Whenever you open a book or a project work, you read a section where the author thanks fellow members, mentors and multiple personalities for their contribution to the piece of work. This entire thanking page refers to acknowledgement. An acknowledgement note allows you to thank those who have immensely supported you personally or professionally in completing your research or dissertation papers.
However, most students struggle with the acknowledgement’s content. Be it the tone or who to thank, all these factors play in a student’s mind while writing acknowledgements. But how can you write a compelling acknowledgement?
In this blog, I’ll share tips that will help you pen down a compelling and earnest acknowledgement.
- Maintain a personal yet professional tone
While writing acknowledgements, you must have wondered whom to thank. Honestly, the amount of support you get to complete your research papers is unimaginable. As a result, students sometimes fail to comprehend the correct words to convey gratitude. So, before you start writing an acknowledgment, you must write it in the correct tone. Your writing tone must convey the right amount of gratefulness that one can feel once one reads. Moreover, it should not be too personal or flat. You can use some phrases like:
- “I would like to thank…”
- “I’m profoundly grateful to..”
- “My research would have been impossible without the aid and support of..”
With such phrases, you can maintain a personal yet professional tone in your acknowledgments.
- Keep it in first-person language
Since you’re thanking multiple individuals for your papers, it is necessary for you to write it in the first person. Writing in the first person allows you to communicate directly with the professionals who helped you complete the research projects.
- List out the people whom you want to thank
From friends to professionals, you must have encountered endless individuals without whom you think your project is incomplete. However, you cannot just keep mentioning multiple people in your acknowledgement. On that note, make a list of people. In your lists, you must keep the professional contacts and your families first. After this, you can include intangible support you get from friends and pets come to acknowledge them for your benefit. Once you have made a compiling list, it will be easy for you to write and mention different people.
- Be cautious with your language
Many students often mix the tone of the paper with other aspects. As a result, they unintendedly write in colloquial or mention slang words to make it more personalised. However, you cannot do much while you write acknowledgements for your research papers. Then what to do? You can try writing a draft note first. Afterwards, you can use some grammatical tools like Grammarly, Hemingway Editor and some more to revise and add final touches.
- Divide your thanking levels
Another best way to thank your people is to divide them according to your levels. You can divide the thanking category into three parts –
- Major thanks
- big thanks
- minor thanks
While phrasing your acknowledgements, you must avoid words that make the note repetitive and dull. To give major thanks, you must include the contributions of those who helped you grow intellectually, like classmates, peers and professors. For big thanks, you must show gratitude to those who have helped you with different advice, like librarians and others. Lastly, minor thanks can be a catch-all for everyone else, especially those who have offered moral support and encouragement in some way. This includes personal acknowledgements like parents, partners, children or even pets.
Parting thoughts
Acknowledging is one such aspect that completes your research paper. Without a thanking note, you cannot show the contributions or help you have gotten from others who have inspired you to write such wonders. Moreover, we often forget to thank people for their minor contributions. Thus, an acknowledgement note gives you an opportunity to show your immense gratitude for your research work!
Author Bio: Serena Thompson is a professor in the UK. She provides various academic nursing essay help articles for MyAssignmenthelp.io. In her free time, she loves to read.
