Saturday, September 12, 2020

Seminar and Dissertation - the difference and how to write a decent one ..

A higher education system as a proof of a candidate's ability to display higher education skills needs to write seminar paper and dissertation. What is the fine difference between them.

While seminar papers are written towards the middle of the higher education course. a dissertation is an informed conscious and self-selected in-depth study done at the end of the programme.

Universities following the British system of education use the word dissertation to refer to the body of work at the end of a undergraduate or masters level degree, and use the word thesis to refer to the body of work produced at the end of a PhD.

A Seminar session is a class held for advanced studies in which students meet regularly to discuss original research, under the guidance of a professor. Research is (uncountable) diligent inquiry or examination to seek or revise facts, principles, theories, applications, etc; laborious or continued search after truth - www.wikidiff.com

After doing the Seminar, the student is able to present the state-of-the-art knowledge in that area of study.  

 There is no original work or research, it is just a compilation of knowledge in the area of study. this is usually done in consultation with an experienced faculty member who would be guiding the student on 

  • what to read 
  • where to read from, which journals, reports etc
  • what to collect 
  • how to document
  • how to collate the data 
  • how to start writing the report
  • how to divide into sections, chapters etc
  • how to cite the references
  • how to write the reference or bibliography section etc. 

A dissertation allows students 

  • present their findings in response to a question or proposition that they choose themselves. 
  • the aim of the dissertation project is to test the independent research skills students have acquired during their time at university, 
  • the assessment used to help determine their final grade.
 
The best word processing software to write such seminars and dissertations is LaTeX, the document preparation system. Here is a link to one of my tutorials on LaTeX.( click here..) Alternatively you can also visit www.overleaf.com, open an account and start latexing. 
 
Pl contact me at geasaw@gmail.com for a soft copy of Leslie Lamport's authoritative book of LaTeX.

george..






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