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What are dissertation introductions for?

A reader writes in by email:

What's the purpose of a dissertation introduction? In one way, the answer is obvious. It is to introduce the dissertation. But how might one do that well? Is the purpose to (1) clearly state the claims and conclusions of the dissertation, (2) summarize the core arguments of the dissertation or the core argument of each chapter, (3) place the claims of the dissertation in the broader literature and explain their significance? Is the purpose some combination of these or something else entirely? In my own case, my dissertation is five chapters, where the first two chapters offer a theoretical account and the latter three chapters are stand alone articles that loosely connect to the first two chapters. I'm curious what the virtues of a good dissertation introduction are.

I have several different answers. First, in principle it seems to me like a good introduction should do all three. Second, I think this is true not just of dissertations but of articles and books. A good introduction is a good introduction! Whether one is writing a book or article, one should give a reader an idea of what the main theses and arguments look like, and how they contribute in some significant way to philosophical discussion.

Finally, though, I don't think the OP should sweat it too much. Not many people are likely to read a dissertation beyond one's own dissertation committee. Dissertations, or so I was told my by advisor, are a "starting point, not an end point." They lay the groundwork for what one does after (i.e., publish articles adapted from it + establishing a long-term research program). And I suspect a committee is likely to pass a dissertation primarily on its overall quality. So, write an introduction and see what your advisor thinks! Or so I'm inclined to say.

What do readers think?

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10 responses to “What are dissertation introductions for?”

  1. charlie

    just summarize what your arguments are. I do not think there is such a thing as good or bad dissertation intro. And to second Marcus’ point it is unlikely that anyonr will read your intro anyway. (probably only your advisors will read it)

    Reply
  2. academic migrant

    For me I wrote 6 very loosely connected papers, some of them published, some not published then, some unpublishable. The work of the introduction was to justify why they belonged in the same dissertation. The ultimate aim of the dissertation, of course, was to publish as many articles as possible; but of course we don’t say that in the introduction.

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  3. Daniel Weltman

    The purpose of the dissertation introduction is the same as the purpose of every other thing in the dissertation: making your committee happy enough with the dissertation to award you a PhD. Putting more effort into the dissertation than that is a distraction from working on publishable stuff.
    Of course, a dissertation might include stuff that is reworkable (with more or less effort) into publishable stuff, but the introduction is probably not part of that unless the dissertation is going to be a book. If it is, then the introduction should do what a good book introduction should do, which is a separate topic.

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  4. Anon

    Tiny point – the claim ‘Not many people are likely to read a dissertation beyond one’s own dissertation committee’ seems a tad optimistic…I know of many cases where not even the dissertation committee read the dissertation. In my own case, a committee member asked a question that I not answered in the dissertation, but answered in the title of one of my chapters. (That said, I agree with the general point. I would be stunned if anyone outside of my committee ever glanced at my dissertation).

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  5. grad student

    I’m always confused by the pervasive belief that “nobody reads dissertations,” but maybe I’m in a bubble of grad-students that read dissertations. Whenever I find someone’s research that I’m interested in, if their dissertation is recent enough to be easily found, I read it. I also know that many other students that do the same.
    On the other hand, whenever I meet someone and say “I’ve read your dissertation,” I’m almost always met with abject horror, so there’s likely something to the common wisdom.

    Reply
  6. no introductions needed

    I’ve read dissertations from my department to see how intros were written to find that many dissertations didn’t even have intros (or even conclusions). Some committees (and most here) probably really don’t care.

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  7. Mine was read, and I have read one, as well

    Grad student
    It is a lie …
    Indeed, few people will read your dissertation, but some do. I have good reason to believe my committee and examiners read mine. Further, mine has been cited three times – once in 2001, once in 2003, and once in 2022 (the last citation was in another dissertation). I might add, I am now writing a book and I just read someone’s dissertation from 1999. It was very good and well worth reading. But it was not in philosophy 😉

    Reply
  8. Noah

    To add one solitary data point to the question of whether people read dissertations, my dissertation is currently my most downloaded piece of philosophy on PhilPapers. It has significantly more downloads than my published papers, including even those in non-marginal like Synthese, those uploaded years before my dissertation, and those that are just published versions of the dissertation chapters.
    So there’s one piece of evidence that there is at least some interest for reading dissertations. Now maybe dissertations are less likely to be cited, or less likely to be read because they are harder to find. But I’d hesitate to accept without evidence the claim that no one wants to read dissertations.

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  9. Andy

    Well, if you are anything like me the introduction serves to link the “collected papers” you have written closely enough to count as a monograph when you find out 3 weeks before you were meant to submit that your university doesn’t accept “collection of papers” dissertations…

    Reply
  10. so it goes

    I’m not speaking from a position of authority, but as someone who recently defended, my supervisor’s advice was to avoid simply summarizing the dissertation’s argument. Their opinion was that the best use of the introduction was to set the table, rather than to provide a painstaking overview of the things they are about to read anyway. Think of the last few good philosophy books you’ve read. Usually, introductions seem to make some broad motivating claims, to situate the dissertation and pique the reader’s interest without wading too far into the literature, and then to end with one or two paragraphs that go through the main moves of the dissertation. I would suggest doing the same. I think it’s okay to be a little (but only a little) more freewheeling and provocative than you might be in the main body of the dissertation, since the introduction is not really serving any argumentative purpose, but is rather designed to induce a receptive attitude on the part of the reader and to prime them for the arguments that you are later going to make. When I was attempting to follow my supervisor’s instructions, I started by trying to think of how I would give a punchy account of my dissertation in a few sentences when the topic came up at conferences or when meeting new people, and then tried to expand that into 10 or so pages. By all accounts, this worked out quite well for me!

    Reply

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