Differences between a thesis and a dissertation  

Thesis and dissertation are one of the biggest nightmares any master’s and PhD pursuing student’s life. Why? You may ask. Well, both of these academic papers require an extensive amount of research to be done, along with which one has to also master many other required skills, such as writing, proofreading, drafting, etc.

But the most common confusion that people have about a thesis and a dissertation is which is which. Both of these terms are used so alternatively for each other, that both of them have gotten intertwined with each other. But both of these terms signify different types of academic papers.

Similarities between a thesis and dissertation

Both thesis and dissertation are one of the hardest academic papers that any student has to ever complete in their academic life. So, before talking about the things that separate them, let’s take a brief look on the things that make people confuse them for each other, similarities.

So, some of the similarities between a thesis and dissertation are:

• The thesis and dissertation are both one of the academic papers that are handed over to the students who are pursuing the less common higher studies, such as masters.
• Both the thesis and dissertation require a lot of extensive research to be done before their writing process even starts to people often form misconception about who is studying for what.
• Both of them take a lot of time to prepare and it is quite easy to get confused with whom is spending time on which one.

These are some of the most common similarities between a thesis and dissertation.

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Differences between a thesis and dissertation

Now that we know the reason for the preparation of this content and what are the similarities between thesis and dissertation that often gets them confused with other by people. Let’s talk about the difference between a thesis and dissertation.

So, below are the most differentiating points between a thesis and a dissertation.

1. End Goal

The very difference in the reason for which these both are prepared makes all the difference in the world.

A thesis is assigned to a student pursuing their master’s degree. A student is assigned to prepare a thesis to demonstrate their analytical abilities and how they have learned to make practical use of them on their opted field of study. A thesis is prepared purely with the intent of getting grades.

On the other hand, a dissertation is handed to a PhD student. The aim of a PhD is to fill a recurring or existing research gap in the student’s opted field of study. Unlike a thesis that is just prepared for the purpose of getting graded, a dissertation is prepared to bring a change or contribute in one’s opted field of study.

2. Length

Both the thesis and dissertation are one of the biggest academic papers that you will have to ever prepare during your academic life but they differ a lot in their word lengths.

Since a thesis is prepared for the purpose of getting good grades in college and for portraying one’s ability to use their theoretical and practical skills together, it does not need to be too vast in length. Hence, an average thesis roughly consists of a length of 10,000 words.

Whereas, a dissertation is prepared with the intent to bring a change in a field of study. Therefore, it needs to state all its aspects properly and concisely. Hence, the normal word count of a dissertation falls between the word range of 40,000-50,000 words.

3. Required Research

While both a thesis and a dissertation require quite a lot of research to be made before preparing them, there is still a lot of difference in the amounts required for each.

For a thesis, a sufficient amount of research is needed to be made on the given topic or the opted field of study, in a way that it suffices the required amount of research work. So, for a thesis, the research is needed to be made in a section that is already stated by your professor or supervisor.

This is not the case in a dissertation. In a dissertation, you need to go through an extensive amount of research data present in your field of study, just to find some relevant literary sources for your research and literary gap, along with its topic. This finding can take about 2-3 months.

4. Time taken

Another aspect to take in consideration is the time difference is preparing a thesis and a dissertation.

A thesis is a graded academic paper that can take up to half a year in its making. This is so because the aim of a thesis is usually specified and the topic that you have to choose is also made quite clear with the explanation of the given field of study. The limited word count also makes it short.

On the other hand, a dissertation is an academic paper that can takes quite a lot of time to prepare and even more for getting accepted. Preparing a dissertation requires about a minimum of a year and this number can go up to 2 years even.

5. Ease

Just to be clear, not either of these academic papers are a piece of cake and easy is not a word to entitle them with. But the difference is the ease when a thesis and dissertation is compared.

A thesis requires comparably lesser amount of work to be done for its preparation and hence, can be called easier to prepare. But only when compared to a dissertation.

Whereas, preparing a dissertation is a task that can overwhelm even the best of students at the first instances. It requires a lot of hard work, persistence, and consistency as well.

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Thesis and dissertation are one of the biggest nightmares any master’s and PhD pursuing student’s life. Why? You may ask. Well, both of these academic papers require an extensive amount of research to be done, along with which one has to also master many other required skills, such as writing, proofreading, drafting, etc. But the…