Research notes into dissertation

[JustChill]

Hi all,

 

For those of you who are in the writing stage or have finished the dissertation in a humanities field: what is the correlation between the research notes you amassed and the written product? I've been conducting research for some time now, and still have quite a few more months to go before I begin writing, but I'm having a hard time estimating the relationship between research notes and the written product based on them. So, if I'm aiming for a dissertation of approximately 100,000 words, would my research material tend to be significantly more than that, or about at that level? Of course, I understand that the content of the material trumps its quantity and dictates the scope of the finished product, but I'm sure there's still a typical ratio that most people in the humanities experience.

 

Many thanks for your input. 

 

[DissertationCoach]

You are not going to get the answer to your question from a quantitative assessment of your notes. That's because there is no fixed correlation between the volume of notes someone takes and the level of preparedness for doing the write-up.

 

Your notes should be organized around your research question(s). When you have sufficient material to intelligently answer the question(s), that's when you are ready to write.

 

If you've been taking notes for many months and you feel you have many more months to go, there may be an issue with regard to how you are approaching your project.

 

Ideally, there is someone on your committee who will be willing to sit down with you and conduct a frank assessment.

 

The sooner you do that, the better, because simply taking more and more notes may only be delaying your progress.