You can use the free APA Reference Generator to automatically create and store your references.
APA Reference Generator
The words ‘ dissertation ’ and ‘thesis’ both refer to a large written research project undertaken to complete a degree, but they are used differently depending on the country:
The main difference is in terms of scale – a dissertation is usually much longer than the other essays you complete during your degree.
Another key difference is that you are given much more independence when working on a dissertation. You choose your own dissertation topic , and you have to conduct the research and write the dissertation yourself (with some assistance from your supervisor).
Dissertation word counts vary widely across different fields, institutions, and levels of education:
However, none of these are strict guidelines – your word count may be lower or higher than the numbers stated here. Always check the guidelines provided by your university to determine how long your own dissertation should be.
At the bachelor’s and master’s levels, the dissertation is usually the main focus of your final year. You might work on it (alongside other classes) for the entirety of the final year, or for the last six months. This includes formulating an idea, doing the research, and writing up.
A PhD thesis takes a longer time, as the thesis is the main focus of the degree. A PhD thesis might be being formulated and worked on for the whole four years of the degree program. The writing process alone can take around 18 months.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.
Caulfield, J. (2022, May 05). What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started. Scribbr. Retrieved 24 June 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/what-is-a-dissertation/
Other students also liked, how to choose a dissertation topic | 8 steps to follow, how to write a dissertation proposal | a step-by-step guide, what is a literature review | guide, template, & examples.
If you’ve landed on this article, chances are you’ve got a dissertation or thesis project coming up (hopefully it’s not due next week!), and you’re now asking yourself the classic question, “what the #%#%^ is a dissertation?”…
In this post, I’ll break down the basics of exactly what a dissertation is, in plain language. No ivory tower academia.
So, let’s get to the pressing question – what is a dissertation?
Simply put, a dissertation (or thesis – depending on which country you’re studying in) is a research project . In other words, your task is to ask a research question (or set of questions) and then set about finding the answer(s). Simple enough, right?
Well, the catch is that you’ve got to undertake this research project in an academic fashion , and there’s a wealth of academic language that makes it all (look) rather confusing (thanks, academia). However, at its core, a dissertation is about undertaking research (investigating something). This is really important to understand, because the key skill that your university is trying to develop in you (and will be testing you on) is your ability to undertake research in a well-structured structured, critical and academically rigorous way.
This research-centric focus is significantly different from assignments or essays, where the main concern is whether you can understand and apply the prescribed module theory. I’ll explain some other key differences between dissertations or theses and assignments a bit later in this article, but for now, let’s dig a little deeper into what a dissertation is.
Okay, so now that you understand that a dissertation is a research project (which is testing your ability to undertake quality research), let’s go a little deeper into what that means in practical terms.
The best way to understand a dissertation is to view it as a process – more specifically a research process (it is a research project, after all). This process involves four essential steps, which I’ll discuss below.
The very first step of the research process is to find a meaningful research question, or a set of questions. In other words, you need to find a suitable topic for investigation. Since a dissertation is all about research, identifying the key question(s) is the critical first step. Here’s an example of a well-defined research question:
“Which factors cultivate or erode customer trust in UK-based life insurance brokers?”
This clearly defined question sets the direction of the research . From the question alone, you can understand exactly what the outcome of the research might look like – i.e. a set of findings about which factors help brokers develop customer trust, and which factors negatively impact trust.
But how on earth do I find a suitable research question, you ask? Don’t worry about this right now – when you’re ready, you can read our article about finding a dissertation topic . However, right now, the important thing to understand is that the first step in the dissertation process is identifying the key research question(s). Without a clear question, you cannot move forward.
Once the research question is clearly established, the next step is to review the existing research/literature (both academic and professional/industry) to understand what has already been said with regard to the question. In academic speak, this is called a literature review .
This step is critically important as, in all likelihood, someone else has asked a similar question to yours, and therefore you can build on the work of others . Good academic research is not about reinventing the wheel or starting from scratch – it’s about familiarising yourself with the current state of knowledge, and then using that as your basis for further research.
Simply put, the first step to answering your research question is to look at what other researchers have to say about it. Sometimes this will lead you to change your research question or direction slightly (for example, if the existing research already provides a comprehensive answer). Don’t stress – this is completely acceptable and a normal part of the research process.
Once you’ve got a decent understanding of the existing state of knowledge, you will carry out your own research by collecting and analysing the relevant data. This could take to form of primary research (collecting your own fresh data), secondary research (synthesising existing data) or both, depending on the nature of your degree, research question(s) and even your university’s specific requirements.
Exactly what data you collect and how you go about analysing it depends largely on the research question(s) you are asking, but very often you will take either a qualitative approach (e.g. interviews or focus groups) or a quantitative approach (e.g. online surveys). In other words, your research approach can be words-based, numbers-based, or both . Don’t let the terminology scare you and don’t worry about these technical details for now – we’ll explain research methodology in later posts .
Combining your understanding of the existing research (Step 2) with the findings from your own original research (Step 3), you then (attempt to) answer your original research question (s). The process of asking, investigating and then answering has gone full circle.
Of course, your research won’t always provide rock-solid answers to your original questions, and indeed you might find that your findings spur new questions altogether. Don’t worry – this is completely acceptable and is a natural part of the research process.
So, to recap, a dissertation is best understood as a research process, where you are:
Depending on your specific degree and the way your university designs its coursework, you might be asking yourself “but isn’t this just a longer version of a normal assignment?”. Well, it’s quite possible that your previous assignments required a similar research process, but there are some key differences you need to be aware of, which I’ll explain next.
While there are, naturally, similarities between dissertations/theses and assignments, its important to understand the differences so that you approach your dissertation with the right mindset and focus your energy on the right things. Here, I’ll discuss four ways in which writing a dissertation differs substantially from assignments and essays, and why this matters.
Unlike assignments or essays, where the general topic is determined for you, for your dissertation, you will (typically) be the one who decides on your research questions and overall direction. This means that you will need to:
This is very different from assignments, where the theory is given to you on a platter, and the direction is largely pre-defined. Therefore, before you start the dissertation process, you need to understand the basics of academic research, how to find a suitable research topic and how to source the relevant literature.
A dissertation is a long journey, at least compared to assignments. Typically, you will spend 3 – 6 months writing around 15,000 – 25,000 words (for Masters-level, much more for PhD) on just one subject. Therefore, successfully completing your dissertation requires a substantial amount of stamina .
To make it even more challenging, your classmates will not be researching the same thing as you are, so you have limited support, other than your supervisor (who may be very busy). This can make it quite a lonely journey . Therefore, you need a lot of self-discipline and self-direction in order to see it through to the end. You should also try to build a support network of people who can help you through the process (perhaps alumni, faculty or a private coach ).
We touched on this earlier. Unlike assignments or essays, where the markers are assessing your ability to understand and apply the theories, models and frameworks that they provide you with, your dissertation will be is assessing your ability to undertake high-quality research in an academically rigorous manner.
Of course, your ability to understand the relevant theory (i.e. within your literature review) is still very important, but this is only one piece of the research skills puzzle. You need to demonstrate the full spectrum of research skills.
It’s important to note that your research does not need to be ground-breaking, revolutionary or world-changing – that is not what the markers are assessing. They are assessing whether you can apply well-established research principles and skills to a worthwhile topic of enquiry. Don’t feel like you need to solve the world’s major problems. It’s simply not going to happen (you’re a first-time researcher, after all) – and doesn’t need to happen in order to earn good marks.
In your assignments, you were likely encouraged to take a broad, interconnected, high-level view of the theory and connect as many different ideas and concepts as possible. In your dissertation, however, you typically need to narrow your focus and go deep into one particular topic. Think about the research question we looked at earlier:
The focus is intentionally very narrow – specifically the focus is on:
By keeping the focus narrow, you enable yourself to deeply probe whichever topic you choose – and this depth is essential for earning good marks. Importantly, ringfencing your focus doesn’t mean ignoring the connections to other topics – you should still acknowledge all the linkages, but don’t get distracted – stay focused on the research question(s).
So, as you can see, a dissertation is more than just an extended assignment or essay. It’s a unique research project that you (and only you) must lead from start to finish. The good news is that, if done right, completing your dissertation will equip you with strong research skills, which you will most certainly use in the future, regardless of whether you follow an academic or professional path.
Hopefully in this post, I’ve answered your key question, “what is a dissertation?”, at least at a big picture-level. To recap on the key points:
In this post, I’ve gently touched on some of the intricacies of the dissertation, including research questions, data types and research methodologies. Be sure to check out the Grad Coach Blog for more detailed discussion of these areas.
Hello Derek
Yes, I struggle with literature review and am highly frustrated (with myself).
Thank you for the guide that you have sent, especially the apps. I am working through the guide and busy with the implementation of it.
Hope to hear from you again!
Regards Micheal
Great to hear that, Michael. All the best with your research!
Thank you. That was quite something to move forward with. Despite the fact that I was lost. I will now be able to do something with the information given.
That’s great, Pheladi. Good luck!
Thank you so much for your videos and writing research proposal and dissertation. These videos are useful. I was struggling, but now I am starting to write. I hope to watch your more videos to learn more about the dissertation.
Before this post, I didn’t know where to start my research, today I have some light and do certain % of my research. I may need for direction on literature review. Big thanks to you.
