I recently launched a survey on Twitter about the average duration of the defense or thesis defense. Although we’ve all heard the horror stories of protections lasting 6 hours or more, the average protection seems to last 1-2 hours.
These are the results:
What is a thesis defense?
A thesis defense or thesis defense is an opportunity to defend your research work before academic professionals who will evaluate your academic work. Although the thesis defense can sometimes feel like a cross-examination session, in reality, you don’t need to be afraid of the thesis defense process and be prepared.
The selection of the thesis committee is one of the most important decisions for a student-researcher. However, organizing your dissertation committee will be easier when you understand the expectations of committee members.
Differences in word count between universities
For any PhD student writing a thesis, you will find that your paper will be subject to a word limit set by the university that has In Almost In In any case, the limit applies only to the maximum number of words and does not place any restrictions on the minimum word limit. The reason is that the student will have to write the thesis in order to clearly explain the research of it, so it is up to the student to find what suits him.
That being said, it is well accepted among doctoral students and thesis supervisors that the absence of a lower limit does not mean that a thesis can be “light”.
Your thesis will focus on several years of original research and will explore new ideas, theories or concepts. In addition to this, your thesis should cover a wide range of topics such as literature review, research methodology, findings, and conclusion. Therefore, your examiners will expect the length of your thesis to be proportionate in order to bring all this information to a proper level.
How long should your thesis proposal be?
In addition to the textbook, there are several other standard tips that will guide you when deciding on the length of a thesis.
For starters, be balanced. When writing a thesis, it is important to balance it. If your thesis is short, your professors might think it’s incomplete. When it is too long, they may get bored reading it.
Hack Your Dissertation
5-Day Mini-Course: How To Finish Faster With Less Stress
Interested in more helpful tips to improve your thesis knowledge? Join our 5-day email mini-course!