Hello, I am very new here and I am asking for some thoughts and advice.

I have been doing my PhD for several years whilst also working full-time. I submitted my thesis for examination and my tutor felt it was good enough for submission. I had my viva and was given a 'rewrite and resubmit' with 12 months to complete this. The examiners reports suggested I add several new areas into my thesis and reduce one area. The amount of information they wanted me to add gave me concerns as I was already pretty much at the word limit when I submitted my thesis the first time and the area they wanted me to reduce is relatively small. I have now re-written the thesis and I am on my final edits. I have sent it to my tutor who is happy with the re-write. My big concern is that it is currently well over the word limit (35%+). The uni guidelines state that exceeding the word limit may disadvantage me but they don't say how. I am worried I may fail by going over the word limit so much. I have raised this with my tutor but their view is that if I have added all that has been requested by the examiners then this is ok. There are areas I could cut out to reduce the word limit further but the examiners have not suggested that I take these areas out and I am worried about removing parts of my thesis the examiners are happy with. I can't check with the examiners about the word limit as I am not allowed to have contact with them. Any advice would be appreciated as my 12 month deadline is now within sight. Is it possible to get an outright fail for exceeding the word limit? When I have my second viva, after the resubmission, could I be given a further 6 months of corrections (allowing me to reduce content with guidance from the examiners?) or do you just pass/fail after resubmission?

thanks

I had the same problem. When I first submitted the thesis I was only 2000 words under the word limit. My examiners made it clear that in order to make space for new material, I had to tabulate parts of the thesis and also place content into the appendices and footnotes. This is exactly what I did and when I resubmitted I was 4000 words under the word limit. My supervisor was definite that I should not pass the word limit no matter what . She was actually stressed about it and kept emailing me to check my word count, until the very last moment. She said that a year or so ago a 10% extra would be ok, but not any more (I study at a UK university and the policy of the word limit for doctorates is now very strict, after turnitin was introduced as part of the examination process). When, upon resubmission, I uploaded the thesis on turnitin (for the first time, as this was not necessary when I first submitted), the programme automatically counted the number of words of my thesis, for the count to be sent to the department, to be forwarded to the examiners together with the turnitin results. What is the policy of your department with regard to word limit? Are they flexible? Do you have to submit your thesis on turnitin? Also, bear in mind that turnitin has a 500 pages limit capacity. If you try to upload a text over 500 pages long, turnitin won't accept it. I don't know the policy of your university - they vary from institution to institution. I did well on my first viva, and the examiners didn't ask for a second viva, yet they still gave me 12 months for resubmission (which in fact became more like 24 months, because of personal issues). Basically at my university, after resubmission, the examiners will give me minor corrections (3 months) or a fail, there are no in-betweens.

Good news is that it only took me about 20 days to drop my word count by about 30%, by tabulating parts of the thesis and moving content to the appendices and the footnotes. Can you not do something similar, if you have to? I could personally not afford to take risks, as if I did, I would have ignored my examiners' advice.

Thank you so much for taking the time to get back to me with some helpful advice. My tutor has suggested that it is ok for me to submit the rewritten thesis as it is but I am very nervous about doing this and so I am now looking to put more information in the appendices as you have suggested as this makes sense. I only have 2 months till I need to hand it in. It's difficult as if I reduce the word limit, which will be a feat, I am sort of going against the advice of my tutor who says, yes it is long but it should be ok to submit. I had been told I can go over the word limit by 10% maximum. I have not heard of turnitin and when I submitted last year this was not part if the process. I don't know how flexible the university are at all, partially because I don't have contact with any of the other phd students. Thanks for your help.