Very very good Derek
Thanks immensely Derek
You’re welcome 🙂 Good luck with your dissertation/thesis.
Thank you Derek for widening my scope on research, this can be likened to a blind man whose eyes can now see.
Remain bless sir🙏
You guys are doing really great… I am extremely grateful for your help… Keep going.. Please activate that research help for indian students as well I couldn’t access it being an indian.
Hello Derek,
I got stuck in the concept paper because I changed my topic. Now I don’t know where to pick up the pieces again. How can I focus and stay on track. I am getting scared.
Thank you so much Derek, I am a new comer, learning for the first time how to write a good research. These in information’s to me is a mind opener, I hope to learn more from you in the future, Thanks and God bless.
Thanks Guys this means so much to me
A pretty good and insightful piece for beginners like me. Looking forward to more helpful hints and guide. Thanks to Derek.
This is so helpful…really appreciate your work.
Great to hear that
On cybersecurity Analytics research to banking transactions
This was of great help to me and quite informative .
Thank you so much GradCoach,
This is like a light at the end of the tunnel. You are a lifesaver. Thank you once again.
hello, I’m so grateful for such great information. It appears basic, but it is so relevant in understanding the research process.
Your website is very helpful for writing thesis. A big well done to the team. Do you have a website for paper writing and academic publishing or how to publish my thesis, how to land a fully funded PhD, etc. Just the general upward trajectory in the academia. Thank you
I have learned a lot from the lectures, it was beneficial and helped me a lot in my research journey. Thank you very much
Thank you for your gifts of enlightenment to a person like me who’s always a student. May your ‘well’not dry out.
It’s quite a fun and superb, now I have come to believe that the way one teach can have an impact in understanding and can change one’s assumption and position about a subject or a problem, before I came here and learn I consider research methodology a hard thing because, I wasn’t taught by a mentor like this one. Thanks so much who ever have make this effort to make this something easy and engaging
I can’t imagine that world has achieved major aspects of every field of study
Thank you very much for all the valuable, wonderful and comprehensive amount of information… I highly appreciate your support, 100% I recommend you
This topic is intended for my MPhil. Work (The perception of parents on Technical and Vocational Education, the impact on educational policy). May you consider the suitability of the topic for me and refine if the need be. Thank you,
Hello here…
i have gone through the notes and it is interesting. All i need now is a pdf file that contain a whole dissertation writing inclusive of chapter 1 to 5 on motivation as a topic… thanks
Remarkable!!! You made it sound so simple
I got stuck in my writing because I need to change my topic. I am getting scared as I have a semester left 🙁
Thanks for such an educational opportunity and support
Thanks for your educational opportunity and support
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
An Independent Research Project for Ph.D. Candidates
A dissertation, also known as a doctoral thesis , is the final required part of completing a student's doctoral study. Undertaken after a student completes coursework and passes a comprehensive examination , the dissertation is the final hurdle in completing a Ph.D. or other doctoral degree. The dissertation is expected to make a new and creative contribution to a field of study and to demonstrate the student's expertise. In social science and science programs, the dissertation usually requires conducting empirical research.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, a strong medical dissertation relies heavily on the creation of a specific hypothesis that can be either disproven or supported by data collected by independent student research. Further, it must also contain several key elements starting with an introduction to the problem statement, conceptual framework and research question as well as references to literature on already published on the topic.
A dissertation must also be relevant (and proven to be such) as well as capable of being researched independently by the student. Though the required length of these dissertations varies by school, the governing body overseeing the practice of medicine in the United States standardizes this same protocol. Also included in the dissertation is the methodology for research and data collection as well as instrumentation and quality control. A stated section on population and sample size for the study is imperative to defending the thesis once it comes time to do so.
Like most scientific publications, the thesis must also contain a section of published results and an analysis of what this entails for the scientific or medical community. The discussion and conclusion sections let the review committee know that the student understands the full implications of his or her work as well as its real-world application to their field of study (and soon, professional work).
Although students are expected to conduct the bulk of their research and pen the entire dissertation on their own, most graduate medical programs provide an advisory and review committee to the student upon starting their studies. Through a series of weekly reviews over their course of schooling, the student and his or her advisor hone in on the hypothesis of the dissertation before they submit it to the review committee to begin work on writing the thesis.
From there, the student can take as long or as short of a time as they need to complete their dissertation, often resulting in students who have finished their entire courseload achieving ABD status ("all but dissertation"), just shy of receiving their full Ph.D. In this interim period, the student — with the occasional guidance of his or her advisor — is expected to research, test and write a dissertation that can be defended in a public forum.
Once the review committee accepts the finalized draft of the thesis, the doctoral candidate will then get the chance to publicly defend his or her statements. If they pass this test, the dissertation is submitted electronically to the school's academic journal or archive and the candidate's full doctoral degree is issued once the final paperwork has been submitted.
Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.
Published on September 21, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on July 18, 2023.
When starting your thesis or dissertation process, one of the first requirements is a research proposal or a prospectus. It describes what or who you want to examine, delving into why, when, where, and how you will do so, stemming from your research question and a relevant topic .
The proposal or prospectus stage is crucial for the development of your research. It helps you choose a type of research to pursue, as well as whether to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.
You can download our templates in the format of your choice below.
Download Word template Download Google Docs template
Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes
What should your proposal contain, dissertation question examples, what should your proposal look like, dissertation prospectus examples, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about proposals.
Prior to jumping into the research for your thesis or dissertation, you first need to develop your research proposal and have it approved by your supervisor. It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives .
Depending on your department’s requirements, there may be a defense component involved, where you present your research plan in prospectus format to your committee for their approval.
Your proposal should answer the following questions:
Ultimately, your proposal should persuade your supervisor or committee that your proposed project is worth pursuing.
Strong research kicks off with a solid research question , and dissertations are no exception to this.
Dissertation research questions should be:
An easy rule of thumb is that your proposal will usually resemble a (much) shorter version of your thesis or dissertation. While of course it won’t include the results section , discussion section , or conclusion , it serves as a “mini” version or roadmap for what you eventually seek to write.
Be sure to include:
The length of your proposal varies quite a bit depending on your discipline and type of work you’re conducting. While a thesis proposal is often only 3-7 pages long, a prospectus for your dissertation is usually much longer, with more detailed analysis. Dissertation proposals can be up to 25-30 pages in length.
Writing a proposal or prospectus can be a challenge, but we’ve compiled some examples for you to get your started.
Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:
See an example
If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or research bias, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!
Research bias
(AI) Tools
The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .
A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.
Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation , such as:
A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims, that you collect high-quality data, and that you use the right kind of analysis to answer your questions, utilizing credible sources . This allows you to draw valid , trustworthy conclusions.
The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:
A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation. It delves into why, when, where, and how you will do your research, as well as helps you choose a type of research to pursue. You should also determine whether you plan to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.
It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives , ready to be approved by your supervisor or committee.
Note that some departments require a defense component, where you present your prospectus to your committee orally.
Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .
However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
George, T. (2023, July 18). How to Write a Dissertation or Thesis Proposal. Scribbr. Retrieved June 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/thesis-dissertation-proposal/
Other students also liked, a step-by-step guide to the writing process, 10 research question examples to guide your research project, dissertation & thesis outline | example & free templates, what is your plagiarism score.
If you’ve been thinking about going to graduate school, you may be familiar with the application requirements, rigorous academic schedule, and thesis or dissertation you’ll be expected to complete. So, what exactly is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation? While there are similarities, there’s a clear difference between the two. In our guide, we compare dissertation vs thesis. Discover more about both – and what you can expect during your graduate program. Let’s get started!
A thesis is an academic paper or project that’s completed towards the end of a master’s degree program . It is typically completed as the capstone project , meaning it’s the final project required for a student to graduate.
Students need to select a narrow, specific topic within – or relating to – their field of study. Once they’ve selected a topic, students must conduct an in-depth review of existing research on their chosen subjects. The next step is to formulate an academic argument, an assertion they’ll need to support or prove with said research.
Therefore, a thesis is akin to an in-depth research paper. It’s comprised of research that essentially proves what a student has learned during their program.
A thesis generally follows a rigid structure that’s decided by the program, department, or university. Here is an example of a thesis structure:
Most master’s degree programs require students to complete a thesis. While some undergraduate programs may also require a thesis, these are generally shorter and narrower in scope.
Some programs will also require a master’s student to defend their thesis in front of a panel or committee.
What is “the PhD paper” called? Some people refer to it as a PhD thesis, but it’s most commonly known as a dissertation in the US. Dissertations are the capstone project required at the tail end of a PhD program . It is almost always required, except for a select few one-year PhD programs .
Much like a thesis, dissertations are also academic papers that aim to prove a student’s expertise – while adding to the current body of knowledge – in their field. Thus, a student must look at existing research and conduct their own research .
Basically, it’s the magnum opus of a doctoral journey in the United States. A dissertation isn’t just a long research paper; it’s a beast of a project. It demands extensive research, originality, and the ability to make a meaningful contribution to your chosen field. Think of it as a research odyssey guided by a seasoned mentor. Once you’ve conquered this scholarly quest and defended your findings, you’ll proudly emerge with your hard-earned doctoral degree, a testament to your dedication and scholarly prowess.
A dissertation typically comes after a PhD student completes their required courses and passes their qualifying exams. In some programs, the dissertation process is embedded into the coursework. In such cases, students receive a jump start on their work, allowing them to potentially finish their program earlier.
