How to Write Dissertation Acknowledgement

Writing a dissertation is probably one of the challenging parts of your academic progress since it requires more than you think before it is fully accepted, marked and graded by your university professors. Moreover, a dissertation writing isn’t a standalone project and certainly, you can’t do it all by yourself. In one way or another, you will need help from various groups of people in order to finalize your dissertation. 

Mostly, we have never really taken upon ourselves to think about the people we should be grateful for their help in accomplishing our dissertation writing. Nonetheless, there is a section in the dissertation where we can express our appreciation and gratitude in a more or less formal way, away from the formal academic language in our dissertation.

Once you are done with your dissertation writing, a dissertation acknowledgement is one important thing to consider writing before submitting your dissertation. Dissertation acknowledgement is more of the same to acknowledgements that are written by famous novelists and writers in their book. Basically, it is who you are grateful for. So when it comes to dissertation acknowledgement, it is obvious that you are to thank and appreciate all those individuals who have contributed to your dissertation writing. This is important because who express your sincerity to your work and the efforts of the others towards your work.

What is a Dissertation Acknowledgement?

Most of those who write dissertations probably cannot understand why they should be thankful to someone when they have actually written the bigger part of their dissertation by themselves. It can be understandable that the first person to be grateful to be is none other than you, but give it a second thought!

As we have already mentioned, writing a dissertation is not a standalone project, you need advisers to guide your dissertation writing and offer some pieces of advice. Besides, you may request your classmates or friends to have a look at your first draft of the dissertation and give some useful pieces of advice and ideas that may be good for improving your project. Your parents too may have a look at your dissertation or offer you the emotional and (or) financial support you may need to finish your dissertation writing. These are the people you should appreciate and be grateful at the end of your dissertation.

In a nutshell, acknowledgement refers to recognition of truth and admittance of an existing fact, theory or contribution among other things. In this case, a student will show appreciation to people who have immensely contributed to his or her dissertation. When you acknowledge people in your dissertation, you let them know how grateful you are to their assistance and contributions.

Certainly, when you are almost finishing your dissertation writing process, what comes into your mind when you think about writing an acknowledgement is to run online and surf for acknowledgement sample to copy and paste everything, apart from the names. But wait! You can write a dissertation acknowledgement on your own!

How to write acknowledgement for a Dissertation

In contrast to a book’s acknowledgement, dissertation acknowledgement writing follows a formal structure since it is a scientific project. The acknowledgement text often changes from a formal at the start to less formal towards the end. It is recommendable to avoid strong emotional expressions in your acknowledgement. You don’t have to list everyone whom you wish to appreciate. It is great to thank your family and friends, but ensure you do it in a formal way. Here is a formal structure to guide you in your dissertation acknowledgement writing;

  • Use Appropriate Tone and Form

Acknowledgement page often comes after the entire dissertation has been written. Probably, you have come across a few dissertations and academic projects that don’t have an acknowledgement page. More often than not, this is attributed to the fact that students find it difficult to balance between personalized writing that is required on the acknowledgement page and the technical academic language used throughout the dissertation.

A friendly yet formal tone is the most appropriate when writing acknowledgement for your dissertation. It is needless to overblow your language in this section. Simply, note and appreciate those people who have helped you in your dissertation writing process and briefly mention how. Here are some useful phrases to use to make it friendly but formal:

  • I would like to thank…
  • I am profoundly thankful/ grateful to…
  • My heartfelt thanks go to…
  • My sincere thanks to…

Also, feel free to design your acknowledgement section to either a single paragraph or separate paragraphs featuring your story and how it has changed your vision of how you see things around you. But if you feel including elaborate stories is unnecessary, it would be enough to say, Thank you, Professor Henderson, for guiding me through in this work.”

You may also want to mention everybody you believe has been helpful in your dissertation writing. You can consider mentioning then like, “I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Professor Henderson and Dr. Einstein my research supervisors for their regular follow-up, critiques, and guidance research work and dissertation….”  

Again, you may feel the need to mention all those you contributed to your dissertation in one way or another and you don’t want to ignore anyone else, you can use general statement or simply list them in the alphabetical order.

  • Start With the Most Important Teachers

It is best to begin by acknowledging the most important individuals who made you dissertation a success. Usually, most students use this opportunity to thank their professors and dissertation supervisors. Certainly, these are the most important individuals in your dissertation writing program. As such, be sure to mention individuals who have participated and contributed to your dissertation like fellow students or any other professors who guided your writing process. For example, you can craft this section like, “I would like to express my gratitude to my professors and colleagues for their brilliant collaboration. You all supported me greatly and always will to assist whenever I needed help.”

Also, if you worked with a small group it is expected that you thank each one for the specific things they help or contribute to your dissertation. It is not automatic to get help, especially when writing a dissertation that requires commitment and full support from family and friends.

  • List other Individuals Who Helped

Don’t forget the other individuals who helped you. For instance, you can mention and give special thanks to laboratory assistants who were ready to offer you guidance when carrying out experiments. Besides, you can thank your classmates who held at reviewing your draft or otherwise provided you with valuable advice that helped you to avoid common mistakes in dissertation writing. “I am profoundly grateful to my classmates Johnson, and Katharina for their wonderful collaboration and guidance. Your patience, guidance and support will forever be remembered.” 

  • Appreciate any Financial Aid You Might Have Received

If you might have received any financial support for your dissertation from a foundation or any research group, in the form of a grant from non-profit organizations, it would be appropriate to mention and appreciate by name. In fact, it is ethical to recognize the foundation or organization by name and list the kind of contact you had with them. It is always good to appreciate those who were generous enough to provide you with enough financial support when you were writing your dissertation.

If you undertook your doctorate via a scholarship or fellowship, it is appropriate that you name them in this section. For example, you can frame it like, “This dissertation would not be impossible without the support of the Katherine Group Foundation Scholarship. I am forever grateful.”

  • Put More Personal Thank-Yous and Emotional Supporters Last

The most intimate and personal thanks often come in at the last paragraph of your acknowledgement piece. For instance, it is natural for anyone to thank their family for being with them at the most difficult time of their academic endeavors. You may thank you father, mother, sisters and brothers for proving immediate emotional support whenever you felt you wouldn’t manage to finish your dissertation in time.

You may also wish to appreciate your friends for encouraging you to pursue your studies to higher levels. Nonetheless, be sure to weigh the pros and cons of making your acknowledgement more intimate because life changes and so are the commitments and friendships!

Additionally, don’t make your acknowledgement sound too personal or intimate. Whereas some personalized thanks are acceptable, make sure you don’t turn the whole acknowledgement page into a personal and academic narrative of yourself.

  • Proofread

Once you have completed expressing your appreciation and gratitude, take a short break to rest your mind and eyes from the text. Come back later and proofread the whole text for readability, grammatical correctness, and spelling mistakes.

Conclusion

We believe that this piece of dissertation acknowledgement writing will serve you a great deal. We just like to emphasize that when you are writing an acknowledgement for a dissertation or any other academic assignment, keep in mind those who are going to read your dissertation work. Never at any point get personal with details of your life. However, keep it reasonably balanced between formal and informal and everything will be ok!

If you still find difficulties in writing acknowledgement for your dissertation or constrained with time to write it, you can reach out to us for professional dissertation acknowledgement writing services.

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