Dissertation vs Thesis: What is the difference?

I’m doing a Masters degree and I’m preparing a 15000 word assessed piece of work, which is research based on a novel topic. Is this a dissertation or a thesis? What is the difference between dissertation and thesis?

3 Answers


  1. In fact, the terms “dissertation” and “thesis” are interchangeable. A thesis as well as a dissertation is a written discourse on the given subject. Although, there are 2 essential differences between a thesis and dissertation. A thesis means that you have to conduct original research. A dissertation implies that you have to synthesize the information collected and perhaps, include your thoughts on it. The second difference lies in the degree you obtain after completing these papers. A thesis allows getting the higher degree; a dissertation is more likely to be the smaller part of the 1st degree.

    When writing a thesis or dissertation, you will have to take into account the first difference we have presented. If you have to write a thesis, you should be aware of the fact that you are to put forward a hypothesis that is absolutely new, your thesis implies that original research is involved. Writing a dissertation requires your knowledge of the recent discoveries. You have to draw absolutely new conclusions on the basis of what you have read and analyzed.

    Thus, a thesis and dissertation are similar kinds of written papers, though differing a bit from each other. Dissertations and theses provide the opportunity to get certain grades. Theses or dissertations have to present the student’s knowledge of the certain subject area; both dissertations and theses have to provide innovations in certain areas of investigation.

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  1. In a dissertation, it is adequate if one has a decent knowledge of the new discoveries in order to arrive at the conclusion effectively. In a thesis one has to substantiate the hypothesis with original research work. The hypothesis or the ‘synopsis’ should contain the gist of the new findings one has made on a subject of research. The written thesis should contain all details of original research work that one has made on the subject. (A thesis may be subjected to scrutiny for any plagiarism to determine the originality of the effort.) Another finite difference between the two is that in a thesis analysis of any existing literature is added, whereas a dissertation by itself is an analysis of any existing literature.

    The difference between thesis and dissertation are given below:

    • You have to utilize already collected information in order to prepare a dissertation whereas thesis is based on the research conducted all by yourself.
    • Thesis is lengthier, thus, takes more time to be completed while dissertation is short; therefore, it does not consume too much time to be completed.
    • In thesis, you have to include a hypothesis based on your research work. In contrast to thesis, you should have a decent knowledge of the new discoveries in order to infer your conclusion effectively in dissertation.
    • In thesis, you have to focus on your primary argument in order to prove your standpoint to the readers. In contrast to thesis, dissertation focuses on your background work.
    • In Master’s dissertation, you have to utilize the research work in order to prove your point; in case of PhD thesis, you have to add novel findings to existing literature.
    • Thesis is written as an academic research paper while dissertation is more like an academic book.
    • Data collected in dissertation is based upon the hypothetical analysis of contents whereas your Thesis is comprised of theory and argumentation based on original research.
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  1. The PhD is a research degree. Unlike a Masters or professional degree, it signals to the world that you have accomplished something significant in the domain of research and the creation of new knowledge. That’s not necessarily a better thing to have done than treat a patient or represent a client or even repair a car – bit it is a different kind of thing, and needs to be respected as such.

    The PhD dissertation is unique in its emphasis on establishing its continuity with the whole body of research in the subject area, not only past and present research but research yet to come. In practice, this means that the major aspect that distinguishes a PhD dissertation from a Masters’ or DBA – type thesis is the degree to which it succeeds in opening up more interesting researchable questions than it resolves.

    Both projects may begin with similar kinds of research questions; but the difference revolves around this distinction:

    – the thesis goes on to answer these questions and present the answers;
    – the dissertation may answer the questions, or it may fail to find conclusive evidence one way or another; in either case, it presents and uses the answers as the basis for formulating further questions, rather than as statements having value in and of themselves.

    The source of this divergence between the thesis model and the dissertation model lies in the degree to which the research question is based in a body of theory about similar kinds of questions, and the degree to which the results are subsequently interpreted in terms of that theory and generalized to a population across which the theory is supposed to apply.

    To illustrate: both kinds of studies might start with a similar sort of question, something like “what factors account for cooperating but different organizations deciding to share applications software?”, and both could address this question with a similar study of several cases in which such cooperating organizations did or did not come to the decision to share. For the thesis, it would be sufficient to say that the question is interesting because particular organizations are losing money because their partners won’t share, and it is sufficient to answer the question by studying how some specific decisions were made in particular cases. Results might consist of formulating several recommendations to both parties as to how to improve their communication and understanding of the situation.

    For the dissertation, however, it is critical to describe the question as a specific instance of a more general set or sets of questions, perhaps relating to the nature of collaborative decision making among populations of organizations, or the processes by which organizations chose mission-critical technologies, or maybe both. The question is then reinterpreted in terms of the categories employed in the theory. The assessment of the actual relationship between measurements is interesting more for what it would allow us to say about the relationships between the theoretical concepts than for its applicability to the specific situations studied.

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