical answer to this is 80000-100000 in case of opinionated subjects such as English, Psychology or History and 40000-50000 words in case of exact science subjects such as Math, Physics or Chemistry.
Yet, there are other considerations as well. If the topic is too generic and you place yourself the task to silently get to a streamlined forum, you will have to abide by the mentioned limit. However, if you make a start from the narrowed perspective, you can cut the words to about 60000 in case of opinionated subjects and 30000 in case of exact science subjects.
Now, one other question will haunt you – How to manage a work of such enormous proportions when you are clearly not a writer? The answer lies in discipline. Even renowned writers often work and write their books like a mule, working for disciplined hours every day. Only a few write out of instincts.
This paper is not a Qubla Khan and you are not Coleridge that you can write it straight from a dream. You need to create an outline and work diligently on it; dividing days or even months for particular segments. Write a chosen number of pages every day to remain true to the estimate you initially give your instructor.
Make sure that you have about 15 days left after the completion of the work. These days will be utilized in proofreading the work at least twice and making necessary additions. You may also have to subtract certain portions from it that you may have written on a whim or without proper research.
You can take heart from the fact that others before you have completed this enormous manuscript and most of them didn’t end up being writers. Believe!