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1. Academic Discourse Analysis on
Thesis Acknowledgements Written by Indonesian Students
Siti Fitriah
Graduate Program of English Education Department
UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta
Abstract
Acknowledgement is considered to be easy and simple part of a thesis so that teachers do not
concern to teach it for their students. This paper aims to do an analysis on thesis
acknowledgements written in Indonesia and English by using Hyland’s stages of
acknowledgement. There are three moves of the stages, reflecting, thanking and announcing.
Reflecting and announcing moves are not commonly used by students, whereas thanking for
moral has a big proportion in the thanking move. Then this paper tries to identify the skills, sub-
skills and language knowledge need to be comprehended by students in writing an
acknowledgement. Finally, a classroom activity is proposed for teachers to help their students to
master writing an acknowledgement.
Keywords: Thesis acknowledgement, analysis, moves
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Introduction
‘First impressions last’ in the examination process (Finn in Paltridge and Starfield, 2007)
Before a thesis is examined, assessors start opening the early pages of a thesis document
and then get on acknowledgement section in which written ‘I would like to express my gratitude
to …. for…’. This page tells particularly to assessors and generally to readers about students’
gratitude expression for all parties that contributed to the thesis. It might be a simple task to write
it, but students need to be careful. Thesis acknowledgement could give either good or bad

2. impression to the readers which long last. It is such a pleasure for readers to be thanked for their
help and written in one’s masterpiece. However, readers might feel bad once they are not
mentioned there after all help and support they gave before. Therefore, an acknowledgement
plays an important social and interpersonal role in the thesis and dissertation writing process.
In writing a thesis, Holtom and Fisher (1999) said that acknowledgement is written most
informally not like other sections of a thesis. Additionally, both mentioned that
acknowledgement is where the students thank to everyone who helped, took a part or contributed
to the research project. It can be parents, friends, partner, supervisors or subjects of the research.
Due to space limitation, students are suggested making sure that they thank to the right people
who do give contribution for the thesis, either practically or morally.
Moreover, Holtom and Fisher (1999) stated that it would be a good idea to be generous
with the acknowledgements even though it is just a small part of the manuscript that everyone is
going to read. It is an impression that people would remember whether or not they are
mentioned. Hyland (in Holtom and Fisher, 2007) pointed out that this short and simple section of
aknowledgement bridges the personal and the public, the social and the professional, and the
academic and the moral. Besides, acknowledgement also provides information to the readers of
writer’s personal network and academic relationship.
The writer is interested to analyze thesis acknowledgments as one of academic
discourses, written in Indonesian and English. This topic is quite interesting to be discussed
because it is not commonly and specifically taught by teachers for students in class. Teachers and
students might take it for granted and think that it is a simple and easy task which does not take
time to work on it or even study how to write it. The absence of session talking about thesis

3. acknowledgement impacts on students’ performance. Students tend to copy from previous thesis
acknowledgements as an alternative. This situation represents Hyland’s statement (in Cheng,
2012) that students often get a bit knowledge of acknowledgement section, so they then look at
acknowledgement of other thesis or dissertation to get ideas for structure, expression and
content. No wonder that there have been acknowledgements lots of thesis written in more or less
the same structure, expression and content, only names of thanked addressee are changed.
Objectives
Grounded on the background above, this paper aims to:
1. Analyze thesis acknowledgements (written in Indonesian and English) – to compare and
contrast.
2. Identifying skills, sub-skills and language knowledge needed by students in writing thesis
acknowledgement.
3. Provide a classroom learning activity to help students master writing thesis
acknowledgement.
Thesis acknowledgement
In writing this paper, a book by Holtom and Fisher (2007) entitled Thesis and
Dissertation Writing in a Second Language is taken as the main reference for thesis
acknowledgement. Here, acknowledgement is defined a section where students show their
disciplinary membership and allegiances, and at the same time thank people for their supports to
the writing. An acknowledgement contemplates appropriate academic values of modesty e.g. The
writing of an MA thesis is not an easy task, gratitude e.g. I am profoundly indebted to, I am

