Every time I write something (be it article or dissertation chapter), I have a few moments of wondering if I have *enough*: i.e., enough material, etc. I've always been someone who wrote shorter chapters than longer - I've rarely had to cut large swathes of material out of a piece (aside from the slash and burn technique that would transform a chapter into a conference paper, of course).
I'm at that point in this article I'm working on - that point where I look around and go, "Shit, do I have enough?"
So, I ask the blogosphere: What is your usual article length (in either double-spaced pages or words)? I've read some great really long articles and some great fairly short ones - the one that's coming out next month is 31 pages double spaced. What is the correspondence between typed and printed pages - I'm sure it varies greatly, but is there an average conversion?
I know that the length is *correct* once you've said all about the topic that you have to say (i.e., it's done when it's done). But, folks, I'm seeking arbitrary opinions here! What's the bare minimum of pages you'd submit an article as?
Okay. Enough procrastination...
13 comments:
I don't have a handy conversion factor; I did calculate one once, by comparing the wordcount of something I'd written to its published final version, but I think I deleted the sticky on which I noted the answer. My recollection is that the printed pagecount ended up being around two thirds of the typescript page count.
Anyway, I can report that the longest article-esque thing I ever managed to write was around 12,000 words/45pp, and for a major philological jnl I was asked to cut it down to under 40pp. Other than that, I've always written short little things. I have to force myself to stretch to 25pp. (and journals have not seemed unhappy with that length).
(Unrelatedly: I emailed you at gmail re: upcoming conference.)
This isn't any kind of definitive answer, but FWIW... I'm editing an essay collection, and we've asked each contributor for 10,000 words including footnotes. Most of them are in that ballpark; the shortest is probably around 8,000.
Oh, actually that totally helps T & P/H! This piece is for an edited collection, so that's a great barometer!
I've edited a few collections, and that allows for greater variation depending on the editor. I don't blink at anything between 15-35 pages (approx. 250 wds/page). Less than that starts to look like a note, more than that looks like a start of a book.
Personally, I *wish* scholars would write shorter pieces. As both an editor and a reader, I find the whole 25 page ideal annoying, since it produces papers that look like they were written by Procrutes.
I couldn't agree more Dr. N! There's nothing like a succinct little gem that really does some good, pointed work on a manageable topic.
RSN and MW, you're making me feel better about my scholarly future. I'm constantly in despair about my inability to generate long screeds. I think in small chunks,
I just submitted something for an edited collection where the editors had asked for essays in the ballpark of 6,000 words. That struck me as short, but with effort I wrestled parts of an extremely long diss chapter down to 7,000, or 23 pages, and I think it turned out to be a nice stand-alone piece.
My longest publication is 39 published pages, including notes (65 typescript, and close to 20,000 words), but that was for a journal that routinely takes articles of that length. It was, obviously, a diss chapter (+ about five pages of framing material), and although I'm quite proud of it, I don't ever expect ever to publish anything that long again!
I think I once calculated that printed book pages tend to have somewhere near 500 words/page and my typescript pages are usually 300-350 words, so Tiruncula's estimate of 2/3 sounds right to me.
Yikes! I am much more prolix! I wish I could write shorter articles, under the theory that maybe then I'd get more of them out. All the shorter pieces I've written have been for edited collections; left to my own devices to write for a journal, I always end up with 40 pages (print).
On the other hand, since Office Park basically takes no notice of articles, I've given up on them lately anyway.
I also write short. I've been that way since my undergraduate years, and I've always been insecure about it. I've published three peer-reviewed articles so far, and I've always been distressed by how much they shrink from double-spaced manuscript to print version: my first one (in a journal that specialized in ABD & recent Ph.D. pubs) was nine journal pages long; the second was eleven; the third was sixteen. I've got one out for review right now that is about 35 pages long in manuscript, which means that, once again, I won't be cracking the 20-page mark.
I've been thinking about this a lot, as I work on my book MS. I've wailed about the problem to senior mentors, who say, "The publishers will love you for that!" But I secretly don't think they understand precisely how short I write. I have three of six substantive chapters drafted, and they total just over 130 pages. Double-spaced. That's about 70 real book pages. 140 if you double that. 175 if you add intro, conclusion, and bibliography. Is that really a book?
(As you can see, you've touched a nerve here.)
Notorious, my book came in at 173 pages - so yeah, that's enough! :)
Pilgrim/Heretic: Thank you! Hooray!
((dares to hope))
A little late to this but now I have officially delurked I want to comment! I also tend to write very short articles - my most recent one currently in press is actually only 18 pages double-spaced including notes (the bare minimum specified by the journal editor was 15 pages - I was grateful for that!). For a collection I'm co-editing, we've asked contributors for essays of 7,000 words. I am also very worried about how I will ever bash out a full book!
It's so interesting to hear how long everyone writes! As an update, I just heard from the collection editor and she wants 7000 words w/out footnotes, so that's great! I was budgeting 8500, so now I'm actually 30% done with this article!
(ahem, notice the counter stage right!) :)
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