Young minds have to write so many different academic papers in the course of their education life. Each assignment has its nature, base, requirements and expectations. The common confusion among scholars is the difference between thesis and dissertation. Moreover, both have long writing formats, and students often find both equally lengthy. However, both of them have a lot of differences as well.
The student pursuing a master’s degree has to write a thesis to put their thoughts on the subject they studied. Dissertation writing is crucial for scholars to complete their PhD and involves researching a lot. Moreover, both have to be the original work. However, students can seek thesis or PhD dissertation help for collecting information. Furthermore, both the writing needs a lot of research and strong arguments.
The significant distinction between both is that the thesis is written on secondary sources and data. At the same time, the dissertation needs to conduct new research and accomplish an analysis.
Let’s see in detail the key differences and a few similarities in both of them.
What Is Master’s Thesis?
A Master’s thesis is a lengthy literature review assigned to scholars. The students who are pursuing their master’s degree write a thesis. It requires a lot of research on the existing data. Moreover, they write about the topic to show their knowledge, capability and literacy.
What Is a PhD Dissertation?
A PhD dissertation is a piece of writing that is written by students pursuing a doctorate. It is based on primary research; it should not be published elsewhere. Moreover, it helps contribute new ideas and theories in the subject matter. It can take several years to get completed, even half a decade.
It was a brief definition of the thesis and dissertation. Below are some essential differences that will help you distinguish between them.
Key Difference
Let’s look into the difference between both of the academic writings:
Length
The length of both writings is where students get confused. A dissertation is around 400- 500 pages, whereas a thesis is covered under 100 pages. Moreover, scholars get stuck in writing where they seek thesis and dissertation writing services. In addition, they provide the complete guidelines for completing it.
Time Required
As mentioned, a thesis must be completed within two years of a master’s degree. On the other hand, the dissertation takes 4-5 years to complete, as it needs primary data. Moreover, students in this long journey of academic writing need thesis and dissertation help, which seems challenging to find. In addition, they can seek online guidance for their subject.
Degree
Scholars pursuing masters are required to write a thesis. However, students completing their doctorate, also known as a PhD, are asked to write a dissertation on the subject matter.
Research
As mentioned above, the thesis is based on secondary data, whereas you have to collect primary sources for the dissertation. Both of them require research. Moreover, in thesis writing, you can take help from literature writing to complete it. However, a dissertation provides the review and data because it contributes to that subject matter.
Cost and Tuition Fees
The master’s degree is usually for a shorter time, so it does not receive any assistance. However, a PhD dissertation gets a yearly stipend for the research conducted.
These were the prime differences between the thesis and the dissertation. Moreover, they may look similar because of some reasons mentioned below:
Basic Similarities
Let’s look at some of the similarities between a Master’s Thesis and a PhD dissertation :
- Both of them are final-year projects. Moreover, it is necessary to submit them before completing the particular degree.
- Whether it is thesis or dissertation writing, each requires in-depth research for the paper.
- They should specify the research question. It will make clear what you are more focused on in your paper.
- Formal writing skill is consequential in both the thesis and dissertation.
- Research should be ethical in both papers. Moreover, the data and resources should be practised critically.
- Any college does not accept plagiarism in any of its writings.
- Both need evidence and facts to support their topic.
- Each of them needs to go through editing and proofreading before the submission.
There were some similarities in both academic writing. Let’s see the basic structure of the thesis and dissertation.
Basic Structure of Writing Thesis and Dissertation
The structure of both thesis and dissertation is almost the same. It can be changed if the professor has given some guidelines or criteria.
Let’s have a look at the typical structure:
Abstract
An Abstract is the overview of the whole paper, which is attached at the front of the document. It should be the gist of the topic and highlight the main points. Moreover, it will help the readers to get an idea of your thesis or dissertation theme.
Tip: Write your abstract at the end of the completion of the whole writing so that you can highlight the main points and write them down.
Introduction
The introduction should be clear, crisp, and concise. It should answer 5Ws and 1H in it. Moreover, it will give a clear idea of your topic and how the research was conducted.
Tip: Rewrite or check your intro after completing your work to connect the dots.
Literature Review
A literature review is the section in which you write a review about the research posted online or available in some sources on the same topic. You can write what you have understood with that review and how they helped with your research.
Methods
The methodology page includes the sources and methods you used while doing research. It establishes the process of choosing the research criteria that suit your practice.
Results
In the result section, add your data, the answers and hypotheses that came out while researching. It should be based on the data you have collected.
Tip: Use graphs and tables to make it look more attractive.
Discussion
In discussion, you can discuss the outcome of your research. Moreover, you can add analysis and interpretation of the topic, literature review and the data collected by you. You can show the limitations, unexpected results, and unanswered questions of your research with an explanation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you can summarize everything in a nutshell. It may be the most crucial page of your document. Moreover, you may add the highlights and achievements of your research. Revise after the writing so that you do not miss out on answering any questions and the main objectives of your paper.
It is the basic format to write your thesis or dissertation.
Conclusion
A thesis and dissertation both carry their importance in different degrees. Moreover, both of them are irreplaceable to one another. Both of them have their structure and methodology. Students often need master’s thesis and PhD dissertation help in writing and formation. Moreover, they can always seek guidance online!