Writing Acknowledgement

Writing Acknowledgement



Written by Ari Julianto

An academic thesis paper includes thesis acknowledgement as part of it and its designation lies in thanking those people who have served a writer in creating the study and making an academic paper. That's why thesis acknowledgement is sometimes called the etiquette of thanking.  This is an expression of gratitude to those that have presented the writer their support and help, as well as gave assistance and recommendations of major importance.

I. The Styles
Generally, there are two styles in writing thesis acknowledgement:
1. Descriptive style
In this style, the writer may present his/her gratitude in descriptive way that can be in one paragraph or more. For example:

I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my committee chair Professor _________, who has the attitude and the substance of a genius: he continually and convincingly conveyed a spirit of adventure in regard to research and scholarship, and an excitement in regard to teaching. Without his guidance and persistent help this thesis would not have been possible. Furthermore, I would like to thank my committee members, Professor _______ and Professor _______, whose work demonstrated to me that concern for global affairs supported by an “engagement” in comparative literature and modern technology, should always transcend academia and provide a quest for our times.

2. Numbered Style
In this style, the writer may present his/her gratitude to those ho are considered by the writer as important persons in numbered. It means the writer puts the persons in grade. For example:

I would like to express the deepest appreciation to:
1. my committee chair Professor _________, who has the attitude and the substance of a genius: he continually and convincingly conveyed a spirit of adventure in regard to research and scholarship, and an excitement in regard to teaching. Without his guidance and persistent help this thesis would not have been possible.
2. my committee members, Professor _______ and Professor _______, whose work demonstrated to me that concern for global affairs supported by an “engagement” in comparative literature and modern technology, should always transcend academia and provide a quest for our times.

II.First and Third Person
To address the author or the writer of the thesis in acknowledgement can be in two ways, they are:

a. First person as in the following example

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Professor _________, who introduced me to Linguistics, and whose passion for the “underlying structures” had lasting effect. I thank the University of _______ for consent to include copyrighted pictures as a part of my thesis. I also thank ___ Press for permission to include Chapter 5 of my dissertation, which was originally published in ____Journal. I also want to thank to _______ Foundation for their financial support granted through college fellowship.

b. Third person as in the following example 

The writer wishes to thank several people. He  would like to thank his partner, Marta, for her love, kindness and support she has shown during the past two years to finalize this thesis. Furthermore he would also like to thank his parents for their endless love and support. He would like to thank Dr. Smith as well for his assistance and guidance with this paper. Last but not least, he would like to all of his classmates in Literature Faculty.

III.Order of the Names
Thesis acknowledgement is a concise vote of thank you, which merely mentions those people who have been directly concerned in the thesis creation. There is also no need to say all those people who took part in the writer’s formation as being a scientist, a thinker, along with a researcher.

The appropriate persons that can be mentioned in thesis acknowledgement are:
The Dean, The head of Department, The secretary of Department, The Supervisors, The Lecturers, The Librarians, The Laboratory assistants, The Fellow College Students, Colleagues, Parents, Family and friends.

The order of putting the above persons has been a long debated in Indonesia. The problem appears when the writer especially in a Moslem country considers that putting the parents in the uppest position is an obligation after ALLAH and the Prophet of Muhammad SAW (pbuh). Meanwhile, academic thesis paper puts The Dean of the Faculty as the first order.

Actually, this can be solved by combining the two styles (descriptive and numbered styles as shown in the following example:

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, praise be to Allah subhanawata’ala. Firstly, the researcher would like to thank to Allah Subhanawata’ala who has given her the chances in finishing this thesis. Secondly, blessing and peace be upon the Prophet Muhammad SAW (pbuh) who has brought human beings from the dark era into the bright era. Thirdly, the writer would like to thank to M. Yunus and Siti Aisyah, her beloved parents for their prayer, support and love.

In writing this thesis, the researcher faced a lot of difficulties and problems in analyzing and collecting the data that without much help from the following people, it was impossible for her to finish this thesis. Therefore, the researcher would like to thank

1. _______, her respected Dean of FKIP, who  had  encouraged her along her education,
2. _______The Head of English Department and the Secretary _______ for their help and suggestions
related to the improvement and approval of her thesis and other administrative support,
and so on...

Thus, the appropriate order of persons in thesis acknowledgement can be:

(in descriptive way)
1. Allah SWT
2. The Prophet Muhammad SAW
3. Parents

(in numbered way)
1. The Dean,
2. The Head of Department,
3. The Secretary of Department,
4. The Supervisors,
5. The lecturers,
6. The head or the leader where the research took place,
7. The head of the library,
8. Husband/Wife (if any),
9. Brothers/Sisters (if any),
10. Sons/Daughters (if any),
11. Fiance/Fiancee (if any),
12. Best Friends including those who helped in finishing the thesis,
13. Friends including classmates.

NB:
Some faculties sometimes have their own formats in writing thesis acknowledgement. My suggestion and writing in this posting is an alternative way. Hope today's posting will be useful for all of us. Amien.