5 Simple Rules Of Writing The Acknowledgment Section In Your Dissertation
The acknowledgment section is a must for every dissertation, but many people wonder about the way to write it. Here are some tips for you.
- Choose the proper tone.
- Thank the most important teacher first.
- Name other assistants.
- Acknowledge financial aid and funding.
- State more personal words of gratitude at the bottom.
As the whole dissertation is written in the formal language, it wouldn’t be suitable to use too informal speech there, though it can and should be quite personal. Thus make your acknowledgement section brief, but don’t forget to point out everyone who took part in your work or just helped you. You can either list everybody and then thank all of them or mark out every person. Another approach is to put people in your acknowledgement in the alphabetical order, and not to distinguish anyone.
Usually the first important person to be grateful to is your dissertation advisor. Then you can thank other members of the thesis committee and professor, and teachers who helped you work on the project and supervised you. If you don’t want to emphasize anyone’s role, then you can just mention them altogether. E.g., “I would like to thank Mr. X., Mr. Z and Mr. Y for…”
Some lab assistants or your classmates might have helped you, so don’t forget to thank them for everything they did for your thesis. It’s great if you mention every scientist or would-be scientist, who took part in your dissertation.
If you had any fellowship, scholarship, grant or some other source of funding, then it’s required to mention it and the organizations that gave it to you. If your university scholarship was also funded by some organization, you’d better indicate it, too.
There is a tendency to thank not only the staff of the university, but also relatives and friends or just some people who influenced you during the period of writing the dissertation. Don’t cram your Thank-list with the names of your romances, unless you are sure it won’t be uncomfortable for you in the future. Also try to balance the jokes you use there, because it’s still an academic paper. Use more general phrases instead of anecdotes. Be sure that the person you mention in the acknowledgement has really helped you somehow in working at the thesis.
Hopefully, these tips will help you cope with this task.