Rhetorical structure of literature review chapters in Nepalese PhD dissertations: Students’ engagement with previous scholarship

Abstract

A Doctor of Philosophy degree is expected to provide a transformative experience to students and expand the frontier of disciplinary knowledge to benefit the wider public. The achievement of these goals depends on students' engagement with disciplinary practices and conversations and is reflected in their PhD dissertations. This paper reports on a study that examined students’ engagement with previous scholarship through the analysis of the rhetorical structure of 60 literature review (LR) chapters of PhD dissertations across disciplines at a comprehensive university in Nepal. The study employed a revised Creating a Research Space (CARS) model as an analytical framework. The LR chapters predominantly displayed a simple structure containing a single move (i.e., establishing a territory), with Move 2 (i.e., establishing a niche) and Move 3 (i.e., occupying the niche) being far less frequent than Move 1. Notably, in a sizable number of LR chapters, existing literature was presented as received knowledge rather than utilized to establish research gaps and advance the research agenda. Although there were no disciplinary variations in Move 1 and Move 2 strategies, significant differences were observed in Move 3 strategies (i.e., announcing research aims/focus and announcing research design/process). The implications of the findings for doctoral supervision and writing are provided.