Thesis

Question

Hi.What is the difference between thesis and dessertation?I have heard dissertation usually used for Ph.D. students and thesis for bachelor's and master's students.Is that classification right?Thanks

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

That is is the usual difference, though 'thesis' is also used for Ph.Ds on occasion.

Hrsanei · Answer

Thank you very much Mister Micawber for your response.

Colombo · Answer

May I ask, is this true both for British and American English?

Mister Micawber · Answer

The Corpus of Contemporary American English cites 120 examples, including this one:

His 1968 doctoral thesis, in mathematics, later published as Algebraic Spaces, is still widely consulted.

The British National Corpus cites 22 examples, including this one:

I was struggling to complete my doctoral thesis in an icy northern England when my brother Lorne called me from London with the news that Ringo Starr had agreed to put up £2,000 and the post-production costs of our first adventure film.

It seems to be less common in BrE.

Hrsanei · Answer

Thanks Mister Micawber for your clarification.

would you give the link of British And American Corpus if it is possible.

Thanks

Mister Micawber · Answer

Sure: http://corpus.byu.edu/

Colombo · Answer

Thanks a lot for your answer, Mister Micawber. But now I've got another question: is dissertation used to denote the extended period of time when a person is working towards his PhD, or only its result (in the form of a written report)? I mean, can one say "After I finish my degree, I want to start doing a doctoral dissertation"? To me, that sounds very strange, although it may be from analogy with Spanish, where tesis is always used for doctorates, but where disertación, although ~~strictly speaking~~ meaning a reasoning of any type, is almost exclusively used as a synonymous for conference. As a matter of fact, I would only use dissertation to refer to the talk given by the PhD student in front of the examining board, after finishing his thesis. But then, I see that's likely to be a mental distortion of mine, a case of false friendship.

Mister Micawber · Answer

I mean, can one say "After I finish my degree, I want to start doing a doctoral dissertation"?-- This is fine.

Colombo · Answer

Thanks a lot.

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