Personally I like to have a bit of fun with acknowledgements ;-)


The acknowledgements in my UG dissertation included everything/one from my two best friends ("for their friendship, gossip and wine"), to God and Buddha (I have a slightly odd mix of Catholic and Buddhist beliefs). I also thanked:

- My computer. Yes, really. She's old and a bit dysfunctional, but she behaved for long enough that I got it done without any major computer problems.
- Supervisors/tutors/mentors
- The "non-living", i.e. aspirin, nicotine, tea, fishfinger sandwiches and Strawberry Actimel. (Couldn't have done it without them!)
- My family, particularly "the best parents a hopelessly disorganised student ever had".

Yes, some of the above sounds a bit/lot crackers, but actually both of my supervisors commented that it was nice to see honest acknowledgements with a sense of humour. Maybe my PG acknowledgements will be a bit drier, who knows?

I quite like the real person approach, not a Gwyneth effort but a sprinkling of in jokes. I always read other people's acknowledgements. I heard a story of one bloke who thanked his friends (and listed about seven names). After publication revealed that they were his pet rats! Whatever works!

I'm curious how people thank the people they have to thank, but don't want to..."thanks for nothing" "thanks for making my life hell for 3 years" etc. I'm sure you all know what I'm getting at! I think I'll have two versions, one that I'll submit in my PhD, appropriate thanks and politeness for staff, with the friends and family mentioned and some real person stuff. And a second version that I'll circulate to some close friends who've travelled this bumpy road and deserve a giggle at the challenges they've helped me through.

I'm currently in the siutation of writing my acknowledgements page for submssion later this month - well not the most important bit to write left, but it is on my mind. I am currently in the sad and difficult situation of deciding how to phrase the following:

I have been in a relationship with someone for the entire duration of the PhD but it looks like it might end perhaps in the next few weeks to months (not my decision, but no resentment on my behalf). This would roughly correlate with the period I get the thesis bound. I am trying to find a way and decide to acknowledge them either the following ways:

1) take the risk and acknowledge him as the boyfriend, thanks with love (because I do) and risk a watery eye when I look at it in the future. I am kind of opting for this choice and be done with it.

2) give a lukewarm kind of nice sentence that can be read eitherway

3)omission for my future sanity (do I really want his name in there in 5, 10 , or 20 years time?) But then maybe it would be nice to have his name in there and fondly remember the relationship and phd support in a few years time, even though it is no more...


Have any of you done this in your theses? Or seen book acknowledgements which have done this well? I imagine there are book projects (from thesis to books) which span more than one relationship!

I was with someone for quite a good chunk of my PhD (when I was doing it fulltime). We split up and things stayed amicable for a while, but disintegrated and I haven't spoken to him for over a year now. He doesn't figure anywhere in my acknowledgements. That doesn't mean I shalln't look back in future and he'll be forgotten, I just don't find it relevant. Having said that, there are friends I have acknowledged and who knows where they will go - will I still be friends in ten years time with them? I don't know. It's hard to say.

I guess what I'm trying to say is go with whatever you think is right at the time of writing it. Just because someone has touched the time that you were doing your PhD doesn't necessarily mean you will wish to keep their memory in what is an intensely personal piece of work over a fixed period. Plus what if you wanted to show a future partner? I would find that a bit strange trying to explain!

IMHO if you really want to look back at acknowledgements without cringeing in years to come the best policy is to keep it businesslike...doing a 'Gwyneth Paltrow' could be vomit-inducing!

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Thank you both very much for those posts. Yes, I think I will do a reduced acknowledgements page. Supervisors. Funding bodies. That's all.

Leave it business like and baggage free.

Yes, I imagine it would be really strange explaining that to a future partner too. Just leave it out.

Having nearly vomitted when I read the two pages of acknowledgements (including what appeared to be every relative who ahs ever lived) of a UG dissertation I was marking a couple of years ago I'd go for the professional approach. I can't think about that student without thinking about her "living her dream" and her dead grandparents (but I struggle to remember what her dissertation was on) - yes honestly!

Chrisrolinski, if he's helped you, I'd include him in the acknowledgements. Yeh, this will date, but it is reflective of this period of your life. And any future partners will understand - it's not like you haven't been in other relationships before them! I'm going for thanking partners, friends etc, I think I need to do more than just thank funding bodies etc, but I won't be too gushy.

I think i'll have to hold back from doing a Gwynnie to be honest. It really has changed my life but I don't want to sound 'gushing' so I might go hard and write a full on emotional version for my own use and write a modified more stable sounding version for the actual thesis.

The first thank you from me will go to the research participants. I read a thesis the other day that involved numerous in-depth interviews and I noticed that the participants weren't even thanked in the acknowledgements! I thought that was pretty shocking.

Hi All,
Very informative thread, thank you. I am trying to get my thesis to the printers today, although still need to add to conclusion among other things so I'm not sure I'll make it. I just remembered about acknowledgments! The tips from this thread are very useful, but I'd like to know where in the thesis the acknowledgments go. Is it before the TOC? So far mine is: Title Page, declaration, abstract, TOC. Maybe after declaration? Even on same page (lots of space left on it)?
Thanks!

I have my supervisor's thesis, and her order is: TOC, acknowledgements, list of abbreviations, list of tables and figues, abstract.

Thank you Sue! I will put it after the TOC I think.

My uni specified where everything in the intro was to go. So everything was spelled out for me. My order was the title page, table of contents, the tables of figures and tables, acknowledgements, declaration & statement page that I and my sup had to sign, abstract, then the very first page of my chapter 1.