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 ...' 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.
How could it be improved? Type your revised version here.
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.
How could it be improved? Type your revised version here.
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 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 ***
Read through the following examples of acknowledgements taken (with permission) from past students' final year projects.
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
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.
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.