What's the longest research/critical paper you've ever written?

[irain]

What's the longest one you've ever written?

I, for one, have just completed a 20-page research paper for my Honors Asian-Studies class (prep-class for AP U.S. History).

My topic was on whether or not Japan should become a nuclear power.

[dpaanlka]

21 pages. I hope I never have to do anything like that ever again ever.

[shecky]

depends on how you define "written" and "research" but my degree project (graphic design BFA) was a book (actually one book in 12 volumes) totaling about 3000 pages with one image per page. it was not linguistic "writing," but it was a visual language and it was research.

as far as actual "words" i did a 25 page paper a while back.

[n-abounds]

I don't really remember, but I think I did:

a 20 page English paper on John Constable (Romantic painter) for junior year English in highschool

a 20 page Economics paper on how subsidies of US agricultural products affect developing countries, differently affect people within those countries, and how it affects the US itself. I did this for junior year economics in college.

And I think I did another, but I totally can't remember (fried from finals).

[gauchogolfer]

My PhD dissertation was a tidy 160 pages, not like those 400-pagers that some people put out. That's the most I've written.

[Leareth]

52 pages handed it in last week... before that my most was 43 pages...

next one will be 100 pages minimum:cool:

[SamIchi]

I can't imagine writing that much. I don't think I've ever done more than like a 7 page paper.

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

325328950235 pages.

[n-abounds]

I once wrote a 10 page paper on the Tuatara (rare branch of reptile species). I did that when I was in 6th grade (12 y/o)

[eva01]

not that this counts but I wrote a 25-30 page genetics lab report on: Restriction Endonuclease, lysase (I think), Transcription, Translation, E.coli, Plasmid DNA, Amphicilin (sp), another antibiotic that starts with a K, can't remember name, and transformation.

Basically we cut a plasmid DNA added in a resistance gene, then transformed it into the E.coli making it resistant to antibiotics.

[Leareth]

not that this counts but I wrote a 25-30 page genetics lab report on: Restriction Endonuclease, lysase (I think), Transcription, Translation, E.coli, Plasmid DNA, Amphicilin (sp), another antibiotic that starts with a K, can't remember name, and transformation.

Basically we cut a plasmid DNA added in a resistance gene, then transformed it into the E.coli making it resistant to antibiotics.

oh I remember this lab exercise from my molecular genetics class... did you run the gels to prove that there was a genetic change beside the survival in antibiotic growth medium? :rolleyes: :D :o

[eva01]

oh I remember this lab exercise from my molecular genetics class... did you run the gels to prove that there was a genetic change beside the survival in antibiotic growth medium? :rolleyes: :D :o

yes we did southern blots before transformation and after.

And of multiple colonies, since of course some colonies may have gotten a mutation randomly.

It was a very fun lab

I think my Introduction and materials and methods was 14 pages alone.

[yg17]

Probably not too long at all, certainly not 20+ pages. If I'm writing about something I really care about, I can go on and on. In high school, I wrote a research paper about violence in videogames and their effect (or lack thereof) on the people who play them, and since I love videogames and believe that violence does not have negative effects, I was able to go on and on, producing a pretty long research paper, and it was good too, because I got an A on it (I never get As in English). But if it's a topic that was just randomly assigned to me and I couldn't care less about it, I'm lucky to get 5 pages and a B

[Leareth]

yes we did southern blots before transformation and after.

And of multiple colonies, since of course some colonies may have gotten a mutation randomly.

It was a very fun lab

I think my Introduction and materials and methods was 14 pages alone.

I had to go look in my paper archives to find it again, and my intro, material and methods are 22 pages !!! the results and discussion are another 17... so 39 total for one lab paper...wow... those were the days...
now I can just write something like this for the methods : "as in Doe et al. 1999" and skip 10 pages of text, grr.

[NJuul]

not that this counts but I wrote a 25-30 page genetics lab report on: Restriction Endonuclease, lysase (I think), Transcription, Translation, E.coli, Plasmid DNA, Amphicilin (sp), another antibiotic that starts with a K, can't remember name, and transformation.

Basically we cut a plasmid DNA added in a resistance gene, then transformed it into the E.coli making it resistant to antibiotics.


Heh, I too have been through this exact lab-course, guess basic courses in molecular biology are pretty much the same everywhere.

Anywho, the longest paper I've ever written is my master thesis currently residing on my hdd. Approximately 100 pages to be delivered on January 4th. About research I've done into the molecular biology of Chlamydia.

[raggedjimmi]

Strictly words? A research document about game design for college. I basically analysed every 2D that had been considered good, came up to about 20 pages. I do use a small font :o did it for years until the first year of university where they said "oi, James, bigger font". ho hum.

Got a feeling I'll be writing a huge project soon though. Protocol Analysis too.

[Cassie]

3 pages.:o

EDIT: Yay, 500 posts. :)

[steelphantom]

My longest paper was a measly 8 pages on "No Child Left Behind" for my Honors Freshman English class last year at Penn State. I had a hard time thinking of enough crap to fill 8 pages! I don't know how some of you guys can write these 20+ (and in some cases over 100! :eek: ) page papers! I guess I just get to the point too quickly... :o

[TheAnswer]

Probably around 10 pages or so...