PhD candidates must present a new theory or hypothesis. Alternatively, they must present their research to question (or disprove) the existing accepted theory on their chosen subject. Students may choose to tackle their topic from a new angle or take their research in a different direction.
Most programs will require students to defend their dissertations. During the defense, candidates must be able to justify the methodology of their research and the results and interpretation of their findings. Defenses are typically oral presentations in front of a dissertation committee , where the students are asked questions or presented with challenges.
Although the defense may seem daunting, PhD students work closely with their advisors to prepare for their dissertations. Students receive feedback and advice to guide their dissertations in their chosen direction.
Dissertations follow a rigid structure typically set by the program, department, or university. Here is an example format:
A doctoral thesis is a substantial piece of scholarly work that marks the pinnacle of a doctoral degree program, such as a PhD. Think of it as the academic grand finale. Its primary mission? To showcase the candidate’s mastery in their chosen field and their knack for delving deep into research.
In a nutshell, a doctoral thesis is a mammoth project that calls for originality. You’ve got to dig, investigate, gather data, crunch numbers, and present real data-supported findings. All this hard work usually happens under the watchful eye of a knowledgeable mentor. Once you’ve conquered this scholarly mountain and defended your thesis successfully, you’ll be proudly awarded your well-deserved doctoral degree. It’s the hallmark of your expertise and contribution to your field.
And how does a doctoral thesis differ from a dissertation? That’s mainly a geographic explanation. While they’re largely similar in scope and purpose, when comparing a doctoral thesis vs. a dissertation:
Related Reading: The Easiest PhDs
In the master’s thesis vs dissertation discussion, there are plenty of similarities. Both are lengthy academic papers that require intense research and original writing. They’re also capstone projects which are completed at the tail end of their respective programs.
Students must work closely with their respective committees (e.g., faculty members, advisors, professionals) who provide feedback and guidance on their research, writing, and academic arguments. Both thesis and dissertation committees have a committee chair with whom the students work closely.
In some ways, the requirements for theses and dissertations are quite similar. They require a skillful defense of a student’s academic arguments. What’s more, both papers require critical thinking and good analytical reasoning, as well as in-depth expertise in the chosen field of study.
Students must also invest a significant amount of time into both projects while also being able to accept and action feedback on their work.
What are the differences between a PhD dissertation vs. thesis? The first and most distinct difference is the degree program requiring a PhD dissertation or thesis. A dissertation is typically the capstone project for a doctorate, while a thesis is the capstone project for a master’s degree program (or undergraduate program).
Candidates will have to defend their dissertation during an oral presentation in front of their committee. Only some master’s theses require this.
During a thesis, students typically conduct research by reviewing existing literature and knowledge on their chosen subject. During a dissertation, students must do their own research and prove their theory, concept, or hypothesis. They should also expect to develop a unique concept and defend it based on the practical and theoretical results achieved from their rigorous research.
Theses are also typically shorter (around 40 to 80 pages). Dissertations, however, are much longer (between 100 and 300 pages). Of course, the actual length of the paper may depend on the topic, program, department, or university.
Related Reading : PhD Candidate vs Student: What’s the Difference?
Whether you’re in the US or Europe, dissertations and theses are similar. However, European requirements and conventions differ slightly:
To ensure your PhD graduation, a dissertation is generally required. Doctoral theses in Europe are much like a PhD dissertation in the US : You must complete your own research and add to the existing body of knowledge in your field.
It may seem odd to require a dissertation for master’s degree programs, but in Europe, this is exactly what you’ll need. A master’s dissertation is a broader post-graduate program research project , though it’s most typically required for master’s programs.
Here are a few of the most common questions we hear about the meaning of thesis vs. dissertation.
Yes and no. In some ways, a dissertation and a thesis are the same. For example, both require original writing, critical skills, analytical thinking, plenty of research, and lots of academic effort. However, a thesis is more commonly reserved for master’s – and some undergraduate – programs. Dissertations are generally required by PhD programs in the United States.
Additionally, a thesis typically calls for heavy research and compilation of existing knowledge and literature on a subject. A dissertation requires candidates to conduct their own research to prove their own theory, concept, or hypothesis – adding to the existing body of knowledge in their chosen field of study.
One of the primary differences between thesis and dissertation papers is their length. While a thesis might be anywhere from 40 to 80 pages long, a dissertation can easily run from 100 to 300. It’s important to note that these numbers depend on the specific program and university.
It all depends on where you are! While a US-based PhD requires you to complete a dissertation, a thesis (or “doctoral thesis”) is more commonly required for PhD candidates in Europe. In the US, a thesis is more commonly reserved for master’s degree programs and occasionally undergraduate programs. In Europe, a “master’s dissertation” is typically required for the completion of a master’s degree.
So, there you have it: an in-depth comparison of the dissertation vs. thesis academic requirements. Now that you know the primary similarities and differences between the two, it might become easier to decide your academic path. Just remember, you may be able to find a master’s program without a thesis or a doctorate without a dissertation requirement if you prefer. Good luck!
Are you ready to jump into your doctorate? Find out if you need a master’s degree to get a PhD .
Chriselle has been a passionate professional content writer for over 10 years. She writes educational content for The Grad Cafe, Productivity Spot, The College Monk, and other digital publications. When she isn't busy writing, she spends her time streaming video games and learning new skills.
These are the best states to start your tech career, related posts.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
© 2024 TheGradCafe.com All rights reserved
LET US HELP
Welcome to Capella
Select your program and we'll help guide you through important information as you prepare for the application process.
FIND YOUR PROGRAM
Connect with us
A team of dedicated enrollment counselors is standing by, ready to answer your questions and help you get started.
October 31, 2019
A dissertation is a written document that summarizes research.
It is the final step of a PhD program, and the culmination of a studentâs doctoral studies.
âThe dissertation is a source of pride for doctoral students,â Dinah Manns, PhD, faculty chair at Capella University, says. âThe dissertation is often a compilation of academic and practical knowledge, and in many cases, it can be the studentâs first publication.â
Here, Manns explains the content and format of this important piece of scholarship.
The major objective of any doctoral program is to assist a student in becoming an independent researcher, and a dissertation is a large part of that. âNot all doctoral programs require a dissertation, but all PhD programs do,â Manns notes. âDissertation work varies by program.â
Initial coursework helps narrow down the research topic and develop it into something that will add to the body of knowledge in the chosen field. Sometimes the research contributes something entirely new to the field, and other times it expands or deepens previous studies.
By the time the doctoral coursework is finished, the topic should be selected and ready for formal research. At this point the student develops a proposal, which encompasses the research plan and methodology as it pertains to the selected topic.
At Capella, once the proposal has been approved by the studentâs mentor, committee, and the Institutional Review Board (IRB), the research and analysis begin. The dissertation is largely an independent project that essentially turns the student into a scholar; theyâll dive more deeply into research and writing then they have done before.
âCapella PhD candidates will be prepared for this step through their coursework and residency,â says Manns, noting that they will have learned how to approach this critical phase as part of their pre-dissertation learning.
The dissertation is a much deeper exploration of a research topic than a traditional essay would be. Itâs in the form of a book, with at least five chapters (some universities require a sixth chapter in the form of a recap of the previous chapters). Manns outlines the chapters this way:
The order of the chapters follows a logical progression in which PhD candidates build on their theories and explain research choices in detail before coming to the final chapter that gives weight to the value of the study itself.
Manns recommends that pre-dissertation students review completed dissertations in the field and research various types of methodology and design in the field as well. âThat will help give them a feel for the depth of research and discussion, and see how the chapters work together,â Manns explains. âAnd rememberâsomeday, it may be your dissertation being read!â
Capella University offers PhD and professional doctoral degrees in programs ranging from business to education and health to technology. Learn more about Capellaâs doctoral programs.
January 8, 2020
December 11, 2019
November 25, 2019
Get started on your journey now by connecting with an enrollment counselor. See how Capella may be a good fit for you, and start the application process.
Your internet browser is in private browsing mode. Please turn off private browsing mode if you wish to use this site.
Organising your PhD thesis in a logical order is one of the crucial stages of your writing process. Here is a list of the individual components to include
Created in partnership with
Popular resources
Using non verbal cues to build rapport with students, emotionally challenging research and researcher well-being, augmenting the doctoral thesis in preparation for a viva, how hard can it be testing ai detection tools.
The task of writing a PhD thesis is top of mind for many aspiring scholars. After all, completing one is no small task. And while these pieces of writing often share a standard format, this can differ slightly based on the requirements of your institution or subject. So what elements make up a PhD thesis?
A doctoral thesis usually contains:
Chapters typically cover:
You should also include a list of papers you have published and any relevant achievements at the end.
Title page: a PhD thesis starts with a title page that contains the complete title of the research work, the submitting university, names of the candidate and supervisor, affiliation and month and year of submission.
Abstract: this serves as a concise synopsis of the dissertation, covering the research context, purpose of the study or research questions, methodology, findings and conclusions. This section is usually one to two pages in length.
Table of contents: this page lists the thesis content and respective page numbers.
General introduction and literature review: this component is usually 20 to 40 pages long. It presents the readers with the primary material and discusses relevant published data. It provides an overview of pertinent literature related to the thesis such as texts that critically assess the existing literature to identify the gap in research and explain the need behind the study.
