Can one Write a Scholarly Paper in a Form of Poem? Genre Changes in Academic Writing over History 1 Dawid Lipiński Abstract The article Can one Write a Scholarly Paper in a Form of Poem? Genre Changes in Academic Writing over History shows the development of three literary genres that were used in ancient times to express scientific and philosophical reflection. These include philosophical treatise, dialogue and didactic poem. During the development of scientific reflection, the first genre dominated the other and become the determinant of modern scientific discourse. In this article I try to answer the question how it happened and what are the consequences on the formation of modern scientific genres. Introduction At the beginning of my doctoral studies I was infatuated by the genre of dialogue, and particularly by its ancient version. I remember asking my friend who worked as an adjunct at that time, ‘Could I write my PhD thesis in a form of dialogue?’ After a while of pondering on my query, he replied that in his opinion it is impossible to find any significant contraindication except the one that most probably the reviewers would dismiss such a thesis notwithstanding footnotes and the whole scholarly apparatus. Although I expected such an answer it induced some sort of revolt in me: ‘Why is it the form, not the content, that decides about the scholarly work's merit? Obviously, the latter should be of major importance. And what about the case in which one would decorate the content with a beautiful form? Why should the text shape be a impediment?’. As a graduate of classical studies I started to think why do the contemporary scientific writings have one specific form and not any other? Looking at the ancient scholarly discourse one may notice that it was expressed not only in academic prose, but also in didactic epos or dialogue. The last of the enlisted enabled the reflection of a deep insight into the nub of a given problem. In this article I will consider this issue. To get to the point, first I go back to the times of ancient Greece, the birthplace of the early scientific literature and philosophy. This is commonly associated with the activity of natural philosophers who have taught their views in the logos; a genre that was strongly embedded in the oral tradition of the Greeks. Only with the change of thinking 1 Article published in: Anna Duszak, Grzegorz Kowalski (eds.): Academic (Inter)genres: be- tween Texts, Contexts and Identities, „Studies in Language, Culture and Society”, Vol. 6, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien 2015, p. 105-116.