Ph  D  programs are valuable only if they inculcate good scholarship and expedite the student' s full participation in the field  Hence, doctoral dissertations should not be required in the humanities  Undertaking a quality book-length dissertation demands an accumulation of knowledge virtually impossible for those relatively new to their disciplines  The student consequently either seeks to compensate for poor quality with quantity or ends up spending years producing a work of quality
Either way, the dissertation is counterproductive and frustrates the appropriate goals of the doctoral program
It provides essential support for the conclusion.