When you enter a doctoral program to earn a PhD, you will learn a lot about how to conduct your own research. At the culmination of your degree program, you’ll produce a dissertation.
In the US, everything that was previously listed is how schools differentiate between a thesis and a dissertation. A thesis is performed by master’s students, and a dissertation is written by PhD candidates.
- Each is considered a final project and required to graduate
- Both require immense understanding of the material
- Written skills are key to complete both
- Neither can be plagiarized
- Both are used to defend an argument
- Both require analytical skills
- You will have to draft, rewrite, and edit both pieces of writing
- For both, it is useful to have another person look over before submission
- Both papers are given deadlines
- A thesis is at least 100 pages in length
- A dissertation is 2-3x that in length
- A thesis expands upon and analyzes existing research
- A dissertation’s content is mostly attributed to the student as the author
What is a Dissertation?
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Structurally, the two pieces of written analysis have many differences.
Let’s look at how the two scholarly works are similar and different:
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Structurally, the two pieces of written analysis have many differences.
University of the People is an entirely online, US accredited and tuition-free institution dedicated to higher education. You can earn your Master’s in Business Administration or your Master’s in Education. Not to mention, there are a handful of associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs to choose from as well.
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In Europe, the distinction between a thesis and dissertation becomes a little more cloudy. That’s because PhD programs may require a doctoral thesis to graduate. Then, as a part of a broader post-graduate research project, students may complete a dissertation.
On the other hand, a dissertation will more than likely require the doctoral student to conduct their own research and then perform analysis. The other big difference is that a thesis is for master’s students and the dissertation is for PhD students.
The biggest difference between a thesis and a dissertation is that a thesis is based on existing research.
Let’s break down what a dissertation and thesis are so that you have a strong handle on what’s expected. For both a thesis and a dissertation, there is an obvious fluency and understanding of the subject one studies.
University: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Faculty: Computer Science
Author: John Criswell
Award: 2014 Doctoral Dissertation Award
Title: Secure Virtual Architecture: Security for Commodity Software Systems
University: University of Minnesota
Faculty: Chemical Engineering
Author: Eric A. Vandre
Award: 2014 Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics
Title: Onset of Dynamics Wetting Failure: The Mechanics of High-speed Fluid Displacement
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University: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Faculty: Marketing
Author: Ezgi Akpinar
Award: McKinsey Marketing Dissertation Award 2014
Title: Consumer Information Sharing: Understanding Psychological Drivers of Social Transmission
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University: London School of Economics
Faculty: International Development
Author: Lajos Kossuth
Award: 2016 Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
Title: Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction
University: University College London
Faculty: Geography
Author: Anna Knowles-Smith
Award: 2017 Royal Geographical Society Undergraduate Dissertation Prize
Title: Refugees and theatre: an exploration of the basis of self-representation
University: Columbia University
Faculty: History
Author: Julien Saint Reiman
Award: 2018 Charles A. Beard Senior Thesis Prize
Title: “A Starving Man Helping Another Starving Man”: UNRRA, India, and the Genesis of Global Relief, 1943-1947
From our own experience, we know how difficult it is to begin writing a thesis, especially if you don’t know where to start. Looking at other theses can give you initial ideas for how to get started and help you work out the best structure for your own research.
Once you have established “what is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation”, it is important to move a step further and check at their similarities. Here are some of them:
Thesis vs Dissertation in Europe: The distinction between dissertations and thesis in Europe largely follows what was used during Shakespeare’s era. However, the names are interchanged. A thesis is an original research work that a student has to complete to be awarded a PhD. However, a dissertation is part of the research project for a master’s degree.
When the master’s student wanted to advance in academics, he/she was required to work on a dissertation. Unlike the thesis, which was mainly based on the student idea, the dissertation was a sort of literature review of works done by others. The student was required to read widely in his area of interest and write findings discussing various opinions and authorities.
Both thesis and dissertations require a defense. That means presenting your work to the assessment committee and defending the study before getting awarded a master or PhD degree.
Dissertation vs Thesis: Major Similarities
Whether you are working on a thesis or dissertation, the first step is writing a proposal.
Both papers are prepared by post-graduate students either at the masters or PhD levels.
To demonstrate the main difference between thesis and dissertation, we will go back to back to the beginning. During Shakespeare’s days, a master’s student was required to write a thesis. That was an original paper where the student maintained a specific proposition. The focus was on the student’s idea. Then, he would read the thesis to the thesis committee that would assess his/her ideas, their arrangement, and clarity.
University: University of Edinburgh
Faculty: Informatics
Author: Christopher Sipola
Award: 2018 Social Responsibility & Sustainability Dissertation Prize
Title: Summarizing electricity usage with a neural network
University: Columbia University
Faculty: History
Author: Julien Saint Reiman
Award: 2018 Charles A. Beard Senior Thesis Prize
Title: “A Starving Man Helping Another Starving Man”: UNRRA, India, and the Genesis of Global Relief, 1943-1947
As you read the examples below, bear in mind that all universities have their own guidelines for writing theses and dissertations. The requirements for length, format and structure often vary by faculty and department, and different disciplines have different research conventions. We highly recommend that you review your own university’s and programme’s policies, and discuss any doubts with your supervisor.
University: London School of Economics
Faculty: International Development
Author: Lajos Kossuth
Award: 2016 Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance
Title: Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction
Award-winning undergraduate theses
University: University of Ottawa
Faculty: Physics
Author: Guillaume Thekkadath
Award: 2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Sciences Prize
Title: Joint measurements of complementary properties of quantum systems
University: University of Ottawa
Faculty: Education
Author: Matthew Brillinger
Award: 2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Humanities Prize
Title: Educational Park Planning in Berkeley, California, 1965-1968
This article collects a list of undergraduate, master’s and PhD theses and dissertations that have won prizes for their high-quality research.
Author’s Last, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case (Publication or Document No.) [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Database name.
Stiles, T. W. (2001). Doing science: Teachers’ authentic experiences at the Lone Star Dinosaur Field Institute [Master’s thesis, Texas A&M University]. OAKTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2001-THESIS-S745
If you are interested in learning more about how to handle works that were accessed via academic research databases, see Section 9.3 of the Publication manual.
Since theses and dissertations are directly linked to educational degrees, it is necessary to list the name of the associated institution
Citing a Published Dissertation or Thesis from a Database
Author’s Last, F. M . (Year Published). Title in sentence case [Degree type thesis or dissertation, Name of institution]. Name of archive or collection. URL
When you decide to cite a dissertation or thesis, you’ll need to look for the following information to use in your citation:
Author’s Last, F. M. (Year published). Title in sentence case [Unpublished Degree type thesis or dissertation]. Name of institution.
If a thesis or dissertation has been published and is found on a database, then follow the structure below. It’s similar to the format for an unpublished dissertation/thesis, but with a few differences: