A very brief academic writing or task assigned by lecturers to gauge a student’s knowledge of a subject or topic.
A lengthy, detailed research paper often undertaken to complete a degree, typically at undergraduate, postgraduate, or doctoral level.
2. Length
Typically shorter, that is only some hundreds, to a few thousands of words.
Much longer, typically at least 10,000 to 20,000 words or more, depending on the degree level.
3. Extent of Research
Just moderately researched, usually compiles other sources, summarizing relevant literature or answering specific questions.
High-level, original research, usually to contribute new knowledge or insights to a field of study .
4. Purpose
More or less assessment of the student’s understanding of a topic and his or her capability of applying knowledge gained in class.
It focuses on the development of research skills, critical analysis, and independent in-depth study.
5. Structure
Simple structure usually follows, introduction, body, and a conclusion according to the topic or requirements.
It is presented in a form of a complex thesis: abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion
6. Period
This is usually prepared within a few days or weeks, depending upon the complexity and deadline by the instructor.
This is usually taken within a number of months to one year, as there is time to delve into research, to collect data, and to analyze it.
7. Supervision
Requires minimal supervision because it is relatively a concise assignment with clear guidelines provided by the instructor.
A student researches with a supervisor or advisor and is continuously guided throughout the entire research process and receives feedback on the work completed.
8. Academic Impact Leve
Varies to be a minor fraction of the overall marks or grade of a class or course.
In most cases, it often determines a significant portion of the graduation mark for a degree program. It usually plays a crucial role in graduation in most instances.
A dissertation is a detailed piece of formal document that presents the academic writing based on original research, analysis, and findings on a specific topic.
The steps for students to write a dissertation can be: –
1. Choosing a Topic:
Your area of interest Choose a dissertation topic that would interest you, thus have fun writing and recommending. Give regards to current areas of study of interest to you and of relevance in your field. Carry out preliminary research on the topic to ensure that adequate data are available for proper investigation. This will give you an approximation of the viability of your research.
2. Literature Review Procedure:
After deciding on a topic, your second course of action will be the literature review. From your study area, collect books, journal articles, and other scholarly materials that relate to the subject matter you intend to look at. It is through this process of literature analysis that you will establish how much is known on a particular aspect and find research gaps that exist in the literature. This will be a premise for your study. You cannot frame your question and proposal for the methodology when studying without this review.
3. Development of a Proposal for Research:
Once you have completed your literature review, you should also write a research proposal. A research proposal should succinctly outline the research problem, objectives, methodology, and anticipated findings. The research proposal is an outline of how you intend to journey to your dissertation and frequently must be approved by your advisor or committee. Be prepared to make changes based on feedback in order to strengthen your proposal.
4. Researching:
Once your proposal is accepted, data collection is justified. Your research design might dictate that you conduct experiments or interviews, administer a survey, or choose some other method of data collection. Now, it is time to analyze the data using proper techniques applied to your data. This may be statistical analysis for your data if it is quantitative, or, alternatively be based on thematic analysis for qualitative data; this will enable you to draw meaningful conclusions.
5. Writing the Dissertation:
In the writing stage, you must introduce your research question, objectives, and the reasonableness of your study. You must summarize all the relevant research work and explain your research design and methods in detail so that the findings will be clearly portrayed and well-supported arguments are available through the data collected.
6. Revising and Editing:
Once you are done with the first draft, spend ample time revising and editing your dissertation. Go through it checking whether it is coherent and clear; checking for grammatical errors, formatting mistakes, and all that against the requirements which may comprise academic standards. This is a stage whereby you can seek feedback from peers and even advisors to enhance the quality of the work.
7. Preparations for Submission:
Once you have final revision and editing, you can now finally prepare your dissertation for submission. So, check your final draft for the formatting requirements and submit the dissertation within due date. This final step is crucial in meeting academic obligations to obtain your degree.
