Master’s Thesis versus Doctoral Dissertation

It is often observed that ‘dissertation’ and ‘thesis’ are used interchangeably, resulting in confusion up to a certain extent in the academic world. However, both terms are different although they have a similar structure. Usually, a thesis refers to the final project for the master’s degree while a dissertation gets one a doctoral degree. If you are pursuing a master’s degree, it is essential to research on a specific topic that reflects the acquired knowledge. Getting a PhD differs in the sense that the dissertation needs to offer something completely new or undiscovered, which means contributing original knowledge for that topic. Thus, the key difference lies in terms of the depth of knowledge the author needs to gain for writing that paper.

A thesis meant for the master’s degree is associated with a research paper wherein you use the research of others to demonstrate your own analysis. Doing so demands critical and analytical skills. On the other hand, for writing a dissertation, you rely on the research of others just for taking help to come up with your own new hypothesis. Another difference between thesis and dissertation is in terms of length. While a thesis is usually more than 100 pages, a dissertation’s length is usually around 200-300 pages.