Aims and objectives: this section of the thesis is typically one to two pages long and describes the aims and objectives of the study. Structure them as three to four bullet points describing specific points that you will investigate. Approach this by thinking about what readers should understand by the end of the thesis. Ensure you:
Materials and methods: this section briefly explains how you have conducted the study and should include all the materials you used and procedures you implemented. For example, if your research involves working with chemicals, list the chemicals and instruments used, along with their catalogue numbers and manufacturers’ names. This section should also explicitly explain the methodology you used, step-by-step. Use the past tense while writing this section and do not describe any results or findings of the study yet.
Results: this section is sometimes called the “findings report” or “the experimental findings” (referring to data collection and analysis). Write the results concisely and in the past tense. Include text, figure and table infographics created with tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator and BioRender to visualise your data .
Discussion: this is a chance to discuss the results and compare the findings of your study with the initial hypothesis and existing knowledge. Focus on discussing interpretations, implications, limitations and recommendations here.
Summary and conclusion: this section should be shorter than the discussion and summarise your key findings. The summary and conclusion should be brief and engaging, allowing the reader to easily understand the major findings of the research work. Provide clear answers to the research questions, generate new knowledge and clarify the need for the study.
Future perspective: this section of the thesis (which is often combined with a summary or conclusion) talks about the study's limitations, if any, and indicates the directions for future studies based on your findings.
References or bibliography: the last section should include the list of articles, websites and other resources cited in the thesis.
Always remember that, depending on the department, university or field of study, you might have to follow specific guidelines on how to organise your PhD thesis. Ensure you consult your supervisor or academic department if you have any doubts.
Shama Prasada Kabekkodu is a professor and head of cell and molecular biology at Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.
If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter .
Emotions and learning: what role do emotions play in how and why students learn, the podcast: bringing an outsider’s eye to primary sources, a diy guide to starting your own journal, formative, summative or diagnostic assessment a guide, harnessing the power of data to drive student success.
Register for free
and unlock a host of features on the THE site
[I wrote this in 1993 as a letter to a student concerning a draft of his dissertation. In 2003 I edited it to remove some specific references to the student and present it as a small increment to the information available to my grad students. In 2023 I made small edits for grammar and to expand coverage.--spaf]
Let me start by reviewing some things that may seem obvious:
Let's revisit the idea of the thesis itself. It is a hypothesis, a conjecture, or a theorem. The dissertation is a formal, stylized document used to argue your thesis. The thesis must be significant, original (no one has yet demonstrated it to be true), and it must extend the state of scientific knowledge.
The first thing you need to do is to come up with no more than three sentences that express your thesis. Your committee must agree that your statements form a valid thesis statement. You, too, must be happy with the statement -- it should be what you will tell anyone if they ask you what your thesis is (few people will want to hear an hour's presentation as a response).
Once you have a thesis statement, you can begin developing the dissertation. The abstract, for instance, should be a one-page description of your thesis and how you present the proof of it. The abstract should summarize the results of the thesis and should stress the contributions to science made thereby.
Perhaps the best way to understand how an abstract should look would be to examine the abstracts of several dozen dissertations that have already been accepted. Our university library has a collection of them. This is a good approach to see how an entire dissertation is structured and presented. MIT Press has published the ACM doctoral dissertation award series for decades, so you may find some of those to be good examples to read -- they should be in any large technical library.
The dissertation itself should be structured into 4 to 6 chapters. The following is one commonly-used structure:
Let's look at these in a little more detail
Chapter I, Introduction. Here, you should clearly state the thesis and its importance. This is also where you define terms and other concepts used elsewhere. There is no need to write 80 pages of background on your topic here. Instead, you can cover almost everything by saying: "The terminology used in this work matches the definitions given in [citation, citation] unless noted otherwise." Then, cite some appropriate works that give the definitions you need. The progress of science is that we learn and use the work of others (with appropriate credit). Assume you have a technically literate readership familiar with (or able to find) standard references. Do not reference popular literature or WWW sites if you can help it (this is a matter of style more than anything else -- you want to cite articles in refereed conferences and journals, if possible, or in other theses).
Also, in the introduction, you want to survey any related work that attempted something similar to your own or has a significant supporting role in your research. This should refer only to published references. You cite the work in the references, not the researchers themselves. E.g., "The experiments described in [citation] explored the foo and bar conditions, but did not discuss the further problem of baz, the central point of this work." You should not make references such as this: "Curly, Moe, and Larry all believed the same in their research [CML53]" because you do not know what they believed or thought -- you only know what the paper states. Every factual statement you make must have a specific citation tied to it in this chapter, or else it must be common knowledge (don't rely on this too much).
Chapter II. Abstract Model. Your results are to be of lasting value. Thus, the model you develop and write about (and indeed, that you defend) should have lasting value. Thus, you should discuss a model not based on Windows, Linux, Ethernet, PCMIA, or any other technology. It should be generic and capture all the details necessary to overlay the model on likely environments. You should discuss the problems, parameters, requirements, necessary and sufficient conditions, and other factors here. Consider that 20 years ago (ca 1980), the common platform was a Vax computer running VMS or a PDP-11 running Unix version 6, yet well-crafted theses of the time are still valuable today. Will your dissertation be valuable 20+ years from now (ca 2050), or have you referred to technologies that will be of only historical interest?
This model is tough to construct but is the heart of the scientific part of your work. This is the lasting part of the contribution, and this is what someone might cite 50 years from now when we are all using MS Linux XXXXP on computers embedded in our wrists with subspace network links!
Chapters III & IV, Proof.There are basically three proof techniques that I have seen used in a computing dissertation, depending on the thesis topic. The first is analytic, where one takes the model or formulae and shows, using formal manipulations, that the model is sound and complete. A second proof method is stochastic, using statistical methods and measurements to show that something is true in the anticipated cases.
Chapter V. Additional results. This may be folded into Chapter III in some theses or multiple chapters in a thesis with many parts (as in a theory-based thesis). This may be where you discuss the effects of technology change on your results. This is also a place where you may wish to point out significant results that you obtained while seeking to prove your central thesis but which are not supportive of the thesis. Often, such additional results are published in a separate paper.
Chapter VI. Conclusions and Future Work. This is where you discuss what you found from your work, incidental ideas and results that were not central to your thesis but of value nonetheless (if you did not have them in Chapter V), and other results. This chapter should summarize all the important results of the dissertation --- note that this is the only chapter many people will ever read, so it should convey all the important results.
This is also where you should outline some possible future work that can be done in the area. What are some open problems? What are some new problems? What are some significant variations open to future inquiry?
Appendices usually are present to hold mundane details that are not published elsewhere but are critical to the development of your dissertation. This includes tables of measurement results, configuration details of experimental testbeds, limited source code listings of critical routines or algorithms, etc. It is not appropriate to include lists of readings by topic, lists of commercial systems, or other material that does not directly support the proof of your thesis.
Here are some more general hints to keep in mind as you write/edit:
As a rule of thumb, a CS dissertation should probably be longer than 100 pages but less than 160. Anything outside that range should be carefully examined with the above points in mind.
Keep in mind that you -- the Ph.D. candidate -- are expected to become the world's foremost expert on your topic area. That topic area should not be unduly broad but must be big enough to be meaningful. Your advisor and committee members are not supposed to know more about the topic than you do -- not individually, at least. Your dissertation is supposed to explain your findings and, along with the defense, demonstrate your mastery of the area in which you are now the leading expert. That does not mean writing everything you know -- it means writing enough about the most important points that others can agree with your conclusions.
Last of all, don't fall into the trap that ties up many candidates and causes some of them to flame out before completion: your thesis does not need to be revolutionary. It simply needs to be an incremental advancement in the field. Few Ph.D. dissertations have ever had a marked impact on the field. Instead, it is the author's set of publications and products of the author that may change the field.
If your dissertation is like most, it will only be read by your committee and some other Ph.D. candidates seeking to build on your work. As such, it does not need to be a masterwork of literature, nor does it need to solve a long-standing problem in computing. It merely needs to be correct, to be significant in the judgment of your committee, and it needs to be complete. We will all applaud when you change the world after graduation. And at that, you will find that many well-known scientists in CS have made their careers in areas different from their dissertation topic. The dissertation is proof that you can find and present original results; your career and life after graduation will demonstrate the other concerns you might have about making an impact.
So get to work!
An official website of the United States government
The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.
The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .
Prof. HR Ahmad, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. E-mail: [email protected]
Note: * Ahmad HR. In: Medical Writing. Eds. SA Jawaid, MH Jafary & SJ Zuberi. PMJA, 1997 Ed II: 133-142.
PATIENT care and teaching are rather well established components of our medical career. However, with the passage of time a third component has started to influence our medical culture, namely research. 1 - 4 How to accept this challenge is a question. 5 Indeed, teaching and research form a dialectic unit, meaning that teaching without a research component is like a soup without salt. It is a well-established fact that the research activity of an institution is directly proportional to the number of qualified and committed PhD candidates. An inspiring infrastructure, laboratory facilities and libraries are pre-requisites for a research culture to grow. 6 - 8 This forms the basis of a generation cycle for an institution, so that research activity and its culture continues to grow from one generation to the next. The main objective of doctoral work in biomedical sciences is to develop a galaxy of scientist physicians and surgeons possessing high degree of humility, selflessness and ethical superiority. Such a programme will add a scholastic dimension to the clinical faculty.
