Description of the genre “defense” of academic work: typification and singularity

Abstract

The aims in this paper are to describe the genre of defense of academic works, identifying typified forms that are characteristic of the defense of dissertations and theses, and to demonstrate that they do not constitute different genres, since identical behaviors are displayed in order to reach the same goals: to acquire an academic title. Thus, under the perspective of the socio-rhetorical studies audio recordings of eight defenses were analyzed, as well as the answers from professors and graduate students to the question “What is a defense of a thesis/dissertation?” The analyses showed the presence of identical typified forms (as the exposition text-summary, questioning, answers), and singular data (relaxed situation, informality and the use of words showing proximity), allowing one to make some conclusions: “defense of a graduation work” may be used as a superordinate phrase; singularities depend more on the participants in the social interaction in which the defense takes place, than on the social action of the defense of the work, while the specification “dissertation/thesis” reflects the written genre, which originate its oral defense.