One of our students, Rodrigo Ramos Sampaio, who studied international relations and international trade, defended his thesis two weeks ago. He chose to focus on sustainability and entitled it Towards a Green Future: An Analysis of Supply Chain Sustainability in the European Union Soy Products Industry.
We asked him about the thesis process, from concept creation to completion, and what he thought of the experience.
Thesis vs. Dissertation: Meaning
A thesis is a critically written scientific investigation. It is usually applied by students graduating from a master’s program. The purpose of a thesis is for students to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise in the area they have studied in the program.
A thesis is a slightly longer scientific article that describes your research work during the doctoral program. A researcher obtains a doctorate after presenting and defending her thesis. It includes all information about original research or in-depth research on a new or existing topic carried out by the doctoral student.
Quiz: Addendum vs Addendum
Instructions: Fill in the blank with the correct word, either addendum or addendum.
- The book is almost finished. I just need to add a ______________.
- The author has included so many ______________ that the twenty page document is too long.
- You can send a _______________ showing the copy of the original document.
- Sorry. I did not see that there was a ________________ at the end of the essay.
- The judge did not note the multiple number of ________________ in the document.
Final or research project
Those seeking an answer to the question of whether all graduate students do a thesis should be aware that some schools allow students to complete a project research project or a capstone in lieu of a thesis.
This is usually the best option for those who prefer hands-on experience over doing even more classwork. For example, a computer science student might create new software or a computer program instead of writing about recent innovations in a technological field.
Did you know that some graduate schools waive the thesis requirement for students doing fieldwork? If you think this sounds like an easier option, keep in mind that your school may require you to complete 300 or more hours of supervised fieldwork after graduation. It can also mean that it will take you three years or more to graduate. Students who do a thesis often finish it in two years or less. Schools that offer fieldwork in lieu of a thesis often require students to complete detailed records of the work they do and submit these records to the department before graduation.
Type of degree
According to the US Census Bureau, more than one in ten people in the United States have a master’s degree or even some graduate school, but less than two percent of people have earned a Ph.D. One difference between a thesis and a dissertation is that a dissertation is usually required for a master’s degree and a dissertation for a doctorate; However, this is not always true. Some master’s programs do not require a thesis or dissertation at all. These programs generally have two different pathways that students can follow: a thesis option and a non-thesis option. A student pursuing a PhD is generally encouraged to choose the thesis option to prepare the dissertation that she will have to write as a PhD student.
Perhaps the biggest difference between a thesis and a dissertation is the intended purpose. A thesis, usually required for a master’s degree, is intended to demonstrate the student’s understanding of their field of study. The student formulates a proposal, or thesis, based on previous work done by others in the field. This previous work is explored by the student in her dissertation while defending a particular idea. A thesis is usually completed by a doctoral student and focuses on original research. A student who receives a thesis must create a topic in the field of it that has not yet been researched. The student must then formulate a hypothesis and conduct original research to prove or disprove the hypothesis.