4. grateful to, Many thanks to, etc. and self-effacement e.g. I am the only person responsible for
errors in the thesis.
There are typically three stages in an acknowledgement section. However, it is not a must
to cover all three stages. That is why there might be several acknowledgements which start with
no reflecting move and ends with no announcing move. Among those stages, thanking move is
an obligatory to put in an acknowledgement. Next paragraphs would like to describe each move
in more detail with examples.
Reflecting move provides some introspective comments on the student’s research
experience. For example, It is the most rewarding achievement in my life, as I approach middle
age, is the completion of my doctoral dissertation.
Thanking move gives credit for all presenting participants including individuals and
institutions. For examples, I would like to take this opportunity to express my immense gratitude
to all those persons who have given their invaluable support and assistance. In thanking move,
the students might thank for academic assistance, intellectual support, ideas, analyses, feedback,
etc. (For example, In particular, I am profoundly indebted to my supervisor, Dr assistance,
intellectual James Fung, who was very generous with his time and assisted me in each step to
complete the feedback, etc.), for resources and/or data access and clerical, technical and financial
support, etc. (For example, The research for this thesis was financially supported by a
postgraduate studentship from the University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong and China Gas
Company Postgraduate Scholarship, Epson Foundation Scholarship, two University of Hong
Kong CRCG grants and an RCG grant.), and for moral support, friendship, encouragement,
sympathy, patience, etc. (For example, I’d include those who helped including my supervisor,

5. friends, and colleagues. It is also appropriate to thank for spiritual support, so I’d also include
my friends in church and family members.etc.). There is no such a clear guide for arrangement
preference of thanked addressees that tells students about which addressee should come first then
followed by the others, but it is suggested to first put the addressees who give the biggest
contribution to the completion of the thesis. In addition, Cheng (2012) found that thesis
acknowledgements allow students to express publicly their personal gratitude which is mediated
by the students’ socio-cultural perceptions of generic appropriateness. It indicates that students
with different culture might thank the presenting participants differently.
Announcing move is meant to accept responsibility for any flaws or errors of the thesis
and dedicates it to an individual or individuals. For examples, Notwithstanding all of the above
support for this project, any errors and/or omissions are solely my own. I love my family. This
thesis is dedicated to them.
Analysis on thesis acknowledgements
There are several acknowledgements are used as samples for this analysis which consist
of acknowledgements written in Bahasa Indonesia and English by Indonesian students, and
English acknowledgements by non-Indonesian students, three acknowledgements for each. This
analysis discusses thesis acknowledgements in general purpose, either for bachelor, master or
doctoral. It focuses on the structure of acknowledgement or so called the three stages of
acknowledgements as clearly explained in previous section of this paper. However, there might
be a brief additional description regarding to the use of expression, content and language.
In Bahasa Indonesia, students mostly start an acknowledgement by thanking to the
Almighty God for the completion of the thesis. This start refers to an expression of thanking for

6. moral. It is rarely to find reflecting move used as the opening. Thanking for moral has a big
proportion, but less expression of thanking for resources or data access. In terms of the content,
the thanked addressees are arranged in points or numbers. Therefore it has no various gratitude
expression used. It starts with the praise to the Almighty God which then followed by thanking
for academic. The students might have the preference based on how much contribution of the
addressee or on the academic level of professionalism (hierarchical order). Again, socio-culture
takes a role in this case which influences the students to perceive the most polite and appropriate
way of sequencing. Looking into a bit more detail, students mention addressees by using their
nicknames (for friends, brothers or sisters) accompanied by honorifics such as Mbak, Mas or
Dek. At the end, no announcing move is used here. Additionally, information of place and dates
of thesis is usually provided at the right bottom corner of the page.
In English acknowledgements, Indonesian students write it not differently far from how
they write acknowledgements in Bahasa Indonesia. However, an announcing move can be found
in the last part where students accept for any errors in the thesis and are open for any feedbacks
and critics from the readers, but still without any dedication of the thesis for certain individual,
group or institution. The gratitude expression mostly used by students is ‘I would like to express
my gratitude to…’. In fact, there are more other expressions which might be used to represent
and share their happiness and appreciation.
Acknowledgements written by non-Indonesian students (they might be English natives)
are simpler. It is usually written in the form of narrative. The three examples show the use of
more various gratitude expressions and shorter length of writing. However, reflecting and
announcing move are not commonly put in the acknowledgements. As well, there is no specific

