6 Tips for Writing Excellent Acknowledgements for Dissertation

Anytime you write a dissertation there should be an acknowledgement section thanking the people who inspired or helped you along the way. Here are some pointers on the proper way to do this.

• Make a list

In order to not miss anyone and unintentionally leave them out you should be making a list during the research part of your paper. The list should include anyone who inspired you to pursue a career in your field as well as family members who helped and supported you. It should also include anyone you may have interviewed or helped you with your research. This could be teachers, tutors or even friends.

• First paragraph

The first paragraph on the acknowledgements page should be one of thanks. It should be a blanket thank you statement to all of the people who will be listed below it.

• List

Now that you have your first paragraph done you can list each person’s name that helped you. This can be done in an order of your choosing.

• Brief Explanation

After each person’s name you should briefly describe exactly how they helped you, whether it was with research, financially or even with encouragement when you had almost given up.

• Proofread

Check for any spelling or grammatical errors before finishing. You should also check for anyone whom you may have forgotten or left out.

• Not Citations

Remember that this is not where you site your references. There should be a completely different page for that and it will go in a different place in your dissertation as well.

When you have finished writing your acknowledgements for your dissertation you should format it in a professional, easy to read manner. This acknowledgements page will be placed directly after the cover page. It is easy to remember if you read a lot of books because you will be reminded of opening a book and having to get past the acknowledgements before you get to the story inside.

It also might help you to go online and look for ways to format acknowledgements for a dissertation paper. There are a lot of sites that will show examples and then you can go from there.

One more quick thing, try to keep the description of how each person helped you as brief as possible while still explaining every way in which they helped. This is simply so that the acknowledgements page does not get to be as long as the dissertation itself. At most it should be a page and a half.