Dissertation Acknowledgments Section Writing Guide: Examples for Every Degree Level

If you’ve spent months writing your dissertation and suddenly have to stop at page two to write a thank-you note, you’re not alone. The acknowledgments section is almost universally the first page you type when you sit down to write — and it’s almost universally the section students rush through. But it’s also one of the few places in your dissertation where you can be genuinely human.

Here’s the thing most guides won’t tell you: acknowledgments are not decorative. They’re part of your dissertation’s scholarly record. Examiners read them. Your supervisor reads them. Your academic family reads them. Write them with intention, and the section becomes a moment of clarity in a document that’s otherwise dense, formal, and impersonal.

• Start with your primary supervisor and work outward — from the most formal, professional thanks to the warmest, most personal ones. This “outside-in” order is what examiners expect.
• Length depends on your degree level: undergraduate (150–200 words, roughly half a page), postgraduate (200–300 words, roughly a full page), PhD doctoral thesis (150–300+ words, up to a full page).
• Funding bodies are mandatory when your research was externally funded. Omitting them may violate your award terms — always include the official name and full grant/reference number.
• Do not disclose AI tool use in acknowledgments. The university’s AI use policy is where that belongs, not your acknowledgments.
• Some universities omit acknowledgments entirely (blind marking), so always check your department’s guidelines before writing.

What Are Dissertation Acknowledgments?

Dissertation acknowledgments (also called “acknowledgements” in UK spelling) are a short section placed early in your thesis where you thank the people and institutions who supported your research. It’s not a chapter in the traditional sense — it’s a professional courtesy wrapped in a personal gesture.

Every academic acknowledges their work. Even the most independent doctoral candidate had someone who proofread a draft, answered a funding query, or offered advice over coffee. Acknowledging that support isn’t about flattery — it’s about transparency. It signals that your work didn’t emerge in isolation, and it honors the people who made the research possible.

Here’s what’s inside a typical acknowledgments section:

1. Your primary supervisor (always first)
2. Committee members or secondary supervisors
3. Funding bodies and grant providers
4. Technical staff, lab technicians, or research assistants
5. Peers, colleagues, and fellow students
6. Family, friends, and partners

The section is usually warm but professional, written in first person, and shorter than one page (150–300 words depending on your degree level). You don’t need to justify every thanks — just list them in a sensible order.

Where to Place Acknowledgments: UK vs. US Conventions

This is one of the biggest blind spots most guides have. The placement of your acknowledgments varies significantly between institutions.

In the UK, acknowledgments typically appear after the abstract and before the table of contents. The sequence goes: title page → abstract → acknowledgments → table of contents.

In the US, many universities place acknowledgments after the table of contents and before Chapter 1. The sequence goes: title page → abstract → table of contents → acknowledgments.

Some institutions place acknowledgments even further back — sometimes after the introduction or as the final page of the document.

The rule: Always check your department’s formatting guidelines. If you can’t find them, ask your supervisor. Writing the acknowledgments section is easy; moving it to the wrong place after your supervisor has already reviewed it is not.

The Blind Marking Exception

A growing number of universities — particularly those that use blind peer review for examinations — require acknowledgments to be omitted entirely to preserve examiner anonymity. If your institution follows this practice, you may write your acknowledgments in a separate document (such as a personal letter to your supervisor) rather than in the dissertation file.

This is not a niche exception. Several prominent UK and US universities have adopted blind marking in recent years. If you’re unsure whether your university requires this, ask your graduate school before you type a single thank-you sentence.

Who to Acknowledge: The Tiered Structure

The single most important structural decision in acknowledgments is order. You don’t just list people randomly — you move from the most formal and professional to the warmest and most personal.

Think of this as a four-tier pyramid, starting at the top with your primary supervisor and working outward.

The Acknowledgment Tier Table

Tier	Who to Thank	What to Include	Tone
Tier 1 (Academic Core)	Primary supervisor, committee members, secondary supervisors	Specific contributions: “guided my research,” “provided critical feedback on methodology,” “thoroughly reviewed my literature review”	Professional, warm, respectful
Tier 2 (Institutional Support)	Funding bodies, grant committees, lab technicians, research assistants, department staff	Funding body name + grant/reference number; specific technical contributions	Formal, precise
Tier 3 (Academic Family)	Fellow students, peers, colleagues who discussed your work, collaborators	Specific conversations, peer feedback, reading groups	Warm, collegial
Tier 4 (Personal Support)	Family, friends, partners, roommates who offered emotional support	General emotional/financial support, late-night encouragement, patience	Warm, personal, brief

This structure works for every degree level — the difference is what each tier looks like at your stage. At undergraduate level, Tier 1 might be just your supervisor. At PhD level, Tier 1 includes your entire committee and possibly external examiners.