Education in how to write a doctoral thesis or dissertation should be a part of the postgraduate curriculum, parallel to the laboratory work and Journal Club activities during the PhD studies and/or residency levels. 9 , 10 The overall structure of a doctoral thesis is internationally standardized. However, it varies in style and quality, depending upon how original the work is, and how much the author has understood the work. Therefore a thorough discussion with supervisor, colleagues and assistance from other authors through correspondence can be useful sources for consultation.
The choice of a topic for a doctoral thesis is a crucial step. It should be determined by scanning the literature whether the topic is original or similar work has already been done even a hundred years ago. It is the responsibility of both the supervisor and the PhD candidate to sort out this problem by continuous use of internet and a library. 11 The work leading to the PhD degree can originate from research in following spheres: 12
The availability of internationally standardized methods, as well as research committed supervisors can enable physicians and surgeons to do PhD work in both basic and clinical health sciences. The importance of research in basic health sciences cannot be overemphasized. It is rather the base of the applied sciences. There are many instances where the elucidation of a mechanism involved in a process awaits the development of an adequate methodology. 13 In such a scenario; a new method is like a new eye. Research activity in the field of (a) and (b) illuminates the research directions for (c) (d) and (e). It is worth noting that sometimes important basic questions can come from (e) and stimulate research activity in the domain of basic health sciences. 14 , 15
TYPE-I: Book Form: a classical style. The blueprint of this form is shown in Table-I .
Type-I: The Classical Book Form
INTRODUCTION: | Literature review. Identification of unresolved problem Formulation of aims and objectives. |
METHODOLOGY: | Design. Outcome variable. Statistical analysis. |
RESULTS: | Figures and tables with appropriate legends. Description, though not explanation of figures. |
DISCUSSION: | Criticism of methodology and design Important observations. Interpretation and reasoning of results. Staging debate with the data of a literature table. |
CONCLUSION: | Based on the premises of outcome. Claim of original research. Implications for future research directions. |
REFERENCES: | Well analyzed. |
TYPE-II: Cumulative Doctoral thesis: A modem but quite useful practice.
A book containing the pearls of a PhD work has standardized divisions and formats, where the number of pages should be weighted in terms of content rather than container. The book includes summary, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions, references and acknowledgements.
Two exercises are mandatory before starting a PhD programme:
Now comes the most crucial and functional part of the doctoral work, the materials/subjects and methods section. This part can be considered as the motor of the PhD work. The reliability, sensitivity and specificity of the motor must be checked before embarking on a long journey. Controlling the controls is the best guide for a precise and authentic work. Usually materials and methods contain components such as a description of the species involved, their number, age, weight and anthropometric parameters, types of surgical procedures and anesthesia if applied, and a detailed description of methodology. Continuous or point measurements should be thoroughly described. However, a dynamic method should always be preferred to static one.
The experimental protocol should be designed after a small pilot study, which is especially advisable in research on human subjects. A detailed and well-thought experimental protocol forms the basis of conditions under which the results would be obtained. Any deviation from the experimental protocol will affect the outcome, and the interpretation of results. It may be noted that great discoveries are usually accidental and without a protocol, based merely on careful observation! However, for the sake of a publication, a protocol has to be designed after the discovery. After having described the different phases of the experimental protocol with the help of a schematic diagram e.g., showing variables, time period and interventions, the selection of a statistical method should be discussed. Negative results should not be disregarded because they represent the boundary conditions of positive results. Sometimes the negative results are the real results.
It is usual practice that most PhD candidates start writing the methodological components first. This is followed by writing the results. The pre-requisites for writing results are that all figures, tables, schematic diagrams of methods and a working model should be ready. They should be designed in such a way that the information content of each figure should, when projected as a frame be visually clear to audience viewing it from a distance of about fifty feet. It is often observed that the presenters themselves have difficulty in deciphering a frame of the Power-Point being projected in a conference.
The results of a doctoral thesis should be treated like a bride. The flow of writing results becomes easier if all figures and tables are well prepared. This promotes the train of thoughts required to analyze the data in a quantitative fashion. The golden rule of writing results of a thesis is to describe what the figure shows. No explanation is required. One should avoid writing anything which is not there in a figure. Before writing one should observe each diagram for some time and make a list of observations in the form of key words. The more one has understood the information content of a figure; the better will be the fluency of writing. The interruption of the flow in writing most often indicates that an author has not understood the results. Discussion with colleagues or reference to the literature is the only remedy, and it functions sometimes like a caesarean procedure.
Statistical methods are good devices to test the degree of authenticity and precision of results if appropriately applied. The application of statistical technique in human studies poses difficulties because of large standard deviations. Outliers must be discussed, if they are excluded for the sake of statistical significance. Large standard deviations can be minimized by increasing the number of observations. If a regression analysis is not weighted, it gives faulty information. The correlation coefficient value can change from 0.7 to 0.4 if the regression analysis is weighted using Fisher’s test. The dissection of effect from artifact should be analysed in such a way that the signal to noise ratio of a parameter should be considered. A competent statistician should always be consulted in order to avoid the danger of distortion of results.
The legend of a figure should be well written. It contains a title, a brief description of variables and interventions, the main effect and a concluding remark conveying the original message. The writing of PhD work is further eased by a well maintained collection of data in the form of log book, original recordings, analyzed references with summaries and compiling the virgin data of the study on master plan sheet to understand the original signals before submitting to the procedures of statistics. The original data belong to the laboratory of an institution where it came into being and should be preserved for 5-7 years in the archive for the sake of brevity.
This is the liveliest part of a thesis. Its main goal is to defend the work by staging a constructive debate with the literature. The golden rule of this written debate should be that a rigid explanation looks backward and a design looks forward. The object is to derive a model out of a jig-saw puzzle of information. It should be designed in such a way that the results of the present study and those of authors from the literature can be better discussed and interpreted. Agreement and disagreement can be better resolved if one considers under what experimental conditions the results were obtained by the various authors. It means that the boundary conditions for each result should be carefully analyzed and compared.
The discussion can be divided into the following parts:
Another way of writing a doctoral work is a cumulative type of thesis. 11 It consists of a few original publications in refereed journals of repute. It is supplemented by a concise summary about the research work. This type of thesis is usually practiced in Sweden, Germany and other countries. It has the advantage of being doubly refereed by the journals and the faculty of health sciences. Additionally, papers are published during a doctoral work. A declaration has to be given to the faculty of science about the sharing of research work in publications, provided there are co-authors. The weightage should be in favour of the PhD candidate, so that the thesis can ethically be better defended before the team of august research faculty.
A critical review of this manuscript by Dr. Roger Sutton, Dr. Khalid Khan, Dr. Bukhtiar Shah and Dr. Satwat Hashmi is gratefully acknowledged.
Dedicated to the memory of Mr. Azim Kidwai for his exemplary academic commitment and devotion to the science journalism in Pakistan.
Graduate School
The graduate school is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 ddf fellowship recipients.
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2024-2025 DDF Fellowship! The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) gives the University's most accomplished Ph.D. candidates an opportunity to devote full-time effort to an outstanding research project by providing time to finalize and write a dissertation during the fellowship year.
