okay so i am just going to get straight to the point becausehow long should a literature review be is one of those dissertation questions that has been surrounded by so much vague and contradictory advice online that students end up more confused after searching than they were before they started. so here is the clearest answer i can give you. your literature review should make up roughly 20 to 30 percent of your total dissertation word count — so for a 10,000 word dissertation that is somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 words and for a masters dissertation of around 15,000 to 20,000 words that number climbs to between 3,000 and 6,000 words. always check your module handbook first though because your university's own guidelines will always be more accurate than any general rule you find online.