7. arrangement preference of the thanked addressees. Here, students mention names of the
addresses in their full name unlike how Indonesians do.
Skills, sub-skills and language knowledge
To write in English as a second language, it is proposed that students need to have
writing sub-skills such as arrangement of ideas and example, communicative quality or
coherence and cohesion, and sentence structure vocabulary (Aryadoust, 2004). However,
particularly regarding to write a thesis acknowledgement, students are required to comprehend
the last two sub-skills, communicative quality and sentence structure vocabulary. Each sub-skill
will be described more in the following paragraph.
Communicative quality covers the use of range, accuracy, and appropriateness of
coherence-makers (transitional words and/or phrases) no matter how the acknowledgement is
written, either in narrative or points. Students also need to consider the use of logical pronouns
and conjunctions to connect sentences, especially within each move of acknowledgement. Here,
transitional words are used once students sequence the expressions of gratitude. It would be
helpful and useful for students to put the strength of conceptual and referential linkage of
sentences.
Sentence structure vocabulary includes the use of appropriate, topic-related and correct
vocabulary (adjectives, nouns, verbs, prepositions, articles, etc.), idioms, expressions, and
collocations in writing the acknowledgement. From the beginning, students must decide which
personal pronoun would be used either first (‘I’ as the writer) or third singular pronoun (‘She or
he’ as the writer). There are many gratitude expression could be used by students to make it more
heartfelt and pure depending on students’ need. Students could visit this website as a reference

8. http://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/how-to-say-thank-you-26-thank-you-sayings/. Students are
also required to write it in correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Besides, it is
important to make sure that the acknowledgement is written in appropriate and correct syntax
(accurate use of verb tenses and independent and subordinate clauses). In this case, simple
present tense is the main tense used even though other tenses might probably be used as well
depending on students’ messages. Last, students are warned to be careful in using appropriate
and accurate synonyms and antonyms to express their gratitude. Readers might perceive any
words differently from what readers think.
Teaching alternatives
There are many methodologies or approaches that teachers might use in class to help
students master writing thesis acknowledgement as an academic writing. This paper would like
to present classroom learning activity which might be helpful for both teachers and students.
Before the class, teachers have students find out some examples of several
acknowledgements of internationally published theses from any fields of study (minimum five
acknowledgements). Then, the class starts by having students identify the pattern or move of
how an acknowledgement is written in general. It can be done in individual, pair or group work.
After that, the teacher could ask some students to share what they have got (of course not all
students due to time allocation). Now, it is the time for the teacher to introduce students with
some stages of three moves in thesis acknowledgement as explained in previous section of this
paper. The teacher might have students one more time have a look at the examples of
acknowledgement and identify the moves according to the concept of introduced stages. At the
end, the teacher has students practice writing a thesis acknowledgement by following the concept

9. explained. There are several websites addresses provided at the end of this paper which might
useful for students in writing their thesis acknowledgement.
Conclusion
Writing thesis acknowledgement is considered to be simple and easy so that there is no
specific session in class to talk about it. In fact, it matters for both students as writers and
readers, especially the contributors of the thesis. The analysis results that Indonesian students
need improvement to write a good and effective thesis acknowledgement. Hyland’s stages of an
acknowledgement could be a reference for both teachers and students. This paper provides a
classroom activity as an alternative for teachers to help their students to master writing
acknowledgement.
References
Aryadoust, V. (2004). Investigating writing sub-skills in testing English as a foreign language: a
structural equation modeling study. The Electric Journal for English as a Second
Language. Retrieved from
http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume13/ej52/ej52a9/
Cheng, S.W. (2012). A contrastive study of master thesis acknowledgements by Taiwanese and
North American students. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics Vol.2,No.1,8-17.
Retrieved from http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperDownload.aspx?paperID=17986
Holtom, D. & Fisher, E. (1999). Enjoy writing your science thesis or dissertation! London:
Imperial College Press retrieved from
http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=ABEC11C9E43D2AB8764B2725DE7DE6B9

10. Paltridge, B. and Starfield, S. (2007). Thesis and dissertation writing in a second language. New
York, NY: Routledge. Retrieved from
http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=FF5E116B6AA37EDE91D95F5684CA0C15
Useful websites
https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/writing-the-acknowledgments-the-ettiquette-
of-thanking/
http://www.phdstudent.com/Writing-Tips/writing-acknowledgements-your-personal-gratitude
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Acknowledgements