This might be a silly question but why are theses so long (200+ pages)? Someone just told me that they finished their 213 pages-long bachelor’s thesis, but I‘m confused about who the audience would be. Who would spend so much time reading a 213 thesis of a bachelor student? Do people actually read them? What is the purpose of some theses being so long. Also, on a Masters level, does the long length not make important information inaccessible, because it‘s buried deep down in those hundreds of pages?
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The purpose of the thesis is really not primarily about advancing human knowledge and even less about communicating that more effectively. Instead, the thesis provides the student with a structured opportunity to practice a field’s methodological tools with rigor and depth, and to demonstrate to their advisors that they have mastered the methodology and understand the complications and the limitations of the field’s techniques. And that means going into depth on methodological details, complications, and methodological solutions to an extent that isn’t really necessary if you’re trying to efficiently communicate a new finding.
From this perspective, a thesis doesn’t need to generate any new knowledge to be successful, it just needs to give the writer a reason to practice the methodology, and it to show off their skills to advisors. If along the way the thesis really does develop something new and interesting to the field, then it’s not uncommon for the student and their advisors to repackage it into a much more approachable (i.e. shorter) research paper for publication.
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