okay so i want to address something that comes up constantly in dissertation groups, student forums, and pretty much every academic support space i've ever been in and that is the question of how long should a dissertation literature review be because despite being one of the most asked questions in the entire dissertation writing process it somehow still doesn't have a clear satisfying answer anywhere online and that genuinely drives me crazy so let me just give you the most honest and practical breakdown i can so you can stop googling this and start actually writing.
the standard rule that holds true across the vast majority of UK universities at both undergraduate and masters level is that your literature review should account for roughly 20 to 30 percent of your total dissertation word count and this applies across most subject areas although there are exceptions. so for a 10,000 word undergraduate dissertation you are looking at somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 words for your literature review. for a masters dissertation sitting at around 15,000 words that number goes up to somewhere between 3,000 and 4,500 words and for a 20,000 word dissertation you are looking at somewhere in the region of 4,000 to 6,000 words. but as always when trying to nail down how long should a dissertation literature review be for your specific situation please go and check your module handbook before you do anything else because your university's own guidelines will always trump any general advice you find on the internet some courses and some subject areas have their own specific requirements and knowing yours is absolutely essential before you start planning your word count distribution