How to Write Acknowledgement for Dissertation?

  • September 2, 2023

It is highly appreciated to understand how to write acknowledgement for dissertation if you are studying at Graduation and Master’s level. Most students submit their research work in the form of thesis or dissertation to every degree-awarding college or university as a partial requirement for the fulfilment of the degree. Writing a thesis or dissertation is a general practice of research at universities all over the world. It is because the students should know how to write acknowledgement for dissertation.

There is a concept that acknowledgement is just a formality. it has no link with the research work. There is no need to write the acknowledgement in a meaningful way. Although, this concept is not right. The acknowledgements for thesis are basically a recognition of the support that you receive in your research work. Although, only a few people are included in your list of thanks. Generally, these people are the supervisor or advisor of your research project or dissertation, the head of the department, librarians, the librarian, and some other people you can relate to your research work. If there are some other people who helped you in your research, you may also include them for acknowledgement. If you take an interest to know how to write acknowledgement for dissertation, you are at the right blog.

Importance of Acknowledgement for Dissertation

Whenever a student writes a dissertation or thesis, he follows a set pattern accepted at the university. The presence of an acknowledgement section in any dissertation is very common. In this section, the researcher acknowledges the efforts of the people who supported him to complete the research work. Mostly, researcher or students include their research supervisors, thesis advisors, heads of the departments, librarians, lab assistants, friends, and family members in the acknowledgement for thesis. These are the people that generally collaborate with the researcher in carrying out his research work. On one side, acknowledgement for dissertation is important to thank for the support of people in research work. While on the other side, it is significant because it is part of academic etiquette.

How to Write Acknowledgement for a Dissertation

As you have to write a thesis in a formal style, the acknowledgement section may contain some informal language. In this section, you can use the first person while writing acknowledgement. Although there is no set pattern to writing acknowledgement, it is highly appreciated if you write it in a professional way. Writing acknowledgement in a professional may help you in the assessment as it is the first thing that the assessors read. In this way, it will set a tone for him to assess the remaining work.

Structure

As far as the structure of the acknowledgement is concerned, it should be written in the order that formal and professional support should be acknowledged first and the informal support is acknowledged last. This pattern is followed in most cases.

Names

It is highly recommended to write the full name with the title while thanking different professionals. The main reason behind writing the full name is not only to give clarity to the names and titles of the professionals but also to add credibility to your thesis as you are writing the names of the individuals who are well-known professionals in their fields.

People from the Same Organisation

One more thing, if there is more than one person from a single organisation or institute, it is better to list their names in alphabetical order. In case, if someone helped you a lot more than other colleagues, you may write his name before and can thank him separately.

Friends and Family

When it comes to writing acknowledgements about people who play a significant role in your personal life, write the names of those who facilitated you well. These people generally belong to your family or friends’ circle. Your parents, partner, children, close friends or anybody from your social circle who inspired you a lot in your research.

Acknowledgement Page

Remember one thing while writing the acknowledgement, it comes just after the title page and before the abstract page. It means that whenever someone will start reading your thesis, he will see the acknowledgement page. There are various websites working to provide you help with dissertation acknowledgements examples. You can go through some of these websites before writing the acknowledgement for dissertation.

Length of the acknowledgement section

The length of acknowledgement varies from person to person. Some researchers write it in one paragraph while some increase it to two to three paragraphs. Mostly, the acknowledgement section contains only a one-page length. Sometimes researchers increase it to two to three pages but it happens very rarely. Basically, the length of the acknowledgement section depends on the individuals you wish to thank them.

While writing the acknowledgements, most people follow a general rule to keep the acknowledgement section on one page only. The increase in the length of the acknowledgement section weakens your gratitude to those who supported you in your research.