Here’s the practical version of this table, showing what you actually write at each tier:

Tier	Example Opening	What to Add
Tier 1	“I am deeply grateful to my primary supervisor, Dr. [Name], for…”	Their specific role: supervising your research, reviewing drafts, guiding methodology
Tier 2	“This research was supported by the [Funding Body Name] under grant [XXX-XXXXX].”	The official funding body name and grant reference number. For technical staff: “I thank [Name] for assistance with [specific technique].”
Tier 3	“I also want to thank my colleagues in the [Department/Research Group] for…”	The “academic family”: peers who discussed ideas, reading groups, fellow students who shared resources. This framing resonates because it acknowledges that research is inherently collaborative.
Tier 4	“Finally, I owe an immeasurable debt to my family…”	Family, friends, partners. Keep it warm but brief — this is the emotional peak of the section, and the moment where readers relax into a human tone.

The reason this works: Examiners expect you to thank your supervisor first. It’s a professional norm. If you start with your family, it reads as either uninformed or deliberately casual. Starting with Tier 1 signals that you understand the conventions of scholarly writing.

How to Write It: Tone, Length, and Format

Tone: Professional but Personal

You’re writing in first person. You’re being sincere. But you’re not writing a letter to your grandmother. The tone sits somewhere between a formal academic paper and a personal statement.

Warm, but not casual. “I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Smith” works better than “Thanks to Dr. Smith for everything!” — it’s professional without being cold.

Specific is better than vague. “I thank Dr. Smith for her invaluable guidance on the quantitative analysis” is stronger than “I thank Dr. Smith for her help.” Specificity shows you actually engaged with the person.

Length by Degree Level

Level	Target Length	What It Feels Like
Undergraduate	150–200 words	Roughly half a page. Keep it brief and sincere.
Postgraduate (Master’s)	200–300 words	Roughly a full page. Allow yourself to be a bit more specific.
PhD doctoral thesis	150–300+ words	Up to a full page, sometimes more if you have a large team.

Pro tip: If you find yourself writing past 300 words, ask yourself whether you’re padding. Every sentence should thank someone or say why you’re thanking them. If the sentence doesn’t do either, cut it.

Formatting

• Heading: “Acknowledgments” or “Acknowledgements” (match your spelling convention)
• Paragraph breaks: 1–2 paragraphs maximum
• Placement: After abstract or after table of contents (check your department guidelines)
• Style: First person, past tense, specific

Examples by Degree Level

Undergraduate Example (~180 words)

I am deeply grateful to Dr. Elizabeth Carter, my primary supervisor, whose patience and encouragement made this dissertation possible. Her feedback on the research design fundamentally shaped the direction of this study, and I cannot overstate how much I appreciated her willingness to discuss my work at every stage.

I also thank Dr. James Holloway and Dr. Priya Mehta, members of my examination panel, for their thoughtful comments on my literature review. Their insights helped me refine a section I had been struggling with for months.

To my fellow undergraduate researchers in the Department of Sociology — thank you for the reading group sessions and for keeping each other sane during finals week. This dissertation exists because of the conversations I had with all of you.

And finally, I owe an immeasurable debt to my family. My parents believed in this project when I doubted whether it had a future. My sister kept me laughing during the worst stretch. I love you both.

Master’s Thesis Example (~260 words)

I am profoundly grateful to my supervisor, Professor David Tanaka, who guided this research from its earliest conception to its final draft. His expertise in comparative politics transformed not just this thesis but how I think about the field itself. I cannot overstate how much I learned from our weekly meetings, and I am still grateful for the countless hours he spent refining my methodology.

I thank my thesis committee members — Dr. Sarah Williams and Dr. Amara Nkemba — for their rigorous yet constructive critiques. Dr. Williams’s feedback on Chapter 3 fundamentally changed my argument; Dr. Nkemba’s insistence on clarity pushed me to write better. I learned more from that exchange than I did from any single class.

This research was funded by the [University Name] Graduate Research Fellowship under grant GRSF-2024-0451. I am grateful for their investment in my work and for the freedom it gave me to pursue this question without financial constraint.

I also want to thank the research assistants and lab technicians in the Department of Political Science — especially Maria Chen and Jamal Abiodun — for their patience in helping me with data entry and coding. Technical expertise like theirs is the backbone of good research, even when no one sees it.

To my fellow MA students: thank you for the late-night editing sessions, the shared panic over deadlines, and the quiet solidarity that made this whole year bearable. You are my academic family, and I would have been lost without you.

Finally, to my partner — thank you for reading my drafts when I asked you to, for making coffee at 2 AM, and for never doubting that I’d finish.

PhD Dissertation Example (~320 words)

I offer my sincerest gratitude to my primary supervisor, Professor Elena Vasquez, whose mentorship over the past five years has shaped me as a scholar in ways I cannot fully articulate. Her intellectual generosity — her willingness to let me explore dead ends and return stronger — is the kind of supervision I hope to emulate one day. She saw this project as a contribution long before I did.

I thank my dissertation committee — Professor Vasquez, Dr. Marcus Osei, and Dr. Yuki Tanaka — for their rigorous yet generous feedback. Dr. Osei’s interventions on Chapter 4 saved me from a fundamentally flawed argument. Dr. Tanaka’s insistence on clarity forced me to write more precisely than I thought possible.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number SES-2020-112847 and by the [University Name] Doctoral Fellowship. I am grateful to both bodies for their sustained investment in my research.

