DIFFERENCEBETWEENTHESISANDTERMPAPER

DISCUSSANT:Santos,EAMIELENN

ThecommonaspectofaTermpaperandaThesisisthatbothareacademicdocuments.
Althoughthereissomeoverlappingintherequirements,theydifferbypurpose,styleand
specificcomponents.

Purpose
Thesisisadocumentwritteninsupportofobtaininganacademicdegreeorqualification.
ItiscategorisedasanHonoursthesis,aMaster'sthesisandaPhDdissertation.
TermPaperisgivenattheendofatermandaccountstowardsthefinalgradeinthe
subject.Itiswrittentodemonstratethattheyvegainedtherequiredknowledgeand
essentialskillstopassinacertainsubject.
Parts
Thesishas6parts.TheInitialPages,Problem&itsBackground,ReviewofRelated
Literature,Methodology,Presentation,Analysis,andInterpretationofData,and
Summary,ConclusionandRecommendations.
Termpaperpossessonlyfour,whicharetheIntroduction,Body,Conclusion,and
Bibliography.
Length
Thesistendstovaryinlengthindifferentuniversitiesandisusuallylongerthanaterm
paperthuscompletedinanumberofyears.Forexample,attheNationalUniversityof
Singapore,AHonoursthesisshouldconsistsof12,000words,AMastersthesisconsists
of30,000words,andAPhDdissertationconsistsof80,000words.

 Termpaperlengthdependsontheprofessorbutittypicallyrunsbetween3,000and
5,000wordscompletedoverthecourseofatermorsemester,asthenamesuggests.
Supervision
Thesisiscarriedoutunderasupervisionofaprofessororanacademicoftheuniversity.
Supervisorisapersonwhosejobistooverseeandguidetheprogressofthesiswriting.
Oneofthesupervisorsassignmentsistoenablethedevelopmentorenhancementofthe
studentswritingandpresentationskillsandcapabilityofindependentresearch.Inmost
universitiesthesupervisorhastheobligationtomeetwiththestudentonregularbasisand
discusstheprogressofthethesiswriting,includingthetaskofreadingthedraftofthe
thesisandmakesuggestionsforchangesandimprovementswherenecessary.
Termpaperisusuallywrittenasapartofasubjectanddoesnotcommonlycountasa
separatesubjectormoduleandthusdoesnotrequireanindividualsupervisor.
OralExamination
OneoftheaspectsofThesiscompletionistheoralexaminationtakingplaceafter
submittingyourthesisattheuniversity.Theoralexaminationmeansusuallythe
presentationofyourthesisinfrontofanexaminationboardandansweringtheirquestions
aboutthetopic.
TermpaperdoesnthaveanOralExamination.
Output
Termpaperprovidesyouwiththeopportunitytoconveyyourthoughts,findingsand
opinionsonthematerialyoualreadydiscussedinyourclass.Itcanalsocontain
argumentsand/orpersuasionsthatmustbesupportedwithfactstakenfromavarietyof
reliablesources.Sometimestheymayevenbesubjective,especiallyinanEnglishclass,
ortheymaybebasedonprimarysourcessuchasaninterviewthewriterperforms.

 Thesishoweverrequiresalsotheinputoforiginalworkandauthorsfindingsinthefield
ofchosentopic.WhenchoosingatopicforaThesis,theauthormusttakeinto
considerationtheexpectationoforiginalityinthefieldortheinputofsomerelevantnew
informationorideas.Whenwritingatermpaperyouareonlyexpectedtoprovide
constructivecriticalanalysisofexistingtheoriesorviewpointswithoutnecessarily
offeringanynewones.Inshortacademicrequirementsforathesis,especiallythe
demandoforiginality,aremuchhigherthanforatermpaper.Eachuniversitysetsitsown
rulesandregulationsforpresentationstyleandthelengthofathesisdependingonthe
researcharea.Insomeuniversitiestherulescanbestricter,foreseeingveryspecificstyle
andformatrequirements.However,asbothareacademicdocumentsbibliography
togetherwithreputablesourcesmustbepresented.

Sources:
https://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/termpapr.htm
http://www.anglistik.unijena.de/wpcontent/pdfs/literaturwiss/What%20is%20a%20term%20pa
per.pdf
http://www.essay.uk.com/guides/thesis/differenceresearchpaperthesis.php
https://www.quora.com/Whatisthedifferencebetweenthesisresearchpaperandproject
http://www.biodieseluniversity.org/termpapersvsresearchpaperswhatarethedifferences.jsp
http://www.kean.edu/~roneilfi/How%20to%20write%20a%20thesis%20statement.html