Writing a Dissertation Fulltime - how long?

All,

I am studying a DL MBA at Henley. I have been researching my dissertation for several months but have yet to start writing. It is a 15000 word paper. I am shortly going to change jobs and will have a month off in which I want to get as much done as possible. I know this is somewhat of a 'piece of string' question but does anyone have any experience of writing such a paper fulltime and how much I can realistically expect to complete?

Thanks in advance,

Dave C.

 

When I was writing my dissertation I found that I could do 5 APA formatted researched, references, 'quality' pages a day (double spaced) all in (counting revisions, remembering where I was, moving stuff around, pulling out dozens of pages I had written but were no longer relevant, and so on). I'm guessing that was about 1,500 words a day, including research time everything your paper would take ~10 full time days provided you are already an expert in the area and don't have to wait for anything (like survey results or feedback).

 

I'd say that 1500 words per day is way above average productivity (that's a compliment Dave). I think that I could do half of that if I was focused.

 

I love the story, which I believe is true, that Robert Graves had printed paper ruled into 500 rectangles. Every day, he wrote one word in each box until he had reached 500, then stopped and went to the beach, even in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes it book him half an hour; sometimes 10 or more hours.

My father did the same thing in writing his first five novels -- generally on the subway to and from work (as an accountant), and on lunch hour. Each novel took him about two years. Then he became a screenwriter at 20th Century Fox, where the 300 writers on staff (this is long ago) were expected to produce 3 to5 pages of screenplay per day.

 

Is it a paper or a dissertation? A dissertation would require you to prepare data collection, methodology, etc. A realistic time for a full time DS would be two to three months. Part time DL Master's dissertations at UK schools normally take 6 to 8 months or 3 to 4 months but if you are committed, it would take about 2 to 3 months.

 

Bear in mind that this is a dissertation and not just an assignment. A doctoral research dissertation is about 80,000 words and takes about 3 to 4 years of full time work. Based on your logic, we could finish it in 54 days and this is not the case.

 

I managed to finish a 141 page research paper in my MBA program over a 16 week semester.

You might be able to use this estimator:

word count to page estimator

I would think you could finish a 15000 word count in thirty days if it is just a research paper and not a dissertation. As RFValve has described a dissertation is much more involved.

 

In the UK dissertations are often required for bachelors and masters degrees. My daughter had to write one for her psychology BS

 

wow. But did it require an original contribution to the field?

 

Her topic will be original contribution (seniors and exercise) but I'm not sure if it has to be.

The requirements for a masters dissertation at her school is available here:
http://www2.yorksj.ac.uk/default.asp?Page_ID=482&Parent_ID=771

Undergraduate degrees requiring a "dissertation" can be found here:
http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/test/YSJUG09.pdf

I think dissertation is used in lieu of thesis by some UK schools...

 

Looks like 12000 words or roughly 50 pages. I think my definition of a dissertation is different as I always thought that masters degrees required a thesis or capstone. After doing some research it seems that I need to think globally as dissertation and thesis are used interchangeably. Thanks for shedding some light Ian. I guess I'll shift my paradigm.

 

We can certainly spot the Americans on this site! In the UK, a dissertation is reserved for the undergraduate and graduate capstone levels, with a thesis being required for their doctoral level programs. I understand this is the reverse in the US where you would complete a dissertation for your doctoral level programs?

For the record, I had to produce an original work, of contributing value, to include 30,000 words, for my UK based MBA program. This took me 3 1/2 months to prepare and that wasn't nearly enough time to do justice to the topic. I had to meet a submission deadline in order to graduate 6 months earlier than my allotted time for the degree. No easy task! Surprisingly, I had no problem meeting the minimum word requirements, in fact, it was difficult reducing the length of the paper and still adhere to the level of detail required to sell the research data and argue the hypothesis. A great experience for me and one that has me wanting to write my "doctoral thesis" starting this year.

 

The Brits use the term dissertation for what the Americans would call a master's thesis. They also use the term thesis for what the Americans would call a doctoral dissertation.

 

Some good comments here.

To clarify - Henley is a UK school so this is a fully-fledged dissertation as described by RF Valve who is spot-on with his comments.

In addition to the question here I have been asking alumni at Henley. I found one guy who basically locked himself in a room and completed it within three weeks. The problem with this approach is that you miss the supervisor interaction, proposal feedback etc. I think I am looking at three months realistically, maybe quicker if I can find a sympathetic supervisor who will bump my work up the list.

Morganplus8 - did you plot out a Gantt chart of how you would go about the paper? How did you manage your time effectively?

Thanks all,

Dave C.

 

Thesis and Dissertation Writing Timelines

I have found that some universities require less at the bachelor level when writing dissertations. The Honours level in Canada, which is often the 4th year of a BA or BSc degree is a synthesis and not original research. At the masters level this may also be the case. But at Université Laval in Québec City where I prepared my MA in History, original reseach was expected as was continuing on to the doctoral level. I had one year of course work, one year of research and a year of writing the 150 pages of mémoire.

