Doctoral dissertations can be written in a number of different ways and alternate scholarly forms are now being accepted for the award of the degree. This presentation discusses thesis and dissertation writing from the point of view of genre change and evolution, and what these changes means for student writers.
Doctoral theses and dissertations, for many years, have been a relatively stable genre. This has begun to change, however, especially as doctoral degrees are now being offered in an increasing range of disciplines and where alternate scholarly forms are being accepted for the award of the degree. There has, however, been little research which examines these kinds of changes in doctoral degrees and what they mean for thesis and dissertation writing. In this presentation, the emergence of the doctoral thesis is examined and its development is traced over time.Examples are provided of the earliest doctorates awarded in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia as well as doctorates awarded more recently at the same universities in the same or parallel areas of study. The doctorate is discussed as an instance of genre evolution, taking account of the notions of prototype, family resemblances, typology and taxonomy, and discussions of choice and constraint in academic writing. It is also considered in relation to discussions of the 'doctorate of the future' (Paré, 2019) and what we might expect to see in future doctoral submissions.
