[Air-l] Ph.D. student is looking for a good home for his Thesis

[Hugemusic]

Hi all.  I've just returned from two days listening to bellbirds under the 
stars in the Conondale ranges, south-east Queensland.  Very relaxing.

At the risk of once again appearing anally retentive in the face of 
language, a thesis is an idea or thought process and a dissertation is the 
expression of a thesis (they are often used interchangeably).  A thesis can 
be any idea and is not necessarily associated with research at any 
particular level.  For example it is quite legitimate to hold a thesis that 
explains why the US invaded Iraq, which may or may not be remotely 
associated with anything that you have formally studied.  Until you submit 
it some textual form, however, it's not assessable.

In other words, in a research/institutional context, your dissertation is 
the textual expression encapsulating the thesis contained in your program of 
research.  You submit the disstertation so that your peers/supervisors can 
assess the quality of the research (including the thesis and the testing of 
the thesis) and thereby award (or not) the qualification sought.

Cheers,
Hughie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Suzana Sukovic" <suzana.sukovic at uts.edu.au>
To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Air-l] Ph.D. student is looking for a good home for his Thesis


> In Australia we usually use the word 'thesis' for written work resulting
> from original research required for honours, masters by research and PhD.
> Collins dictionary and thesaurus show that 'thesis' and 'dissertation' are
> synonyms. Some other languages use words similar to 'dissertation' 
> (derived
> from Lat dissertare) and 'thesis' as synonyms. DCA is a different thing, 
> of
> course.
> Suzana
>
> At 10:11 AM 6/04/2007, you wrote:
>>In Aus and NZ the thesis is usually the only examinable thing in the
>>PhD degree. Things are starting to change, with some coursework being
>>introduced in some disciplines, but essentially The Thesis is The
>>(only) Thing that matters.
>>
>>I have two Masters degrees from a New Zealand University, each of
>>which I wrote a thesis for. One included coursework and one (an MPhil
>>by research) didn't - it was examined totally on the thesis.
>>
>>M-H
>>
>>
>>On 06/04/2007, at 5:07 AM, Charlie Balch wrote:
>>
>> > I know things are different in other nations but don't Ph.D.
>> > students write
>> > a dissertation and masters students write a thesis?
>> > Nelson
>>
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