Dissertation Acknowledgements

Written Communication Jul 2003

Ken Hyland City University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Although sometimes considered to be only marginally related to the key academic goals of establishing claims and reputations, acknowledgements are commonplace in scholarly communication and virtually obligatory in dissertation writing. The significance of this disregarded “Cinderella” genre lies partly in the opportunities it offers students to present a social and scholarly self disentangled from academic discourse conventions and personally thank those who have shaped the accompanying text. Beyond the role it plays in academic gift giving and self-presentation, however, the textualization of gratitude reveals social and cultural characteristics, an intimation of disciplinary specialization within a broad generic structure. This analysis of the acknowledgements accompanying 240 Ph.D. and M.A. dissertations written by nonnative speakers of English suggests that personal gratitude is mediated by disciplinary preferences and strategic career choices, reflecting one way in which postgraduate writing represents a situated activity.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 2003-07-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088303257276
Open Access: Closed
Topics: graduate education multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

Lillis (2008)

Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and “Deep Theorizing”

Written Communication

Cites in this index (0)

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