Unblocking Occluded Genres in Graduate Writing: Thesis and Dissertation Support Services at North Carolina State University

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

In 2013, the Graduate School at North Carolina State University launched Thesis and Dissertation Support Services, offering rhetorical, genre-based guidance for graduate writing. The profile explains the program’s founding, goals, and first year of services, drawing on genre scholarship and focusing events around specific genres and genre systems. The approach targets higher thesis and dissertation quality, improved degree completion rates, reduced time to degree, and development of lifelong scholarly writers through workshops, seminars, and recommendations for replication.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Institutional Context

Current Issue From the Editors Weblog Editorial Board Editorial Policy Submissions Archives Accessibility Search Composition Forum 31, Spring 2015 Unblocking Occluded Genres in Graduate Writing: Thesis and Dissertation Support Services at North Carolina State University Meagan Kittle Autry and Michael Carter Abstract: In 2013, the Graduate School at North Carolina State University launched Thesis and Dissertation Support Services, a rhetorical, genre-based approach to assisting students with their graduate writing. Through a description of the program’s founding, goals, and first year of services, we summarize this genrebased approach that is informed by the work of Carolyn Miller, John Swales, Charles Bazerman, and Michael Carter. The goal of the program is to offer services to students writing theses and dissertations that will improve the quality of the work, increase degree completion rates, reduce time to degree, and, above all, develop life-long scholarly writers who are prepared to undertake the writing necessary to be successful in their careers. The theoretical concept of genre system provided a conceptual basis for achieving these connected goals, and each of the workshops, seminars, or other events that we host focuses on a single genre, a genre system, or subgenres related to graduate education. This profile describes our approach to the services through a description of our institutional context, core offerings, and a summary of reflections and lessons learned after a year of offering these services, concluding with recommendations for other writing program professionals who may want to establish similar support for graduate students and a summary of changes to our program after one year. Introduction The scholarly experiences of many graduate students are linked by one of two common genres: the thesis or dissertation. These are challenging genres for graduate students because they are subject to disciplinary, institutional, and departmental variations; furthermore, they are not genres students have written before, and thus they cannot draw on prior knowledge of those genres. The challenging nature of these genres is often multiplied by faculty members who, despite having written a dissertation, find themselves unable to instruct students in these genres. As Charles Bazerman explains, faculty members do not have the appropriate linguistic or rhetorical knowledge to undertake such instruction (Writing and Cognitive Development, 46) . Thus, the writing support that graduate students receive can vary widely across a university. On a national level, graduate writing support, and more specifically writing support for theses and dissertations, takes on different forms—and in some places, does not exist at all. A previous Composition Forum issue featured the Graduate Writing Program at the University of Kansas, which offers courses for graduate students along with a few workshops (Sundstrom) . A similar coursebased initiative exists at the University of Utah. The University of Michigan is well known for its eight week-long Dissertation Writing Institute, offered through the Sweetland Writing Center. Many other institutions offer dissertation “bootcamps” that last a few days to one week. Despite these widely varied approaches to supporting graduate student writing, all rely implicitly or explicitly on genre knowledge of the thesis or dissertation, which suggests a foundation for an emerging model of genre-based services for thesis and dissertation students. In this profile, we describe the development of a new office at North Carolina State University, Thesis and Dissertation Support Services (TDSS) . In our work, we endeavor to provide students with an understanding of both the formal and informal genres of graduate study, thus emphasizing the larger genre system of graduate education at our institution. In what follows, we describe the first year of the services, our preliminary conclusions about th

FAQs

What problem does Thesis and Dissertation Support Services address?

It addresses how graduate students struggle with thesis and dissertation genres due to disciplinary and institutional variation and the lack of prior genre experience.

How is TDSS organized in its first year of services?

TDSS uses workshops, seminars, and events that focus on a single genre, a genre system, or related subgenres, providing rhetorical and textual guidance.

What outcomes does the program aim to achieve for students?

The program aims to improve work quality, increase degree completion rates, reduce time to degree, and help students become prepared lifelong scholarly writers.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa