One of the aspects that students have to keep in mind when they are working on their post-graduate essay is the word count. Whether it is too little or it is too much, it can cause trouble for the students either way. The colleges give what the correct word count should be in their regulatory documents. The students should read it religiously and make sure they follow it to the last letter.
Each department will have its own style guide rules. If the students are part of the history program then they should read the rules that have been laid down by the history department. One of the rules that some departments would laid down is that the word count should be written on the title page or the cover sheet.
The word length is calculated by including all the main text and footnotes. However, it is important to note that many universities do not insist that the title and the bibliography be included as part of the word length. In fact, the statement that describes the word length is also not part of the overall count. Quite a few departments have lain down that while images do not constitute a part of the overall word count, tables do.
Students include appendices in their dissertations. However, this content does not go as part of the overall word count if they are providing illustrative reference material. On the other hand if they are including substantive argument as part of the appendices then it is necessary that this content should be part of the word count.
Many students use the word check facility in MS Word to calculate their word count. When they are doing this, it is essential that they set it in a way that it calculates the words in the footnote as well.