How Long Does it Take to Write a Dissertation?

Ross Woods, 2018, 2020

This is Tippens' view of the total time it takes to write a doctoral dissertation in a US institution:

Write prospectus and get it approved
This is a shorter document giving the exact nature of the topic and the rationale.		 3-6 months
Write proposal (Chapters 1-3) and get it approved
In this appoach, the full proposal comprises the topic, the literature review, and the methodology chapter.		 3-4 months
Get IRB approval
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews proposed research methods to ensure that they are ethical.		 2 months
Collect data 4 months
Report and interpret results
Write Chapters 4 and 5 (Report and interpret results) and get them approved.		 2 months
Defend the dissertation and other completion activities
Reviewed by the supervisory committee, the research board, and Form & Style.		 2 months
Total Approx. 18 months

Comment

Tippens makes several assumptions:

  1. Dissertations seems to be shorter and less ambitious than those in British-style universities.
  2. The stages tend to be rigid procedures.
  3. Students start with fairly well-developed ideas of their topics.
  4. Students are full-time.
  5. Each stage is approved before the student continues to the next stage.
  6. Students face no abnormal delays, and institutional approval procedures are efficient.
  7. Students need minimal time for final editing.

Given these assumptions, it is a helpful set of goals for an aspiring student. The particular chapter outline is a simple map for many kinds of research. The idea that each stage is approved before the student continues to the next stage seems to be good general practice and improves the efficiency of the whole process. The shorter total time-frame also has one significant advantage: the shorter the timeframe, the less likely that a significant publication will alter the trajectory of research on the student's topic.

However, the timeframe has many challenges:

  1. Most students take considerably longer to decide on a topic and refine it.
  2. Many countries put the proposal, prospectus and ethics approval into one document and one stage of approval. IRB approval as a separate process is mandatory in the US, but even in the US, it can be expedited for some kinds of researches.
  3. Many non-US dissertations do not follow that particular chapter outline.
  4. Delays in institutional approvals are very common.
  5. Many matters arise during the research such as new assumptions, definitions, and publications. Students might need to adapt the methodology to accomodate practical problems in the field. Consequently, students normally revise the introduction and the literature review, and perhaps the methodology, during the final stages of writing.
  6. Most students take considerably longer in final editing.

The final word ...

It's an individual journey so there's not necessarily anything wrong if students take widely differing times. However, students can write a US-style dissertation in one year if:

  1. They already have well-developed writing skills.
  2. They start with a good topic.
  3. They get the proposal correct.
  4. They have good supervision.
  5. They do the work.

Students can also finish quickly if their institution allows them to include previously pubished research, although this is uncommon in the US.

 

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Based on How Long Does it Take to Write a Dissertation? Steve Tippins on July 11, 2019 https://www.beyondphdcoaching.com/dissertation/how-long-does-it-take-to-write-a-dissertation/ Viewed 13 Nov. 2019