One of the most common questions students ask is, how long should a dissertation literature review be? While there's no single rule, most universities recommend that the literature review makes up about 20–30% of the total dissertation word count.
For a 10,000-word dissertation, this usually means the literature review should be around 2,000–3,000 words. This length allows you to critically evaluate existing research, identify gaps in the literature, and clearly position your own study within the field.
Instead of worrying only about word count, focus on depth, coherence, and critical analysis. A concise, well-structured dissertation literature review is far more valuable than a longer section that simply summarizes sources without synthesis.