The Difference Between A Master's Thesis And A PhD Dissertation: Tips For Students


Most of the Universities call thesis or dissertation to be almost similar. But are both of them actually very similar or they are having some dissimilarities? Technically speaking they are not exactly the same and bear some differences.

Thesis: It is paper which is required for Master’ degree.

Dissertation: It is the term used for acquiring a doctorate or PhD degree.

Following are some other differences that will help you to make out differences between the two-


  1. A thesis can be fabricated with the means of already present information present in textbooks and other study material. Dissertation on the other hand is the complete research work carried out by the students and then presented in written format.
  2. First one is not very lengthy; instead it is comparatively shorter in length as compared to a later one written by any researcher. In other words to say, a thesis requires lesser time to write in contrast to a PhD degree dissertation. Writing a thesis is an easy task as compared to the second writing procedure.
  3. In the first one, the writer draws a concussion based on the hypothesis that he has found based on various researches conducted over a period of time. It is a quite tiring process and is based on the related discussion. However in the later one, the writer concludes based on the appropriate findings identified or discovered in recent time.
  4. In a thesis, the candidate can have a scope of winning a scholarship while it is not the case with a dissertation.
  5. While writing a thesis, the writer should focus and deliberately pay attention to important points of arguments. On the other hand in later one, the area of focus is the background settings.
  6. In the Master’s degree, the chief points include the research findings of past whereas in PhD, the writer is supposed to write new findings.
  7. For thesis, we usually use “academic research paper” term but for dissertation writing, the appropriate term used is “academic book”.
  8. In an academic research paper, the examination of content offers the core of the subject whereas in case of academic book, theories and opinions forms the core part of the investigation.
  9. Many accredited educational institutions and renowned Universities portray differences between the two. They say that an academic book has more of an application format to be accepted by any faculty while a research paper is presented in the report form conducted in a particular field of study.

Copyright (c) 2010-2024 HighNorthConference.com. Free of charge resource of dissertation writing help.