# It's kind of, um, short isn't it? Your Masters Thesis, that is. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 23, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-um-short-isnt-it-your-masters-thesis-that-is/693871 "2014-07-23T20:09:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-um-short-isnt-it-your-masters-thesis-that-is/693871/21 "2014-07-26T16:58:38Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My PhD thesis was 43 pages, typed double spaced. It is not the length that counts, but the significance. Eventually, I published a much generalized version of about 20 pages. It looks like John Nash of _A Beautiful Mind_ fame had a [dissertation](https://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/topics/Non-Cooperative_Games_Nash.pdf) of 32 total pages with only two references. ---
**Author:** ![BlakeTyner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@BlakeTyner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlakeTyner)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-um-short-isnt-it-your-masters-thesis-that-is/693871/22 "2014-07-27T11:50:23Z")
I did my M.A. in the humanities, and chose the “thesis” track. In the capstone course, we had the option of a traditional thesis or a scholarly article for publication. It was not required that a journal actually accept your article–simply that the committee found it journal-worthy. I actually don’t think I submitted mine at all. I think it ended up being about 25-30 pages, typed, double-spaced, including the bibliography and end notes. I chose a topic that literally no one else in the world had ever examined (or would probably care to examine) so I think I probably had a lot of leeway because of originality. By the time I got to capstone, I’d already passed comps anyway, so it seemed more like a formality than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-um-short-isnt-it-your-masters-thesis-that-is/693871/23 "2014-07-27T18:12:42Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > A good scholar can say, “This research is based on the work of Smith and Johnson’s (1995) theory of quasar origins. Its major findings include an observation that epistemological quasars are strongly correlated with lithographic nematodes (Jones, 2000), anerophasic cartographies (Williamson, 2003), and glagolitic wastewater mitigation practices of the late paleolithic era (Brown, 2005;Victor, 2007). It was also found that a negative correlation exists with transchromic hyperspace corridors (Frank, 2002). Donaldson (2011) speculates that all of these correlations may be related to a unified theory of quasar correlatives and describes a ten year research program that may show this.” HEY!!! You stole that from my thesis! > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My PhD thesis was 43 pages, typed double spaced. It is not the length that counts, but the significance. Eventually, I published a much generalized version of about 20 pages. Definitely, it’s not the length. I remember reading a short article by Einstein. Shortly after his publication of Special Relativity, some sassy young fellow turned in a 3-page doctoral thesis that applied SR to rotation rather than linear motion. It was pretty trivial; any physics student of the time should have been able to do it in one short session. Someone on the review board knew Einstein and asked him what he thought, whether they should accept it as a valid thesis. Einstein’s answer was something like this: “Is it original? Yes. Is it valid? Yes. You should award the doctorate, assuming he can defend it (which shouldn’t be hard). We’ll find out in the long run whether he actually deserves it.” I can’t recall who it was, but the first name to pop into my mind was Feynman. In any case, it was someone who made significant contributions, whose name most of us would recognize. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-kind-of-um-short-isnt-it-your-masters-thesis-that-is/693871.md?page=1)