This article offers a useful perspective on the historical roots of the dissertation and argues that it is a specific and, in many ways, a unique genre of writing. The authors offer several suggestions for alternatives to the traditional 5-chapter, scientific-like dissertation. It is particularly helpful to practitioner-focused doctoral programs that are looking for ways to make the dissertation process and its results more useful to practitioners. It can be helpful to both faculty and doctoral students are pondering what constitutes a legitimate form of practice-embedded inquiry.