[OnceUGoMac]

20 pages when I was in 6th grade. Crazy.

[savar]

What's the longest one you've ever written?

I, for one, have just completed a 20-page research paper for my Honors Asian-Studies class (prep-class for AP U.S. History).

My topic was on whether or not Japan should become a nuclear power.

My undergrad thesis was about 65 pages I think...which is by the far the most I've written. Most papers in college were in the 7-10 page range for me. I know some art history majors had *multiple* papers of *over 100* pages each. Ouch.

[04440]

I just wanted to look in this form and see how much these other majors had to suffer.. I'm an art student so I never had to write a huge paper.. For English class I think my longest paper was about 14 pages... I thought I was dead when I reached half way point. I think there should be a forum on how many nights you stayed up doing a sculpture project :)

[OutThere]

not that this counts but I wrote a 25-30 page genetics lab report on: Restriction Endonuclease, lysase (I think), Transcription, Translation, E.coli, Plasmid DNA, Amphicilin (sp), another antibiotic that starts with a K, can't remember name, and transformation.

Basically we cut a plasmid DNA added in a resistance gene, then transformed it into the E.coli making it resistant to antibiotics.

Yeah...definitely a sweet lab. We did it in my high school honors bio class...it was way ahead of what we had been doing and we didn't have a great grasp on it, and the teacher did simplify some things for us, but it was still really cool to see the comparison between different antibiotics attacking the e.coli.

Our teacher didn't really do anything by the book, but that class wound up being one of my best classes in high school and definitely my favorite teacher.

btw I think it was ligase and ampycillin, not that anyone really cares. :p


My longest paper was a 10 or 11 page american history term paper on the causes of the dust bowl. Really, really cool stuff that makes big ties between group psychology and environmental science. :)

edit: I'm also only a freshman in college, and I expect much bigger papers to come...*cringes*

[04440]

Beware OutThere... Beware.. The best is yet to come :eek:

[ero87]

mac users = very intelligent.

[jessica.]

97 pages for my senior thesis before earning my BA. Before that it was only 60 ish on the history of architecture, one style in particular of course. Combined with a group 200 it was a book. I presume my thesis for my masters will be quite large. I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoy research papers. I hate formatting though.

[hayduke]

My Ph.D. thesis was 265 pages. I just finished writing a grant that was 128 pages. It was a b*&#h to write, but it got funded. Yea!!!!

[iRachel]

Right now, my undergrad thesis is my longest, at 56 pages.

Soon to be surpassed by my dissertation - people in my program average about 300 pages.

[sunfast]

Three training portfolios at 80 pages each and one MSc dissertation at about 60 pages.

I'm in no hurry to do a doctorate!

[Patmian212]

5,000 words (7 pages or so) in my senior high school economics class. I had to analyze the MP3 market and say if the iPod should be considered a monopoly or not.

[xUKHCx]

"A Critical Comparison of different Granulation Routes in the Pharmaceutical Industry" is currently 75 pages long and a total of 12638 words. It is my 3rd Design project for my degree, MEng Chemical Engineering with Management. There are lots of graphs about 40. It will more than likely double in pages by the time I have finished it.


Next year I have two research projects to do co-currently.

[dllavaneras]

Most of my Ecology Lab papers average 40-50 pages, and the next one on food webs should be a fair bit larger.
I've never written a paper over 60-70 pages, and certainly don't look forward to it! Seeing as I have to churn out a 30-something page paper every week for my different labs, Leareth's method helps A LOT!
now I can just write something like this for the methods : "as in Doe et al. 1999" and skip 10 pages of text

Of course, that means I have to read a few different methods by different authors, which isn't exactly the most fun thing to do

[nukiduz]

i can't remember which one has been the longest one but it could be around 50 pages. however it's something i am pretty used to. i have to write two 30 page essays for class in february and another two of about 10 pages. it's common when you're studying philosophy.

[davechen]

My PhD dissertation was about 125 pages. Boy was that painful to write, and I did it in Mac Word 5.

[miloblithe]

I think I've written about 5 or 6 30-35 page papers between undergrad (english) and grad school (international affairs).

[jdechko]

My senior research paper on RFID technology in the supply chain was about 26 pages with 3-4 pictures. It would have been 24 without the pictures. So much fun.

[floriflee]

I wrote a 23 page paper my junior year of undergrad. It had a smattering of pictures and was about ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) transmissions across WANs. Very fascinating stuff....

[Diatribe]

About a 100 pages for my BA thesis. The only crazy thing is that I did this in 3 weeks... :eek:

[PlaceofDis]

about 25 pages or so i think. i might have done a 30 at some point though too.

i miss writing papers. it was always a fun challenge for me.

[Leareth]

Most of my Ecology Lab papers average 40-50 pages, and the next one on food webs should be a fair bit larger.
I've never written a paper over 60-70 pages, and certainly don't look forward to it! Seeing as I have to churn out a 30-something page paper every week for my different labs, Leareth's method helps A LOT!


