How Long Should a Literature Review Be? Let’s Break It Down

[Donald James]

One of the most common questions students ask when starting their dissertation is, “How long should my literature review be?” The answer depends on your total word count and the depth of your research, but as a general rule, the literature review usually takes up 20–30% of your dissertation.

For a 10,000-word dissertation, that means your literature review should be around 2,000 to 3,000 words. The key is not just length, but quality and structure — you need to critically analyze existing studies, highlight research gaps, and show how your work fits into the bigger picture.

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