Mechanical Engineering Advisor(s): Rajesh Rajamani "Vehicle Tracking Based on Low-Cost Sensors: Applications to Micromobility Devices and Autonomous Vehicles"
History Advisor(s): David Chang, Jean O'Brien "Vincennes in Myaamionki: Constructing and Contesting Indiana's Past in Miami Homelands"
Geography Advisor(s): Vinay Gidwani "Exclusionary Inclusion: How Caste and Capital Logics Shape the Politics of Recognition, Formalization, and Infrastructural Reform in Contemporary Urban India"
Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences Advisor(s): Benjamin Munson "Say exactly what I say: Social considerations for children’s performance in sentence repetition tasks"
Social and Administrative Pharmacy Advisor(s): Jon Schommer "Key Components for Planning and Developing New Pharmaceutical Enterprise that Produces the COVID-19 Vaccine in Nigeria for Local Uptake"
Education, Curriculum and Instruction Advisor(s): Erin Baldinger "Learning the Nonlinear Dynamics of Climate Change through Mathematics Instruction"
Computer Science Advisor(s): Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos "Efficient Robotic Automation Leveraging Optimal Visual and Language Information"
Chemical Engineering Advisor(s): Theresa Reineke, Frank Bates "Design and synthesis of bottlebrush polymers for improved oral drug delivery"
Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Advisor(s): Angela Birnbaum "Prediction of fetal exposure of anti-seizure medication dosing during pregnancy through the development of physiologically-based models for prediction of lamotrigine exposure"
Social and Administrative Pharmacy Advisor(s): Angeline Carlson "Postpartum Depression: Racial and Geographical Disparities, Social Determinants, and Healthcare Utilization Patterns in the United States"
Applied Plant Sciences Advisor(s): Candice Hirsch "Quantifying maize kernel attributes affecting quality in masa-based products"
Biostatistics Advisor(s): Weihua Guan, Tianzhong Yang "Statistical Models for Understanding Genetic and Genomic Foundations of Childhood Cancers: A Focus on Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia"
Rehabilitation Science Advisor(s): Ann Van de Winckel "Development of a Novel Evaluation Scale for Mental Body Representations (MBR) in Adults with Spinal Cord Injury
Epidemiology Advisor(s): Erin Marcotte "The effects of policy and neighborhood-level social determinants of health on childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia survival disparities"
Educational Psychology Advisor(s): Kristen McMaster "Toward the Fair and Valid Use of Curriculum-Based Measurement in Writing with Struggling Writers From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds"
Electrical Engineering Advisor(s): Ulya Karpuzcu "Computing with Spins: The Good, the Bad, and the Odd"
Integrative Biology and Physiology Advisor(s): Joseph Metzger, Xavier Revelo "Mechanism of Innate Immunity Activation and Inflammation Onset in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy"
Political Science Advisor(s): Tanisha Fazal "Taking Care of Fighters: Rebel Groups and their Provision of Medical Care to Fighters"
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics Advisor(s): Christina Camell "Cytotoxicity, exhaustion, and immunosenescence in CD8+ T cells during aging"
Computer Science Advisor(s): Dongyeop Kang "Cognitively Informed Natural Language Generation"
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Advisor(s): Sarah Hobbie, Peter Kennedy "Fungal controls on forest soil carbon storage under climate change"
Chemistry Advisor(s): Courtney Roberts "Inducing Regioselecitivty in Metal-Bound Arynes Reactions via Catalyst Control"
Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development Advisor(s): Joan DeJaeghere, Bhaskar Upadhyay "Racialized and Sexualized Bodies: Northeastern Indian Students’ Experiences in Higher Educational Institutions"
Earth Sciences Advisor(s): Joshua Feinberg "Approaches in rock magnetic analysis: Insights into remanence acquisition, sea-level reconstruction, and advancement of techniques"
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics Advisor(s): Stefani Thomas "Histone Deacetylase Proteins as Therapeutic Targets in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer"
Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology Advisor(s): Kaylee Schwertfeger "LYVE-1+ macrophages modulate the extracellular matrix and contribute to mammary tumor growth"
Education, Curriculum and Instruction Advisor(s): Betsy Maloney Leaf "The Three Rs: An Intergenerational Exploration of Black Womanhood in Education & Dance"
Psychology Advisor(s): Bob Krueger "Associations between Loneliness, Epigenetic Age Acceleration, and Chronic Physical Health Conditions at Midlife"
Mass Communication Advisor(s): Rebekah Nagler "Responses to Politicized News Media Coverage About Health and Science: What is the role of perceived controversy?"
Physics Advisor(s): Maxim Pospelov "CP-violating observables within and beyond the Standard Model"
Educational Psychology Advisor(s): David DeLiema "Tree Climbing: Attunement to material contribution during playful climbing"
Nursing Advisor(s): Carolyn Porta "Are We Preparing Nursing Students to Address Health Equity? A Mixed Methods Study of Baccalaureate Nursing Programs"
Child Psychology Advisor(s): Canan Karatekin, Megan Gunnar "How neighborhoods shape health from adolescence to adulthood: An examination of age-varying effects and change over time"
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Advisor(s): Craig Packer "Understanding human-wildlife interactions in a shared savanna landscape: impacts of cattle on wild herbivores spatiotemporal dynamics"
Anthropology Advisor(s): Kieran McNulty "The Ecological Context of Early Ape Evolution"
Computer Science Advisor(s): Chad Myers "Computational methods for chemical genetic networks to discover precision cancer drugs"
Design Advisor(s): Brad Hokanson "The Effect of Creative Problem Solving Training on Students’ Creative and Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions"
Mechanical Engineering Advisor(s): James Van de Ven "Flow and Torque Ripple Reduction in Positive Displacement Pumps and Motors"
Child Psychology Advisor(s): Ann Masten, Bonnie Klimes-Dougan "Resilience Processes in Twin Cities Immigrant and Refugee Children"
Chemistry Advisor(s): Phillipe Buhlmann "Expanding the Working Ranges and Applications of Ion Selective Electrodes"
Computer Science Advisor(s): Zhi-Li Zhang "Domain-Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning for Networked Systems"
Physics Advisor(s): Andrey Chubukov "Interplay between nematicity and superconductivity in iron-based high temperature superconductors, application to doped FeSe"
Education, Curriculum and Instruction Advisor(s): Vichet Chhuon "The Problematics of Becoming Asian American: Karen Students in U.S. Schools"
Water Resources Science Advisor(s): Xue Feng "Towards Understanding Coupled Snow and Soil Frost Behavior in Peatland Landscapes"
Plant and Microbial Biology Advisor(s): Dave Moeller "The role of mating system transitions in flowering plant speciation"
Electrical Engineering Advisor(s): Kia Bazargan "Self-Similarity-Based Computing"
Mechanical Engineering Advisor(s): Jeff Tithof "Novel Strategies to Address Neurological Disorders through Numerical Simulation of Cerebrospinal Fluid Drainage"
Natural Resources Science and Management Advisor(s): Mae Davenport "Homesteaders to Harvesters: Case Studies in Black and Indigenous Reparative Environmental Justice"
Computer Science Advisor(s): Eric Van Wyk "Enabling Practical Modular Language Specifications"
Mechanical Engineering Advisor(s): Uwe Kortshagen "Carbon-Free Iron Ore Reduction using Hydrogen Plasma: Towards Green Steel"
Business Administration Advisor(s): Karen Donohue "Improving the Sustainability of E-Commerce Logistics through Change in Consumer Behavior"
Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration Advisor(s): Eva Enns, Xiao Zang "Optimizing harm reduction services to prevent drug overdose deaths and improve racial/ethnic health equity among people at risk for drug overdose in Minnesota"
Computer Science Advisor(s): Yao-Yi Chiang "Spatiotemporal Prediction and Forecasting with Multimodal and Multiscale Data"
Civil Engineering Advisor(s): Bill Arnold "Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) in wastewater and the environment: Quantification and Removal"
Materials Science and Engineering Advisor(s): Nathan Mara, Calvin Sun "Fundamental understanding of mechanical behavior in pharmaceutical crystals for accelerated drug manufacturing"
Family Social Science Advisor(s): Chalandra Bryant "African American Bereavement: How Do Youth and Families Navigate Loss?"
Theatre Arts Advisor(s): Margaret Werry, Sonali Pahwa "Housewives, Writers, and Communists: Staging Domesticity in Imperial Germany to Make Labor Visible"
Asian Literatures, Cultures, and Media Advisor(s): Christine Marran "The Stakes of Tricontinental Cinema: Radical Politics and Aesthetics in the Global 1960s"
Comparative and Molecular Biosciences Advisor(s): Yuying Liang, Hinh Ly "New Insights into the Biology and Composition of Medically Important Viruses"
Chemical Engineering Advisor(s): Bharat Jalan "Engineering thin film synthesis and electronic properties of iridium-based oxides"
Biomedical Engineering Advisor(s): Jonathan Sachs "Investigation of fibril cavity amino acids and small molecules as modulators of selfassembly and toxicity of neurodegeneration-related proteins"
Child Psychology Advisor(s): Sylia Wilson, Ann Masten "A Causally- and Genetically-Informed Approach to Depression and Substance Use Comorbidity During Adolescence and the Role of the Parent-Child Relationship"
Chemical Engineering Advisor(s): Matthew Neurock "First-principles Insights into The Catalytic Conversions of CO2 to Value-added Chemicals and Fuels"
Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development Advisor(s): Stuart Yeh "Public Narrative and Its Relationship to Traumatic Stress: Applying Evaluative Thinking and Problem Definition to a Critical Social Issue"
Medicinal Chemistry Advisor(s): Courtney Aldrich "Chemical Probes for the Identification and Validation of Targets in Mycobacterial Metabolism"
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics Advisor(s): Wendy Gordon "The Development and Utilization of High Throughput Methods of Mechanotypying"
Plant and Microbial Biology Advisor(s): Trinity Hamilton "Microbial diversity across spatial and temporal scales in high mountain watersheds of the Teton Range, USA"
Conservation Sciences Advisor(s): Joseph Bump "Unraveling the Ecological Complexity of Yellowstone's Large Mammal Predator-Prey Dynamics"
Earth Sciences Advisor(s): Pete Makovicky "The Macroevolution of the Ornithischian Dental Battery"
Linguistics Advisor(s): Claire Halpert "Ge-gikendamang Enwewaad Netaa-anishnaabemojig: linguistic analysis of clause type in of Ojibwe language reclamation"
Plant and Microbial Biology Advisor(s): Kathleen Greenham "Integrating time of day dynamics into transcriptomic and metabolic networks to improve crop performance"
Sociology Advisor(s): Michelle Phelps "Covenanted-Policing: Policing, Spatial Racism, and Health (In)Equity in Minneapolis, MN"
Chemistry Advisor(s): Courtney Roberts "Advances in Modern and Traditional Methods for Pharmaceutically Relevant C–C and C–N Bond Formation"
Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Advisor(s): R. Stephanie Huang "Deciphering Sex Differences in Tumor Progression and Cancer Treatment Response by Studying Intratumoral Microbiome-Host Interactions"
Geography Advisor(s): Vinay Gidwani, Bruce Braun "A State of Uncertainty: Flood and Erosion Management in the Brahmaputra Valley (India)"
Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Genetics Advisor(s): Juan Carlos Rivera-Mulia, Walter Low "Overcoming barriers to organ generation for transplantation therapy through interspecies chimerism"
Sociology Advisor(s): Joachim Savelsberg, Alejandro Baer "History in Whose Hands? Women's Collective Memory of the Yugoslav Wars in Serbia"
Rehabilitation Science Advisor(s): Manda Keller-Ross, Ida Fonkoue "Sympathetic Regulation and Endothelial Function in Postmenopausal Females with Sleep Disturbance"
Chemistry Advisor(s): Mark Distefano "Building the Protein-Drug Revolution"
Public Affairs Advisor(s): Ragui Assaad "The nexus of climate change, migration and conflict in Sudan"
History Advisor(s): Andrea Sterk "Saints, Soldiers, and Society in the Late Roman West: Reassessing the End of Empire in Italy and Illyricum"
Family Social Science Advisor(s): Stacey Horn "Perceptions and Meaning-Making of Homophobic Language Among Mandarin-Speaking Adolescents"
Pharmaceutics Advisor(s): Changquan Sun "Tabeletability Flip of Drugs upon Formulation"
Biomedical Engineering Advisor(s): David Wood "Defining the mechanics and kinetics of red blood cell sickling in sickle cell disease"
Chemistry Advisor(s): Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran "Modulating the structure and function of bacterial heme proteins"
Business Administration Advisor(s): Elizabeth Campbell "When Underperformance Means Success: Mixed-Methods Theory-Building & Testing of Strategic Underperformance"
Computer Science Advisor(s): Shashi Shekhar "Vehicle-Physics-Informed AI for Transportation Science"
Pharmacology Advisor(s): Ameeta Kelekar "Bcl-2 protein, Noxa, as a Regulator of Proliferative Metabolism and Apoptotic Cell Death in human CD8+ T cells"
Electrical Engineering Advisor(s): Mingyi Hong "Aligning Human and AI Systems: Framework, Algorithm Design and Applications in Large Language Models"
Mathematics Advisor(s): Pavlo Pylyavskyy "Super Cluster Algebras and Generalized Boson-Fermion Correspondence"
Mechanical Engineering Advisor(s): Sun Zongxuan "System Modeling and Motion Control for Autonomous Off-road Vehicles"
Chemistry Advisor(s): Ilja Siepmann, Tim Lodge "Self-Assembly of Polymers and Amphiphiles into Bicontinuous Phases"
Home > ETD > Doctoral > 5736
Pastoral prose and civic engagement: crafting the call to the public square.
