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General Reading and Writing Requirements

Reading requirements vary from school to school, and in many cases, from class to class and from professor to professor. In an investigation of more than 30 traditional, accredited seminaries, colleges, and universities, we found that a doctoral class of 4 credits may have as few as 400 pages of reading to as many as 2,000.

Writing Requirements vary as well. One accredited university requires a mere 30 pages for its Master's Thesis. Yet, a few other colleges have required nearly that many pages for their master's-level term papers. At one accredited seminary, one particular professor requires the writing of a maximum of only two pages for a master's-level term paper.

After more than a year of observation and investigation, CES has adopted the following minimum standards for our reading and writing requirements:

General Minimum Reading Requirements
-Freshman & Sophomore: 125 pages per credit (4-credit class = 500 pp of reading)
-Senior & Junior: 175 pages per credit (4-credit class = 700 pp of reading)
-Master's: 250 pages per credit (4-credit class = 1,000 pp of reading)
-Doctoral: 350 pages per credit (4-credit class = 1,400 pp of reading)

General Minimum Writing Requirements
-Freshman & Sophomore: 3 to 5-page term paper (per class)
-Senior & Junior: 5 to 10-page term paper (per class)
-Master's: 12 to 15-page term paper (per class)
-Doctoral: 17 to 20-page term paper (per class)

Note: These are minimum requirements. Students may (and most times do) read more and write more than these minimums. However, all written work, regardless of length, must be excellent in content, logic, writing, grammar, and academic style.

Converting Audio/Video Listening into Reading Requirements

Many students use audio resources, such as audio tapes, CDs, Videos, and DVDs in their classes. There are many acceptable academic lectures on these various media that students may use as part of their General Reading Requirements. CES has established this chart of conversion:

-Freshman & Sophomore: 1 hour of listening = 50 pages of reading
-Senior & Junior: 1 hour of listening = 40 pages of reading
-Master's: 1 hour of listening = 30 pages of reading
-Doctoral: 1 hour of listening = 20 pages of reading

How many sources should a class paper have?
We are sometimes asked, “How many sources should be in the bibliography?” There are no universal, academically acceptable standards. Some schools state that you should use however many you need to get the job done. A few others have more specific guidelines. However, too often when guidelines are set, students “lock into” these guidelines and do not go beyond them. This can lead to a truncating of their research. Nonetheless, because this question does occasionally come up, we have decided to list some “basic guidelines.” Please note this: It is not simply that you must have these sources listed in your bibliography, you must also interact with them in the body of your paper. Any assertions made must be backed up with evidence, and this evidence will often be quotations from various scholars.

General Minimum Primary Sources Required for Class Papers
-Freshman & Sophomore: 2 or more sources
-Senior & Junior: 4 or more sources
-Master's: 10 or more sources
-Doctoral: 15 or more sources

Requirements for the Thesis and Dissertation
Please note that while two 4-credit classes (i.e., 8 credits) at the master’s level would require a minimum of 2,000 pages of reading, this is not the requirement for an 8-credit thesis. A thesis is not the same as a class. It is a major research document, and an 8-credit thesis will require well more than twice as many pages as 8 credits in regular classes. This is the same with a doctoral dissertation. While there is no set limit on how many pages one will have to read for their thesis or dissertation, you can be sure that it will be more than twice that for the same amount of credits in regular classes.

The minimum length of your thesis or dissertation is determined by the word count of the thesis body, plus your footnotes.

The thesis or dissertation body begins with the first word of your Introduction and ends with the last word of your Conclusion.

When you count the words in your thesis or dissertation, do not count the Front Matter, the Table of Contents, the Bibliography, or the Appendices.

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS:
10,000 to 20,000 words (40 to 80 pages)
Bibliography Sources: 30 or more

MASTER’S THESIS:
20,000 to 40,000 words (80 to 160 pages)
Bibliography Sources: 40 or more

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION:
30,000 to 60,00 words (120 to 240 pages)
Bibliography Sources: 50 or more

Please note: These above are minimums and guidelines. We have seen master's theses from traditionally accredited schools that were only 30 pages long with as few as 10 sources in the bibliography; we've seen others that were 200+ pages long with as many as 70 sources. We once saw a PhD dissertation from an accredited university that was only 40 pages long with 12 sources in the bibliography. At the other end of the spectrum, there was one PhD dissertation that was 1,700 pages long, and it had about 800 sources.

See Thesis and Dissertation fees at Thesis and Dissertation Fees

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