AIBU to think a word limit is the actual word limit?

[iloveruby]

I'm currently doing an MSc and (perhaps naively) thought that the word limit was exactly that - the point where the examiner would stop reading the assignment.

However, when talking to other students it would appear that in past assignments they have exceeded the limit by approximately 10% without comment or it being reflected in the mark.

I'm going to clarify the rules tomorrow but AIBU to have assumed that the word limit was to be strictly adhered to? Interested to hear what others who are academics / students or who have experience in this area think.

AIBU - i am being unreasonable to think essays and assignments should not exceed the word limit and that it isn't unusal for there to be leeway.

AINBU - word limits are there to be followed.

In the uni I work at word limits are absolute. Word limits have to be declared on the front page, and anything over and above the limit isn't read. A number of lecturers do check by converting documents to word and deleting anything that is excluded from word limits etc.

Check you academic regulations (search your uni name and academic regs on Google and it'll come up) as they should state word limits, tolerances and exactly what is and isn't counted.

My MSc clearly states +20%/-10% on the last two assignment briefs.

If it doesn't say, I wouldn't take it as read.

YANBU. I can still remember 20 years later being pissed off that a course mate got a first for an assignment that was 7k words when the "limit" was 5k.

When I did a professional qualification 5 years later that university had a hard limit with no leeway and required the word count to be declared. I felt like I had found my people.

Worth clarifying but as others have said I think 10% leeway is pretty normal.

Check your institution's policy. Lots of people have said there's a "general" 10% rule of thumb, but this is not universal (it's not the case at my institution, for example).

On the majority of assignments in both my undergrad and my post grad, there was a 20% allowance either way. Occasionally they made it clear that we had to be spot on the limit.

Our uni policy on word count is generally 5% over/under and your have to state your word count on the cover page. It can change by department though so you need to consult your course handbook. It ought to be very clear.

I would expect it to be a hard limit. My professional qualification submission had a word and a weight limit, as they didn't count appendices and reference documents in the number limit, but you had to declare the word count. Weight limit was up to the Post Office, they went by what was on the label and if that said more than 2kg you were penalised.

My MSc dissertation was 10% too and it was set out in the handbook. In mine you didn't have to count tables and figures so moved a lot of detail into those.

10% over or under is standard i think and should also be stated in your module handbook.

There is a word limit but it's just quite standard that the limit is 10% over the stated amount (check your policy though of course). Odd admittedly but was always my experience, when an assignment due 3,000 words was given I automatically translated that to 3300!

On my degree, I had some word counts that had a 5% leeway and some with 10%, however they encourage you to be as close to the word count as possible.
It should say in your assessment guidelines I would expect.

Each assignment can vary as well. Sone of ours were hard limits. Some 10% over or under and some just 10 over but no penalty for under (in theory)

Online 24 hour Exams are all a strict do not exceed x words per exam, you can allocate across questions as you want.

There was 10% leeway when I did my PhD.
I used to like trying to hit the limit exactly for short pieces however.

10% rule is standard. But as pp's have said they have experience of it being an absolute limit, its best to check.

It depends. It can be a definite limit, or it can be a 10% range. I was always over the word count because I can't stop waffling.

I seem to recall that when I did my Masters, it was a 10% limit. When I submitted my assignments online, anything over 10% was shown in red so you could see how much over you were. We would upload them in draft form to check. The submission details were all in the online app.

I'm a university academic and we allow 10% leeway either way. If a student goes over 10% then I won't stop reading but they'll be penalised.
If they are more then 10% under then typically they won't have written enough to meet the learning outcomes.

All of this should be explained in your course or module handbook.

10% was standard for me too

• or - was the norm when I was in Uni and we had to write our word count on all documents.

In my Masters it's +/- 10%

It'll be in the assignment submission guide or marking criteria somewhere

It’s 15 years since my post grad but 10% either way was the norm.

It's always been +/-10% for me.

Was annoyed in one Honours class when the only other student, coincidentally a friend of our lecturer, handed in an essay twice the limit without penalisation. I'd spent hours cutting mine down.

Thank you everyone - interesting to see that it varies across universities. I did check the MSc handbook but there was no mention of word limit (unless I missed it) so will be confirming today with the programme manager.