PhD acknowledgements - how long is too long?

[metoothree]

I'm in the final stretch of my PhD and just started (procrastinating by) writing the acknowledgements. I've looked at friends and other theses and there seems to be no consistency - some are less than a page, some many many pages. Is there a 'form'? If they are too long, is it seen as OTT/ embarrassing and cheesy/ more American style? Lots of online advice seems to say one page is best, but I don't think I can fit it into a single page, leave alone a 1.5 spaced one - this is years of my life I'm trying to cover! I have a lot of people I genuinely want to thank.

And what about personal thanks vs. strictly professional? I like the ones with some personality/ insight into the research process etc, but do some people look down on that?

It's a minefield - help!

I am reading one ATM as an internal examiner. Love reading the acknowledgements. It does not have to be all professional. I have just seen particular foods thanked and a pet, all fine.

I would say 1.5 pages though, 2 absolute max.

Good luck writing up.

I would say it’s totally up to you. I wrote about a page but most of the people I thanked haven’t read my thesis and don’t even know they have been thanked! I have also seen a one liner which I also think is fine. I remember feeling a bit uncomfortable about writing them because someone told me that they love reading them as a way of prying into people’s personal lives which feels a bit off.

But either way, write what you feel at the time.

Ha I was tempted to write a "no thanks to" section for mine but resisted!

If say one page and a mix of professional and personal. Mine were quite personal but light-hearted. I find those that profess God helped them write the thesis in the first line a bit much

I’ve been an external for more PhDs than I can remember, and I have genuinely never so much as looked at the acknowledgements.

thanks for your responses - I guess it's not so critical then! I will try to prune a bit and keep it from being too gushing. God will not feature, but I do want to thank all the people who have looked after the kids (not by name, or it would be 20 pages).

But I think the main message is that I should be rewriting my introduction, not worrying about the acknowledgements...

I find those that profess God helped them write the thesis in the first line a bit much

Especially if God should have pointed out that they currently have two chapter threes and that footnote 125 contains the words FIX THIS BIT!

Is an acknowledgement a must? The people I would want to thank wouldn't be reading the thesis. I read one recently and about a page was dedicated to how much he loved his wife and went into detail about the how/whys and was completely unrelated to the work. I sicked up a bit reading it, just seemed so unnecessary.

I think it is a must - I would not have been able to finish this PhD without a lot of help, and I want to publicly acknowledge it. At the absolute minimum, not thanking my supervisors and people who have read and commented on drafts would just seem really churlish I think.

Sure, some of the people I want to thank might not read it, but I'll tell them they're in there and they'll know I'm grateful - because I really am, it's not just a performance.

I get that some people find the lovey-dovey ones a bit much, but everyone has a different tolerance for emotional effusiveness! I hope mine will come across as from the heart without being sickly, but if some people don't like it (or don't read it) - oh well.

"Thanks to my line manager for turning a blind eye to my blatant skiving for 4 years, and to my husband for not divorcing me"
Better not, I suppose.

There was a quote I wanted to use but couldn't find at the time - turned out it was Sandra Boynton, not Pratchett: "There are many people without whom this book would have been impossible. There are many others without whom it would have been one heck of a lot easier."

I kept it to a para of thanks, mostly for DP cooking me dinner late at night and supporting me financially, and not mentioning the latter.

You are procrastinating from writing the actual thesis, aren't you? :o

If you genuinely want to thank people, thank them. But many/most of the people you want to thank won't read a single word of your thesis unless you hand it to them and tell them to look at the acknowledgements!