While a discussion-based instructional approach is often employed by classroom teachers and university professors for teaching English, literature and varied content areas, there are few studies that have focused on how intellectually sophisticated doctoral students participate in class discussions to acquire discipline-specific content and what their discussions look like. This case study examined the discursive features of discussions in a doctoral seminar on qualitative research methods for education. Two types of dialogic engagement were identified: diving into an issue and dragonflying on the surface. These findings may help professors and advanced learners tap the potential of whole class and small group discussions in graduate seminars. (Contains 1 table.)