Christopher Ian Thoma , Liberty University Follow
Rawlings School of Divinity
Doctor of Ministry (DMin)
Lucien Fortier
activism, attitudinal shift, Christianity, church, communication, creative writing, culture, engagement, influence, newsletter, pastor, public square, state, trust, Two Kingdoms
Communication | Practical Theology
Thoma, Christopher Ian, "Pastoral Prose and Civic Engagement: Crafting the Call to the Public Square" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects . 5736. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5736
This thesis explores the relationship between creative writing techniques employed by pastors and congregational engagement in the public square. The central thesis posits that if pastors incorporate creative writing methods in extended weekly communications with congregants, then the necessary factors for engagement in the public square will be fostered, leading to attitudinal shifts demonstrated by increased congregational interest or participation in civil affairs. Through an extensive literature review, the thesis fairly examines historical and contemporary views of church and state, the Two Kingdoms doctrine, concepts relative to public square participation, Christianity’s waning cultural influence, communication science, developmental theory, literature familiarity, theological foundations for creative communication, and the potential benefits and challenges of employing such writing techniques within a religious context. Built on best practices in research, the thesis then presents an intervention in which nine pastors from nine different congregations employed a uniquely crafted writing rubric once a week for twelve weeks. Prior to the writing effort, the congregations were surveyed to detect initial perceptions relative to public square engagement. The same survey was administered and synthesized at the study’s conclusion to detect attitudinal shifts. Prior to and throughout the intervention, participating pastors joined in four seminars designed to cultivate, enhance, and maintain their participation toward the effort’s goal. Overall, this study resulted in an attitudinal shift while simultaneously contributing to a deeper understanding of the importance of Christian engagement in the public square and the role of pastors in fostering such engagement. Residually, and practically, it provides insight for engendering trust between pastor and parishioner.
Since June 19, 2024
Communication Commons , Practical Theology Commons
Advanced Search
Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement
Privacy Copyright
Nivedita arora’s work looks to the future of sustainable computing.
New York, NY, June 17, 2024 – ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today announced that Nivedita Arora , of Northwestern University is the recipient of the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for her dissertation “ Sustainable Interactive Wireless Stickers: From Materials to Devices to Applications ,” which demonstrated wireless and batteryless sensor nodes using novel materials and radio backscatter.
Arora’s research envisions creating sustainable computational materials that operate by harvesting energy from the environment and, at the end of their life cycle, can be responsibly composted or recycled. Her research process involves working at the intersection of materials, methods of fabrication, low-power systems, and HCI . She actively looks to apply her work to application domains such as smart homes, health, climate change, and wildlife monitoring.
Arora’s dissertation makes truly groundbreaking contributions to the fields of Ubiquitous Computing and Human-Computer Interaction. Today’s Internet of Things (IoT) devices are bulky, require battery maintenance, and involve costly installation. In contrast, Arora shows how the computational capabilities of sensing, communication, and display can be diffused into materials and everyday objects. She builds interactive stickers that are inexpensive, and easy to deploy and sustainably operate by harvesting energy from body heat or indoor light. She demonstrates this idea over a series of projects. Her first effort, SATURN , is a thin, flexible multi-layer material that is a self-sustaining audio sensor. Specifically, it uses the vibration itself to power the ability to capture and encode the vibration sensor. SATURN was extended to ZEUSSS to use passive RF backscatter for wireless transmission on the vibration signal. She followed this up with the MARS platform that produces an extremely low-power (less than a microwatt) resonance circuit that varies its frequency based on user interaction with interfaces that create inductive or capacitive loads on the circuit. Coupling this circuit with FM passive backscatter and ambient power harvesting allows user interfaces such as touch-sensitive buttons, sliders, and vibration sensors to communicate at a distance. The result of these three projects is a flat user interface in a post-it note form factor that can be deployed in the environment simply by sticking it to a flat surface. The flat user interface and mobile design allows for applications such as light switches or audio volume sliders that can simply be pasted where they are needed without worrying about wiring the infrastructure or maintaining batteries.
The final project, VENUS , adds output in the form of low-power display technologies to provide immediate feedback on the surface of the computational material, opening a wide variety of user-facing interaction scenarios. Her work also showed that it is possible to power these circuits through the transfer of body heat when a user touches the button, which can also be used to protect privacy.
Arora is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering and (by courtesy) Computer Science Department, as well as the Allen K. and Johnnie Cordell Breed Jr. Professor of Design at Northwestern University. Her research involves rethinking the computing stack from a sustainability-first approach for its entire life-cycle: manufacturing, operation, and disposal. Arora received a PhD in Computer Science and an MS In Human-Computer Interaction from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mentions for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award go to Gabriele Farina of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and William Kuszmaul of Harvard University .
Farina’s dissertation, “ Game-Theoretic Decision Making in Imperfect-Information Games ” was recognized for laying modern learning foundations for decision-making in imperfect-information sequential games, resolving long-standing questions, and demonstrating state-of-the-art theoretical and practical performance.
Farina is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department (EECS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and game theory. He received a PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Kuszmaul’s dissertation, “ Randomized Data Structures: New Perspectives and Hidden Surprises ,” is recognized for contributions to the field of randomized data structures that overturn conventional wisdom and widely believed conjecture.
Kuszmaul’s research focuses on algorithms, data structures, and probability. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is presently doing Post Doctoral work at Harvard University. In August, he will be starting as an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University.
Presented annually to the author(s) of the best doctoral dissertation(s) in computer science and engineering. The Doctoral Dissertation Award is accompanied by a prize of $20,000, and the Honorable Mention Award is accompanied by a prize totaling $10,000. Winning dissertations will be published in the ACM Digital Library as part of the ACM Books Series.
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery , is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
Contact: Jim Ormond 212-626-0505 [email protected]
Printable PDF File
Doctoral candidate Lanyu Shang successfully defended her dissertation, "A Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence Approach Towards Equality, Well-Being, and Responsibility in Sustainable Communities," on June 19.
Her doctoral committee included Associate Professor Dong Wang (chair); Assistant Professor Jessie Chin; Ximing Cai, professor of civil and environmental engineering; and Na Wei, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Abstract: This dissertation introduces a human-centric artificial intelligence for sustainable communities (HAI4SC) approach that harnesses the complementary strengths of artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence (HI) to foster equality, well-being, and responsibility. AI has shown superiority in processing large amounts of data, identifying latent patterns, and making predictions, addressing the scalability and complexity of sustainability challenges. On the other hand, HI excels in providing context, domain expertise, and human-centric insights, which are essential for understanding the complex social and physical factors for community sustainability. This dissertation develops a holistic HAI4SC approach by addressing three fundamental challenges: multimodality, adaptability, and trustworthiness. First, we develop a multimodal information fusion system to seamlessly integrate multimodal content in enhancing community information credibility. Moreover, we design an adaptive cross-domain analytic framework that explicitly incorporates and adapts domain knowledge from well-studied source domains for improving the resilience and well-being of sustainable communities. Additionally, we develop a trustworthy social-physical knowledge distillation scheme that effectively models the diverse and uncertain human inputs from community stakeholders to strengthen the community responsibility and sustainability.