I also thank the research coordinators and lab technicians at the [Institute Name], particularly Dr. Lin Zhou, whose assistance with data collection and protocol design was essential to this project.

My colleagues in the Social Cognition Lab — past and present — deserve a special thank you. Our weekly seminars, our shared frustrations with failed experiments, and our occasional breakthroughs at midnight all contributed to this thesis in ways both visible and invisible. You are my academic family.

And to my family — my parents, who supported me through every application, every rejection letter, and every moment of doubt. My brother, who never once asked what I was studying but still celebrated every milestone. I am who I am because of you.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Thanking Your Family First

This is the single most common error. Examiners expect you to start with your supervisor. If you open with “To my parents, who believed in me,” it reads as either uninformed about academic conventions or deliberately casual. Always start with your supervisor.

Mistake 2: Being Vague About Contributions

“I thank my supervisor for their help” is weak. “I thank Dr. Smith for her invaluable guidance on the quantitative analysis and for her thorough review of my literature review” is specific and credible. Specificity turns a generic thank-you into evidence that you actually worked with the person.

Mistake 3: Forgetting Funding Bodies

When your research was externally funded, acknowledging the funding body is mandatory. Omitting it may violate your award terms. Always include the full official name and the grant or reference number.

Mistake 4: Writing Too Much

More than 300 words in acknowledgments is rare and usually unnecessary. Every sentence should thank someone or explain why you’re thanking them. If you’re writing more than a page, ask yourself whether you’re padding.

Mistake 5: Using the Wrong Spelling

Use “acknowledgments” or “acknowledgements” consistently throughout. Don’t mix the two. Match the spelling convention of your department (UK spelling is more common at UK universities; US spelling at US institutions).

Mistake 6: Including AI Tool Use

As noted by Workingment’s guide on thesis acknowledements, the acknowledgments section is not the place to disclose AI tool use. That belongs in your methodology or in the university’s own AI policy document. Do not mention AI tools in acknowledgments unless your department specifically asks you to.

Mistake 7: Omitting the Table of Contents Reference

If your acknowledgments appear before the TOC, make sure the TOC includes an entry for “Acknowledgments” — otherwise your examiner won’t know where to find it.

Practical Tips

• Write it last, not first. Many students draft their acknowledgments immediately and then revise their dissertation for months. The names, grant numbers, and chapter titles may change. Writing it last ensures accuracy.
• Use the “academic family” framing for peers. Acknowledging colleagues as part of your academic family resonates strongly — it signals that research is collaborative, not solitary. This is a small detail that makes the section feel warm without being informal.
• Check your spelling conventions. Use “acknowledgments” (US) or “acknowledgements” (UK) consistently. Don’t mix them.
• If your department requires blind marking, write your acknowledgments in a separate letter. Do not put them in the dissertation file. This preserves examiner anonymity.
• Always verify funding grant numbers. Typos in grant numbers can cause administrative issues. Double-check the official reference before publishing.
• Read the section aloud before submitting. If it sounds warm but not casual, you’re good. If it sounds stiff, relax the language. If it sounds like a letter to your mom, pull it back.

For more guidance on writing process and academic writing conventions, the guides from Proofers UK and Grad Coach offer thorough, practical examples by degree level. For discipline-specific acknowledgment conventions, Journal Publishing’s guide breaks down examples by field.

Related Guides

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• Academic Services — Chapter-by-chapter writing support across all disciplines
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The acknowledgments section is one of the few places in your dissertation where you can be human. It doesn’t need to be long, and it doesn’t need to be perfect. But it does need to start with your supervisor, move through your funding bodies and colleagues, and end with the people who kept you going. Write it in order, keep it between 150 and 300 words depending on your level, and leave it for last so nothing changes while you’re writing.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is the acknowledgments section compulsory?

It depends on your university. Most institutions treat it as optional, but some require it as part of their formatting checklist. Always confirm with your department. Some universities also require you to omit acknowledgments entirely (blind marking).

Should I acknowledge people who helped me but aren’t directly involved in my research?

Yes, within reason. A partner who kept you sane during finals, a friend who proofread your introduction, a colleague who shared a dataset — they all belong in acknowledgments. Just keep it brief and sincere.

Can I include funding acknowledgments in a separate section?

Yes. It’s common practice to include funding acknowledgments as a separate subsection within the acknowledgments, or as a dedicated “Funding Statement” paragraph. Either way, always include the official name and grant/reference number.

What if I’m writing a journal paper instead of a dissertation?

The structure is the same — thank your supervisor or lead author first, then funding bodies, then colleagues, then family. The tone should be more formal, and the length should be shorter (often just a paragraph). For journal-specific guidance, see Journal Publishing’s acknowledgment guide.

Should I mention conflicts of interest?

No. Conflicts of interest belong in a separate disclosure statement, usually right before or after acknowledgments. Don’t mix them.