ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to discuss the beliefs and perceptions of doctoral students in the areas of Linguistics, Literature and History, in relation to genre knowledge involved in the elaboration of thesis projects undergone to selection for admission to a doctoral course. The research is based on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Rhetorical Studies of Genres, especially in the views that genres have a socio-rhetorical (MILLER, 1984; DEVITT, 2004) and socio-cognitive reality (BERKENKOTTER; HUCHIN, 2016; TSENG, 2012), which can be perceived through the generic expectations and beliefs of users of a specific genre. Probably due to projects being an occluded genre, beliefs and expectations differ greatly among doctoral students about the practices of reading and writing projects, having been observed quite unusual forms, and not expected in the literature that deals with projects, on practices of reading and writing projects, as well as strategies consistent with the literature on the genre of research project. On the other hand, we also recognize similar beliefs, such as the perception that thesis projects can be seen as an operational and prospective springboard for the doctoral thesis genre, so that its elaboration process involves prospective rhetorical-discursive actions for the development of ideas and actions outlined in terms of planning.
Keywords:
thesis project; beliefs; research design