Appendices

The project Plan structure in the coursework pack states that the entire coursework shouldn't exceed 30 pages. If an appendix was added to the coursework, and the coursework (including the appendix) exceeded 30 pages, would the appendix be included in the page limit?

Guess what? It depends!

My philosophy about appendices, at least in academic work, is this:

An appendix may be included to supplement something that is in the
main body of a work, but the work should stand on its own without the Appendices being present.

They are like the bonus features of a DVD, one should not feel that one has to view them to get the meaning of the main presentation. Professor Tolkien and Mr Jackson please note.

This means that you may want to include key extracts of something larger in the main body, and put the whole thing (data tables, spreadsheets, graphics) in the Appendices.

So, Appendices can get you under a page limit to some extent, but it's less elegant than having an integrated report, and I do like a bit of elegance (i.e. I mark it positively when I see it). On the other hand, if something has originality and importance then I like it even more. This is why The Lord of the Rings is still a good film, despite being 247% too long.