MSc - how long would it take you to research & write a 2000 word essay?

[keylimepieplease]

So many deadlines and not enough time and I'm starting to panic.

How long would it take you to research and write a 2000 critical analysis, if you know the general topic but haven't done any journal searches at all?

And it needs to be of a decent standard really else I'm just letting myself down

I'm worried I don't have enough time

About 8-10 uninterrupted hours

By that I mean it could be 2 hours per night for 5 nights, but not 10 hour while in charge of children during the day. I don't mean I would work for 10 hours straight.

I could write it in less time, but only if I was happy just to pass, rather than get a good grade. It also helps if it's a topic you are especially interested in, as I find I get less writers block with those.

Dimots, that sounds doable. So you think about 200 words per hour, is that including the reading too? Or once you've had your reading finished?

Including the reading. But I am a very fast reader and good at skimming over the irrelevant stuff. I assume you have internet access to the relevant journals? And a basic knowledge of the subject to guide you? Make a list of the keywords you want to use in the search engine on the journal webpages and systematically go through them all, skim reading the results and making a note of the titles and authors of the relevant ones to read more thoroughly.

About a day, maybe a bit more. The research would take the most time imo.

Brilliant, thanks for the tips dimot!

I'm starting to panic a bit now. I'm such a slow reader and get easily distracted by other lines of enquiry and end up going off on tangents! I have only one day to finish it now, deadline is 5pm tomorrow. I still have 1200 to write plus associated reading

Sorry that's a totally whining post!

2 or 3 evenings, with no interruptions and plenty of biscuits to munch on

About a month, with my present life!

I did my dissertation (undergrad) in less than 2 days. 6000 words. Good plan, themes in order. Find and skim articles, wrote that theme. Find and skim next lot and write that theme and so on. Got a decent enough mark. Not that I particularly recommend that way of doing assignments!

You can do this. Stop worrying and get Reading. My dissertation analysis (5k) was done in the space of 2-3 days with no library access. You can do this, just get started, 1.2k to go is nothing.

Breathe