What is a Dissertation? A Step-by-step Guide on How to Write a Dissertation

If you have ever considered doing a PhD, then you must have surely wondered “What is a Dissertation”. A dissertation is a long-form academic content produced as a result of a bachelor’s or master’s degree. In some instances, a dissertation is the final report after completing a PhD. Just like it seems, making a dissertation for your master's or PhD is quite an arduous task. 

Often confused with the term “thesis”, a dissertation presents the research work completed as part of one's bachelor’s or master’s degree coursework(s). However, both of these terms are so interchangeably used that most people don’t find any difference between the two. Derived from the Latin term ‘dissertare’, referring to a discussion or a debate, a Dissertation is a form of a monograph or lengthy academic article which contains every aspect of the research conducted by a scholar or researcher.

The dissertation helps to represent the findings of the students in response to a question or project that may be assigned to them by their professors or they take it themselves. The aim of this is to analyse and develop independent research skills among students during their bachelor’s or master’s degree. Although you can ask your professors for their support during this time, a large part of this project is dedicated to independent research. This article will help you get acquainted with what is a dissertation, how are dissertations different from a thesis, the structure of the dissertation and tips to prepare their research objectives.

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Types of Dissertations

There are four types of dissertations, namely – Empirical, Non-Empirical, Qualitative and Quantitative Dissertations.

• Empirical Dissertations: These dissertations are produced as a result of a lot of practical studies or experiments conducted on your chosen project. Most of this report is thus the finding of the original work done by you. In this type of dissertation, scholars accumulate evidence-based data. This dissertation is generally made by those carrying out their research in social sciences or sciences fields.
• Non-empirical Dissertations: These dissertations are produced after the critical analysis of the pre-existing research work or findings. Students rigorously study the already existing work in the form of some books, texts or research papers and then produce their dissertations by connecting dots and finding the gist of all that they studied. Scholars won’t just explain the research done by others but will also critically evaluate the content and findings of the same.
• Qualitative Dissertation: Often overlapping with the non-empirical dissertations, the qualitative dissertation involves analysis of the non-numerical data collected from discussions, interviews and focus groups.
• Quantitative Dissertations: This involves numerical data analysis sourced from several surveys, questionnaires, observations and more. This type of dissertation aims to answer the problem question by means of numbers.

Structure of Dissertations 

It is only after the final submission of a dissertation that a scholar obtains a Ph.D. degree. A dissertation is considered successful only when the team of experts find it to be critically analysed, offering a solution to a problem or discovering new theories or fundamentals. It is undoubtedly a demanding, time-consuming and many times monotonous task.

Moving over to the structure of a dissertation, there are various factors involved such as a scholar’s goal, chosen topic, and attitude to deal with it. So a humanities student conducting research will be working around quite long essays, which would focus on case studies and other distinct concepts.

Basic Structure of a Dissertation:

• Opening/Title Page: This will be the cover page which will feature the title of the dissertation, scholar’s name, guide/mentor’s name, department and university/college name and logo, name of the programme, and date of submission.
• Acknowledgement: It is an optional page which requires you to give credits to all those who have assisted you in completing your project.
• Abstract: Here, you will provide a condensed version of your complete dissertation. This will give the reader an idea about your research area, its importance, objectives, and other relevant content which holds significance.
• Content Table: This will contain the chronological order of your chapter titles with their respective page numbers. Your audience will easily be able to skip to the part which they wish to read.
• Glossary: This page is optional and can be created if the scholar has included complex words or terms to which the audience may be oblivious. You can write those terms in capital letters and provide a small description of the same.
• Introduction: Self-explanatory, the introduction page will give a brief summary of your research objectives, background, and importance. It should provide a rough idea to the audience regarding what the complete dissertation would contain. You will define your topic and relate it with some existing research and how it can help in enhancing the same.
• Literature Review: It will contain a glimpse of all the related academic work or sources such as journals or books which exist to date. You will also state the conclusion or findings of all the work discovered by you.
• Methodology: This will state the modus operandi or the types of methods used to conduct your research. Everything in it will have to be well described and explained so that the audience agrees that you had made use of the right technique to solve or provide an answer to your question. You will state the kind of research method you used such as quantitative, qualitative or mixed.
• Results: It should clearly explain the findings and conclusion of your research.
• Discussion: In this section, you will do an in-depth evaluation of your result and how would it help future scholars interested in the same topic to carry out their research. Overall, it will explain the expectations vs reality.
• References: This will contain a list of all the sources which you used in order to conduct your research. This will also help to prove that plagiarism was not involved.

Length of a Dissertation

How long would a dissertation be will depend upon the country from where you're pursuing your studies as well as on the university's requirement where you're enrolled. In order to get an idea about the same, scholars are recommended to confirm the same from their supervisors. Some institutes also have a dissertation booklet which contains every information related to writing a dissertation and critical elements associated with it.

Read More: A Guide to PhD Programs in Germany: Top Universities, Application Process

Steps for Writing Dissertations

The steps involved in writing dissertations are given below.

1. Choosing a topic/area of interest
2. Checking the project requirements - determining whether your chosen project will take an empirical or non-empirical approach to create a dissertation. 
3. Conduct the practical/theoretical research, as required.
4. Develop a draft for all your findings.
5. And lastly, editing and proofreading your draft to avoid repetitions and grammatical mistakes. 
6. A printout of the final report is taken and book-bonded to present it to your professors.

A well-prepared dissertation is presented to the university mentors who then judge the report based on the student’s efforts, approach, ideas and results. 

Tips for Writing Research Objectives

Some quick tips for writing research objectives in your dissertation are given below:

1. Be Concise: Try to explain each research objective in one line only. Remove repetitions and filler words and statements in defining your research statement.
2. Be Clear: Do not mention imaginative, very hard-to-achieve and unapproachable research goals. Rather, your goals should be specific, achievable, time-conscious and pertinent.
3. Use Simple Language: Be specific in defining your research goals and mind that your defined goals should be feasible and attainable.

Required Skills 

By the means of producing a dissertation, each student is required to demonstrate the following traits/skills in themselves:

1. Defining a strict research area with a clear objective (most students struggle to find the question that they want to work on). 
2. Problem Identification
3. Problem-solving
4. Identifying the trustworthy sources to collect information
5. Analysing the results and coming to a conclusion

Also Read: What is PhD?

Difference Between Thesis and Dissertation

The main difference between a dissertation and a thesis can be determined based on the country/education system you are considering. While both dissertation and thesis are long written documents representing a work, these are mostly used interchangeably. 

Speaking of countries/universities practising the British system of college education, the term “dissertation” is used for a body of work submitted at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree; while the term “thesis” is used to define the body of work to be presented at the end of a PhD. 

Elsewhere, the term “thesis” is used to describe a master’s/bachelor’s work and the term “dissertation” is used to describe the work done during a PhD. On this basis, another major difference between these terms is that - a thesis comes off as a result of an existing work. At the same time, a dissertation is a result of one’s own original work.

So don’t be surprised if people ask you about your dissertation’s progress when you’re working on your thesis and vice versa. This is so because the majority of people are not aware of the basic difference between the two and consider them exactly the same.

The differences between a thesis and a dissertation based on the British education system, considering various differentiating parameters are given below.

This was all about Dissertations. Check out the Dissertations FAQs below to resolve your doubts on related topics. However, if you have any doubts, feel free to drop your queries in the comments below.