Essay versus Dissertation Writing

One of the most prominent differences in essay versus dissertation writing is their respective writing styles. While both necessitate clarity and precision, each style adheres to distinct academic expectations. Essays often allow for a more personal, flexible tone, while dissertations demand formality, objectivity, and in-depth analysis. Understanding these distinctions is essential for tailoring your writing to meet specific academic goals and effectively communicate your ideas.

Tone and Formality

• Essays: Essays usually exhibit a personal and conversational tone, contingent upon the context. For example, reflective essays or those within the humanities may use first-person pronouns and personal insights to captivate the reader. Though essays maintain a formal framework, they afford more latitude for creative expression and adaptability.
• Dissertations: Dissertation writing requires formality and objectivity. Personal opinions are only included if explicitly necessitated by the methodology (e.g., qualitative research) and are usually found in the Discussion chapter. Even then, the analysis should be connected to the literature review. The language employed is precise, technical, and adherent to the standards of the specific discipline.

Voice and Perspective

• Essays: Essays typically use the active voice, with the writer’s perspective frequently taking prominence. Even argumentative essays encourage authors to assert their viewpoints, often substantiating them with evidence derived from secondary sources.
• Dissertations: Passive can be adopted (often required by a college’s dissertation guidebook) to sustain an impersonal and objective tone, particularly in articulating methodology or findings. The focus transitions from the author to the research itself. For instance:
  • Essay: “I argue that this approach is effective because…”
  • Dissertation: “This approach is considered effective due to…”

Use of Evidence

• Essays: While essays use evidence to bolster arguments, their integration is less stringent. Writers can synthesize and interpret sources with a degree of liberty suited to the essay’s argumentative or exploratory nature, and often, the source can be casually mentioned in the narrative rather than formally cited.
• Dissertations: Evidence incorporation is more thorough and systematic. Dissertation writers must conform to exacting citation and reference formats and predominantly rely on peer-reviewed or primary sources. Every claim is supported by extensive referencing, with interpretation firmly anchored in established research; this is unlike essay writing and represents the most frequent deviation I have worked to help students overcome

Depth of Analysis

• Essays: Analytical essay depth is concise and concentrated, typically addressing a solitary idea or argument within a confined word count. Writers deliver brief analyses and prioritize articulating their points succinctly and effectively.
• Dissertations: Analysis in dissertations is exhaustive, encompassing extensive engagement with the subject matter. Writers examine complicated ideas, juxtapose diverse perspectives, and critically scrutinize an array of evidence across multiple sections or chapters.

Style of Argumentation

• Essays: Arguments within essays are generally linear, advancing logically from introduction to conclusion. The writer presents a definitive stance and supports it with evidence and examples in a straightforward manner.
• Dissertations: The argumentation structure is cumulative, evolving progressively across multiple chapters. The dissertation writer may present divergent viewpoints, engage with counterarguments extensively, and construct a layered case for their conclusions.

Structure of Writing

• Essays: Essay writing tends to be more dynamic and stylistically varied. Transitions between sections may exhibit greater creativity, and paragraphs are organized to retain reader interest without inundating them with excessive technical detail.
• Dissertations: Dissertation writing is formal and systematic, characterized by explicit sectioning and headings that guide the reader through a structured presentation. Each paragraph fulfills a specific role within the whole argument.

Use of Jargon and Technical Language

• Essays: The application of technical language is generally limited to what is essential for addressing the topic. Writers must explain complex terms and prioritize accessibility for a broader audience.
• Dissertations: Jargon and field-specific terminology are extensively used, predicated on the assumption that the audience possesses foundational knowledge of the subject. Precision in language is critical to prevent any ambiguity.

An Example

I offer an example using an excerpt from a journal article where I was the first author, with the second passage rewritten in an essay style to illustrate the difference between essay versus dissertation writing.

Original Publication

Recovery from a disaster is variable and multidimensional, with many aspects of the process, both social and economic, determining the length of time until some semblance of normalcy is achieved (Lawther, 2016; Santos et al., 2014). The recovery process, especially following a large event, can span a lengthy period (Kates, 1977). An event the size of the Joplin disaster provides an opportunity to examine the spatiotemporal aspects of recovery in an area where large damage swaths all but remove entire neighborhoods and sections of town. A spatiotemporal examination allows for the possible identification of space-time-based clusters of rebuilding (Cutter, 2014; Nejat et al., 2020; Stevenson et al., 2010), which may provide a window into the dynamics of how communities move through the recovery process and past events such as the 2011 Joplin tornado.

Re-Written in an Essay Style

Social and economic factors also affect recovery time, and recovery from a disaster can take many forms. Researchers such as Lawther and Santos have examined how these dimensions influence the path of recovery processes. After a major incident, recovery may stretch over many months or even years. For example, the Joplin disaster scale provides an especially ripe opportunity to investigate recovery patterns over time. Where there are large areas of destruction across complete neighborhoods and parts of towns, trend analysis of data over both space and time can be useful. Researchers including Cutter, Nejat, and Stevenson have pointed out that such studies can reveal clusters of rebuilding activity over time and space, providing insights to enrich our understanding of recovery dynamics and help us understand how communities chart the often-complex course toward restoration following events such as the 2011 Joplin tornado.

Differences

As you can see, the journal version has a formal tone and supports the narrative with citations, even though I knew all that when I was writing the paragraph, I still needed to cite it; otherwise, the reviewers would have kicked it back to me and the research team with the revision requirement to cite sources. The essay style, in contrast, states the same ideas, but the narrative is looser, more informal, and while it mentions the researchers, the essay style does not demand that I cite those sources formally (although it may depend on the instructor or publisher requirements, in which case I would argue that you’re now leaning towards a research article!).

Conclusion

Despite their shared objective of conveying ideas effectively, essay versus dissertation writing styles diverge significantly. Essays emphasize clarity, brevity, and occasionally creativity to engage the reader. In contrast, dissertations prioritize rigor, depth, and adherence to formal academic conventions.