Contributing to knowledge in creative writing research: What, where, how?

There is general agreement that doctoral research should show ‘originality’, but there is less agreement about what that means or how it is distinguished from ‘contribution’. There is also a strand in the literature that attests that different disciplines, especially relative newcomers to the doctorate such as the creative arts, privilege different qualities of originality and forms of contribution. This prompts the question: what constitutes an original contribution in the field of creative writing? Drawing on the growing literature on creative doctorates, reference to a number of examiner reports collected for a larger project, and reflections on supervising and examining creative writing PhDs, this paper explores the various forms of contribution that characterise the discourse on knowledge creation and dissemination in creative writing research.