The Critical Report is approximately 5,000 words, so I needed to plan the word count before I became too attached to individual sections.

The assignment brief allows some flexibility around the total, but the report still needs to remain concise. I know from previous writing that I can easily spend too many words explaining context and then leave myself very little room for the actual discussion.

I therefore created a provisional word-count plan before drafting the full report.

My Initial Split

At this stage, I divided the report into approximately 500 words for the Introduction, 1,000 for the Literature Review, 500 for the Methodology, 2,500 for the Findings and Discussion, and 500 for the Conclusion.

This was never intended to be a fixed rule. It was a way of showing myself where the emphasis needed to sit.

The largest section is the Findings and Discussion because that is where my primary research, secondary research and design implications need to come together. I did not want to spend half of the report establishing context and then rush the section where my own analysis actually happens.

Protecting Space for Discussion

This is probably the most useful part of planning the word count early.

The autism, tourism, airport accessibility and technology literature could each become a report in their own right. I need enough context for the reader to understand the project, but I cannot explain every part of each field.

The word limit forces me to decide what is directly relevant to the research question.

Every source and paragraph needs to earn its place in the report.

The Literature Review Cannot Include Everything

The 1,000-word provisional allocation made it obvious that I could not include every paper from my research table.

This helped me begin separating sources into core evidence, useful support and material that had helped my thinking but no longer needed to appear in the final report.

For example, earlier transformative-travel research was important in the development of the project, but as the question moved towards airport accessibility and responsive support, much of that literature became less central to the final argument.

Methodology Needs to Be Concise but Justified

I initially allocated around 500 words to methodology because I need to explain the research approach without turning the section into a general textbook description of qualitative methods.

The most important things are why I used written responses, who participated, how I analysed the data through reflexive thematic analysis and what the limitations of the method are.

The method needs to be justified, but the report should still leave enough space for what the research actually produced.

Keeping the Plan Flexible

As the report develops, I expect these numbers to change.

Some sections may need more space once the argument becomes clearer, and I may combine findings and discussion more closely rather than treating them as completely separate areas.

I would rather adjust the allocation than force an important argument into an arbitrary number of words.

What This Gives Me

The word-count plan gives me a way of checking proportion while I write.

If the introduction starts approaching the size of the findings section, I know I have probably over-explained the background. If the literature review becomes a catalogue of every source I have read, I know I need to cut.

The word count is not only a restriction; it is helping me decide what the report is actually about.