Of course, that means I have to read a few different methods by different authors, which isn't exactly the most fun thing to do

I though the same for my lab courses when I did realize that they are all copying each other and there really arent that many different acceptable ways of doing most labs. I can usually get away with writing : procedure modified from/after Doe et al. 1999, or based on smith and white 2005. all you have to mention is how you changed it. saves lots of time and plus your profs should be up to date on the various methods/techniques/procedures. :cool: :D , I dont expect the upper level students to outline the history and reasoning for using that particular method, if it is an accepted method tell which used and done. :rolleyes:

[Shadow]

About 18 for my GCSE Chemistry coursework. Not sure if that counts, but still....I once wrote about 15 pages on the Greenhouse Effect in about 3 days (only about 3 hours each day).

[furcalchick]

longest i think was one i did only a couple of months ago. 12+ page research paper on bradykinins for indedpendent study. got an A on it.

that's the longest single paper i've done in my life, most of my major essays have been around 10 pages (did another one just last week prior to graduating with a bs in biology, 3.41 gpa and conceration in biotech)

i feel for the ones that have to write a really long essay for high school though. most of the busisness school sutdents however did like 20 page essays alot.

[viccles]

Probably around 3000 words. That will change next year to about 10 000 when I write my thesis

[mariahlullaby]

I'm only a freshman in college, so I've yet to write anything particularly long. I just turned in an 8 page paper on "The Portrayal of Ethnic Women in Print Advertising" which wasn't so bad. I think that's about my longest...most average about 6-7 pages.

[iSaint]

Even though I have good technical skills, I don't really enjoy putting together a big writing project. For my master's I wrote several short (3-5 pp.) papers a week. But, I never had a big paper to write save for a 17 pager, which was the beginnings of a research paper. It was designed to give us a feel for a long-term research project.

[Chaszmyr]

The longest paper I've ever actually completed with 10 pages (I've written a few of these. I actually wrote one tonight), but I'm in the process of writing my undergraduate honors thesis that looks like it will be 25-30 pages.

[ejb190]

My MS thesis was about 200 pages on growing woody perennial plants in recycled paper containers.

I did that transformation stuff in college too, but I was doing it in a research lab, not in the classroom. That was always fun stuff to do, especially when you finally understood what you were doing!

[Clydefrog]

I believe mine was a measly 8 pages last year in English:o

[me_94501]

I've reached 17 pages. A lot for me relative to what I normally write, but nothing compared to what some people here have pulled off... :eek:

It had to do with gate communities in LA.

[ieani]

8 to 10 pages Id guess. Most were not too long. Id write the majority of my English papers in my 40 min. study hall beforehand. Quantity wasnt good and content was so-so but my English teacher had a crutch for well-flowing, entertaining writing.

[Lord Blackadder]

This brings back not-so-distant undergrad memories.

I wrote a bunch of 20 page research papers as an undergrad...I've been writing a lot more as a graduate student, but not necessarily long pieces - articles for academic journals might only be 10-12 pages without illustrations and citations. I expect my Master's thesis will be somwhere in the triple digits, but I'll have 9 months or so to write it after I finish my fieldwork, so I'm not worried.:)

[extraextra]

about 20 pages, i dread the day i have to write my dissertation. :eek:

[wmmk]

23 pages on medieval religious minorities in 6th grade, then 57 pages on the effects of caffeine on cognitive ability for the illinois state science fair. sheesh, those took a while!

[Abstract]

72 pages for my Masters thesis.

My PhD thesis will likely be 150 pages or so, which is actually quite concise. I'm not trying to be concise though. I'm just lazy.

[mikes63737]

37 pages on Queen Elizabeth in 9th grade (last year)... the longest I've written this year so far is 3 pages.

[smueboy]

Longest peer-reviewed paper i've written was 10 pages printed.

But my PhD thesis was 249 double-sided pages - so that's definitely the longest thing i hope to ever write. :)

[Lovesong]

42 pages on dopamine receptors... that's not counting references.
And I still have my PhD thesis to look forward to:eek:

[poopyhead]

35 page political science senior seminar paper applying Lenin's definition of imperialism to US foreign policy, world bank, and IMF

[killmoms]

Never went for a post-grad degree (and never plan to, more school = yuck). So the longest paper I've ever written was an 18-page paper about the effects of Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast on mass media in America for a seminar class on the history of American radio and television.

If I'd known more about Ed Murrow's life when we had to select a topic (early in the semester) I would've chosen something to do with him instead. As the semester went on we spent a lot of time on Murrow's contributions to CBS' news department and I basically developed the biggest historical-crush of my life. :D By happenstance, "Good Night and Good Luck" came out just as we finished that portion of the class and so several of us went to go see it. Having just researched all the issues surrounding the McCarthy broadcasts I think we all had a greater appreciation for the film (though obviously not all of it was perfectly accurate).

[job]

My longest will be my senior research in the Political Science department, which will probably roll in at around 125-150 pages.

Currently, the longest one I've written was 30 double-sided pages for my American Foreign Policy Formulation course.

Longest foreign language paper will be my Senior Project for German next year, which will be anywhere from 15-20 pages.