GUIDELINES FOR WRITING
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A page
of acknowledgements is usually included at the beginning of a Final Year
Project, immediately after the Table of Contents.
Acknowledgements enable you to
thank all those who have helped in carrying out the research. Careful
thought needs to be given concerning those whose help should be acknowledged
and in what order. The general advice is to express your appreciation
in a concise manner and to avoid strong emotive language.
Note that personal pronouns such
as 'I, my, me ¡K' are nearly always used in the acknowledgements while
in the rest of the project such personal pronouns are generally avoided.
The following list includes those
people who are often acknowledged.
Note however that every project is different and you need to tailor your
acknowledgements to suit your particular situation.
Main supervisor
Second supervisor
Other academic staff in your department
Technical or support staff in your department
Academic staff from other departments
Other institutions, organizations or companies
Past students
Family *
Friends *
* If you wish to acknowledge the
help of family members or friends make sure you restrict the wording of
your thanks to a relatively formal register.
Study the two
examples below. In each one, the acknowledgement of a friend and a family
member has been expressed in an inappropriate manner. Read the acknowledgement
and then answer the questions that follow.
Example 1.
I wish to thank my boyfriend Jack for his assistance with the statistics
used in this report.
This sounds too personal. Why?
Type your suggestions here.
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Suggested
Answers |
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1. |
There is
no need to mention the relationship with the author. |
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2. |
The acknowledgement
appears too informal because of the use of the first name
without the family name. |
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How could it be improved?
Type your revised version here
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Suggested
Answers |
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I wish to
thank Jack Chau for his assistance with the statistics used
in this report. |
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Example 2.
I would like to thank my mother for providing me with delicious dinners
when I came home late from the university.
This sounds too personal. Why?
Type your suggestions here.
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Suggested
Answers |
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1. |
There is
no need to mention the specific family relationship. |
|
2. |
There
is no need to mention the specific assistance given. |
|
3. |
There is no need to refer
to the particular time the assistance was given. |
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How could it be improved? Type
your revised version here.
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Suggested
Answers |
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I would like
to acknowledge the support provided by my family during the
preparation of my final year project. |
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Common expressions used
to acknowledge assistance
The following vocabulary/phrases
are often used when expressing acknowledgements and they may be of help
when writing your own acknowledgements.
I would like to express my very great appreciation
to ***
I would like to offer my special thanks to ***
Advice given by *** has been a great
help in ***
I am particularly grateful for the assistance given by ***
Assistance provided by *** was greatly
appreciated.
I wish to acknowledge the help provided by ***
Dr *** provided me with very valuable
***
I would like to thank the following companies for their assistance
with the collection of my data:
***
***
My special thanks are extended to the staff of ***
company for ***
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Read through the
following examples of acknowledgements taken (with permission) from past
students' final year projects.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my very great appreciation
to Dr *** for his valuable and constructive
suggestions during the planning and development of this research
work. His willingness to give his time so generously has been
very much appreciated.
I would also like to thank the staff of the
following organizations for enabling me to visit their offices
to observe their daily operations:
***
company
***
company
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my
deep gratitude to Professor ***
and Professor ***, my research
supervisors, for their patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement
and useful critiques of this research work. I would also like
to thank Dr. ***, for her advice
and assistance in keeping my progress on schedule. My grateful
thanks are also extended to Mr. ***
for his help in doing the meteorological data analysis, to Ms
***, who helped me calculate the
wind pressure coefficient and to Ms ***
and Mr. *** for their support in
the site measurement.
I would also like to extend
my thanks to the technicians of the laboratory of the ***
department for their help in offering me the resources
in running the program.
Finally, I wish to thank my
parents for their support and encouragement throughout my study.
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Acknowledgements
I wish to thank various people for their contribution
to this project; Mr. *** and Ms ***,
for their valuable technical support on this project; Mr. ***
and Ms ***, staff of ***
Government Office, for their help in collecting the plant data
and all the technicians who helped me in handling the instruments.
Special thanks should be given to Dr. ***,
my research project supervisor for her professional guidance and
valuable support and to Dr. *** for
his useful and constructive recommendations on this project.
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