I am glad now that I had to do that much research because I was able to use a lot of it at the doctoral level and even now at the postdoc level. The training was good at the university since the orientation was completely on methodology, research and writing.

It took me 4 years (350 pages) to write the thesis for my DEd writing part time while in the Canadian Navy serving in Canada and overseas full time. I tried to do a chapter or two per year since at Unisa one has to justify being re-admitted for the following year. I am following the same path at Free State. Last year I completed two chapters and this year I have finished another chapter since December. I hope to have two more terminated by the end of 2009 so I can graduate with the PhD Theology in 2010.

The postdoc research is ongoing and does not require a thesis, but rather article output. I will present the research in March or April to the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (Faculty of Education) at McGill University in Montréal.

 

I completed my dissertation in 2006. I was a student on the LLM program at Northumbria University, the dissertation was maximum 20,000 words. Like Morganplus8 staying within the word limit proved to be a challenge

My experience was that I started pretty quickly, got most of the research done early on, along with an outline and a chapter that was eventually cut. Then there was a death in my wife's family, things happened with work, I had some non major health issues, so I did almost nothing for a couple months.

Then I got into gear and finished it off in probably about 8-10 weeks working pretty heavily, but not full time. This is what it took me after having done most of the research and the outline, not including that time.

I knew the subject pretty well going in and had taken related coursework as well. I also had an absolutely phenomenal supervisor, fast turnaround on all submitted work (like a few days at most, sometimes same day) with incredibly helpful comments. I also had done a very good outline which kept me on track.

Depending on how good/helpful/knowledgeable your supervisor is, how well you know the subject going in, how disciplined you are, how you define full time, how much additional research you end up needing to do during the writing phase, your personal aptitude and what mark you want to achieve I'd say a time frame of 8-12 weeks is probably realistic. Maybe as short as 4-6 weeks if you're really well prepared and putting in a lot of work.

Good luck and congratulations on progressing this far in the Henley program.

 

Dave C writes:
Morganplus8 - did you plot out a Gantt chart of how you would go about the paper? How did you manage your time effectively?

Hi Dave!

No, I didn't use a Gantt chart for my dissertation as I felt comfortable with the 8 month time allotment for completing the paper and I was really motivated! The problem then became, "how do I complete the paper early?" and that's when some hard work and comittment was required. Originally we were given 8 months to submit our papers and this included the prep time needed to gain approval for my topic, find a suitable sponsor and receive approval for the topic from the University itself. That portion of the process did take a couple of months, but in my case, I had begun the process 6 weeks prior to knowing I would be successful with my final course. I'm an "A+" student and felt comfortable moving ahead with my research on a topic that I knew well. This paid off as I found out that several of my fellow students were ahead of me in the "graduation cycle" and wanted to graduate 6 months earlier. All of us had planned to travel to the school and spend time together as well as attend the ceremony. To accomplish this, I had to step up the process and finish the paper in record time. With only 1 months notice, I wrote the bulk of the paper, proofed it and submitted it for review to my sponsor. I made the deadline by 2 days and the rest is history.

In conclusion, had I applied myself to this paper full-time, and with consideration for the given time restrictions outside of my control with my sponsor, I think I could write the next 30,000 word paper in 3 months no problem. The key to success is how fast your sponsor turns your chapters around, ... at least in my case. Again, I knew my subject matter really well. A gantt chart would have met will so many revisions that it might have been rendered useless. I couldn't rely on my sponsor to turn my chapters around quicky enough and he was a recent doctoral grad himself and had set a high standard. He would only comment on issues once, i.e., only visit the same problem once and after that, you were on your own to tweak the data to his liking. This drove me crazy! There were better sponsors out there but I didn't want to pay the 1,000 pd fee to get another one! Tough times but well worth it.

 

If there is no methodology, data collection, or analysis required, you can knock it out pretty quick. Absent the above, it is simply a properly cited "research paper" with reasonable compare/contrast concept synthesis applied.

If in fact is social or scientific research, the execution of the methodology , data collection, and analysis alone would be significant, let alone the writing of the research report.

 

Thanks for all the additional comments guys - esp. novemberdude, nobody has congratulated me on getting this far before, that was nice to hear!

Peace,

Dave C.

 

During the writing phase of my doctoral research I averaged 5,000 words per week while holding down a full-time job and writing a couple of books. To do this, I wrote throughout the day, whenever I had a free moment. I kept little note pads with me and would jot down an idea whenever something occurred to me. Then at night, when I got off work, I would weave those notes into a chapter. If I got stuck on something, I would work on an easy part and keep writing. On nights when I felt tired, I would force myself to write one paragraph or two before going to bed. My goal was to write something each day, even if it meant writing badly. I knew I could always edit later.

Roscoe