(Teacher/Professor): Hey it would be an awsome April Fool's joke if we got them (students) to write 5000-15000 words on something completely pointless and make it worth half of their end result!
Other teacher/professor: yeah! omg that would be amazing let's call it a DISSERTATION...that'll get 'em
Then before you know it it becomes a compulsory aspect of your grade/degree
When you spend a very long time at the computer, working on your dissertation (or other big project) but come away feeling like you have achieved nothing, but you are also no longer able to function normally. Usually cured by alcohol.
I have so got Dissertation Brain, I've been sat here for 5 hours, have achieved nothing. It's due in in 48 hours :S
An idea that was spawned from the evil nasty dissertation monsters to make students fail university and waste three years of their life and lots of money
I have a 15000 word dissertation to hand in, in less than72 hours Argh !
An academic dissertation that draws heavily upon the uncredited work of others. So named for the yellow highlighting that tends to be used to illustrate the fact, with a nod to the term 'yellow journalism.'
"William Meehan submitted a yellow dissertation drawing upon Carl Boening. Of course, since Meehan is a ranked academic, he will never be called on it."