The award’s purpose is to recognize outstanding recent doctoral candidates whose research contributes significantly to an understanding of some aspect of information science. The award is intended to encourage participation of new PhDs in the activities of a professional association by providing a forum for the presentation of their research and assisting them with some travel support.
Shankar, whose doctoral work was conducted at the University of British Columbia, was selected as the winner from among a pool of outstanding candidates who were judged based on these criteria: Importance of the topic to theory development and/or practical applications in information science; soundness of methodology; organization and clarity of the presentation; and quality of data (when applicable).
The award citation reads, “This robust dissertation examines the interdependent information practices among service providers in various domains caring for newcomer communities in Canada. Fourteen semi-structured interviews that the author analyzed using storytelling and reflexive thematic analysis inform findings. The significant strengths of the dissertation are its extensive review of relevant literature across LIS and science and technology studies and the clear case for the study's significance based on existing gaps. Another strength is the multiple modes of analysis, which lead to a broader and more interpersonal interpretation, reframing information practices practiced by people in shared social settings and as parts of larger systems, including institutions and technologies. Also impressive is the creativity of the cards the author created to engender dialog between groups providing services for newcomer communities, with scenarios and prompts connected to the research findings.”
Shankar’s advisor, Lisa Nathan, PhD wrote the following in support of Saguna’s submission: “The digital document that represents Shankar’s dissertation project provides evidence of the intellectual rigor and personal commitment with which the research was carried out. From the beginning of her doctoral program Shankar remained steadfast to her commitment to improve the experience of those negotiating the settlement process as they attempt to thrive in the nation-state of Canada. One of the qualities that make Shankar’s work stand out is the explicit recognition that the creation of knowledge and expertise are not the sole purview of academic researchers. Shankar worked for years to move into a position that enabled learning with and from differently positioned settlement practitioners who hold so much insight and knowledge concerning the stewarding of information throughout the Canadian settlement process.”
Upon learning of her selection as the 2024 ASIS&T Doctoral Dissertation Award, Shankar said, “I am delighted to receive this support. My sincere thanks to the ASIS&T community and awards jury, and to the mentors, colleagues, and friends I have learned from and had the joy of sharing time with over the many years it takes to write a dissertation."
Shankar will receive their award at the 2024 meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) which will be held 25-29 in Calgary, AB, Canada.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
A PhD thesis is a piece of original research that explains the conclusions reached by a PhD student. Learn about the typical structure, length, formatting and submission process of a PhD thesis.
Researching, writing, and defending a dissertation represents a major step in earning a doctorate. But what is a dissertation exactly? A dissertation is an original work of scholarship that contributes to the field. Doctoral candidates often spend 1-3 years working on their dissertations. And many dissertations top 200 or more pages.
Craft a convincing dissertation or thesis research proposal. Write a clear, compelling introduction chapter. Undertake a thorough review of the existing research and write up a literature review. Undertake your own research. Present and interpret your findings. Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications.
A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. Learn how to write and structure a dissertation, download a template, and see examples from different disciplines.
Generally, a doctoral dissertation has greater breadth, depth, and intention than a master's thesis since it is based on original research. While the standard length of a master's thesis is around 100 pages, a doctoral dissertation can be upwards of 400-500 pages. While most students can finish their PhD dissertation or thesis in as little ...
Revised on April 16, 2024. A thesis is a type of research paper based on your original research. It is usually submitted as the final step of a master's program or a capstone to a bachelor's degree. Writing a thesis can be a daunting experience. Other than a dissertation, it is one of the longest pieces of writing students typically complete.
A Guide to Writing a PhD Thesis. A PhD thesis is a work of original research all students are requiured to submit in order to succesfully complete their PhD. The thesis details the research that you carried out during the course of your doctoral degree and highlights the outcomes and conclusions reached. The PhD thesis is the most important ...
Definition of Dissertation and Thesis. The dissertation or thesis is a scholarly treatise that substantiates a specific point of view as a result of original research that is conducted by students during their graduate study. At Cornell, the thesis is a requirement for the receipt of the M.A. and M.S. degrees and some professional master's ...
A dissertation is often a component of a doctoral or PhD program. This document is usually a culmination of what you learn. It is often a lengthy document. It typically includes original research or, in some cases, may include expanded research on an existing topic. A thesis is a scholarly written document.
A PhD thesis takes a longer time, as the thesis is the main focus of the degree. A PhD thesis might be being formulated and worked on for the whole four years of the degree program. The writing process alone can take around 18 months. Cite this Scribbr article.
A dissertation (or thesis) is a process. Okay, so now that you understand that a dissertation is a research project (which is testing your ability to undertake quality research), let's go a little deeper into what that means in practical terms. The best way to understand a dissertation is to view it as a process - more specifically a ...
A PhD thesis (or dissertation) is typically 60,000 to 120,000 words ( 100 to 300 pages in length) organised into chapters, divisions and subdivisions (with roughly 10,000 words per chapter) - from introduction (with clear aims and objectives) to conclusion. The structure of a dissertation will vary depending on discipline (humanities, social ...
A dissertation, also known as a doctoral thesis, is the final required part of completing a student's doctoral study.Undertaken after a student completes coursework and passes a comprehensive examination, the dissertation is the final hurdle in completing a Ph.D. or other doctoral degree. The dissertation is expected to make a new and creative contribution to a field of study and to ...
When starting your thesis or dissertation process, one of the first requirements is a research proposal or a prospectus. It describes what or who you want to examine, delving into why, when, where, and how you will do so, stemming from your research question and a relevant topic. The proposal or prospectus stage is crucial for the development ...
A PhD is an academic degree focused on original research, data analysis, and the evaluation of theory. The result of that research is a dissertation. People who earn a PhD often pursue careers in research, academia, and leadership. A PhD is also called an academic doctoral degree or a terminal degree. What Is a Dissertation in a PhD Program?
thesis subscription, sales, and indexing services. In the PQ Publishing Options screen, access to one's dissertation may be delayed/restricted by placing an embargo on the electronic ProQuest submission. Delayed or Restricted Access (Embargoes) If an embargo is necessary, it is possible to embargo the dissertation for six months, one year, or two
A dissertation is typically the capstone project for a doctorate, while a thesis is the capstone project for a master's degree program (or undergraduate program). Candidates will have to defend their dissertation during an oral presentation in front of their committee. Only some master's theses require this.
A dissertation is a written document that summarizes research and is the final step of a PhD program. Learn about the content, format, and process of writing a dissertation from Capella University faculty and students.
Tips for writing a PhD dissertation: FAQs answered; How to tackle the PhD dissertation; Summary and conclusion: this section should be shorter than the discussion and summarise your key findings. The summary and conclusion should be brief and engaging, allowing the reader to easily understand the major findings of the research work.
The dissertation is a technical work that documents and proves one's thesis. It is intended for a technical audience and must be clear and complete but not necessarily exhaustively comprehensive. Also note -- experimental data, if used, is not the proof -- it is evidence. The proof is presented as an analysis and critical presentation.
The Dissertation Guidebook is one of the essential navigation tools Walden provides to its doctoral candidates. A vital portion of the document details the 15 required steps that take a dissertation from start to finish. Read along with Walden students to learn more about that process: Premise. The dissertation premise is a short document that ...
Education in how to write a doctoral thesis or dissertation should be a part of the postgraduate curriculum, parallel to the laboratory work and Journal Club activities during the PhD studies and/or residency levels.9,10 The overall structure of a doctoral thesis is internationally standardized. However, it varies in style and quality ...
An analysis of the far-left "Squad" lawmaker's Manhattanville College dissertation, conducted by the Daily Wire, discovered "multiple instances" of apparent plagiarism, including some ...
The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) gives the University's most accomplished Ph.D. candidates an opportunity to devote full-time effort to an outstanding research project by providing time to finalize and write a dissertation during the fellowship year. Hamidreza Alai .
This thesis explores the relationship between creative writing techniques employed by pastors and congregational engagement in the public square. The central thesis posits that if pastors incorporate creative writing methods in extended weekly communications with congregants, then the necessary factors for engagement in the public square will be fostered, leading to attitudinal shifts ...
About the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award. Presented annually to the author(s) of the best doctoral dissertation(s) in computer science and engineering. The Doctoral Dissertation Award is accompanied by a prize of $20,000, and the Honorable Mention Award is accompanied by a prize totaling $10,000. Winning dissertations will be published in the ...
Doctoral candidate Lanyu Shang successfully defended her dissertation, "A Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence Approach Towards Equality, Well-Being, and Responsibility in Sustainable Communities," on June 19.
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Saguna Shankar, PhD is the 2024 recipient of the ASIS&T Doctoral Dissertation Award for their dissertation titled, "Caring for Newcomer Communities and their Data: An Inquiry into Interdependence in Information Practices." The award's purpose is to recognize outstanding recent doctoral candidates ...
06/24/2024 By Yong Suk Lee. The Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Department of Biomedical & Nutritional Sciences, invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Yong Suk Lee on "Separation of full, empty, and partial adeno-associated virus capsids via fluorescence-based anion-exchange chromatography with continuous recycling and accumulation."