Thesis dedication: where it goes, how to write it, and examples

At the front, after the title page and before the table of contents. That is the order Italian university guidelines give when they mention a dedication at all. The SPGI department at the University of Padua puts it in one line: «pagina della dedica: è facoltativa e segue la pagina del frontespizio», the dedication page is optional and follows the title page (SPGI guidelines, in Italian). The same document adds the other rule that matters: the pages before the contents, title page and dedication included, are not numbered.

The full sequence, then: cover, title page, dedication, contents, main text, bibliography, any appendices and, at the very end, the acknowledgments. That is how most of the theses we print in Rome are put together: the dedication opens the volume, the acknowledgments close it. If you are used to the English-speaking layout, where acknowledgments often sit in the front matter, this is the main difference.

Two things to check before you lay it out:

• Your degree programme's rules. Not every department mentions a dedication. Sapienza's Philosophy department, for instance, goes straight from title page to contents (guidelines, in Italian). It is not a ban, but if your programme is strict, ask your supervisor.
• Double-sided printing. If you print on both sides, the dedication goes on a right-hand page with a blank back. It then opens the book the way the title page does, and the contents start on the right as well. Single-sided, the question does not arise.

A dedication should be seen, not noticed. The conventions are few and hold almost everywhere:

• A page of its own. The dedication and nothing else: no "Dedication" heading, no page number.
• Top right, roughly a third of the way down. Centred on the page is also accepted, but top right is the classic position.
• Italic or roman, in the thesis typeface, at the same size or slightly smaller. No bold, no capitals, no colour.
• Short. One line is ideal, three is the limit. If you need ten lines, you are writing acknowledgments.
• Unsigned. It is your thesis already, so no name at the bottom. Quotation marks only for a quotation, and then with its author.

In Word, after the title page insert a Section Break (Odd Page) (Layout → Breaks): Word adds the blank page by itself when needed. Type the dedication, align it right and lower it with the paragraph's spacing before, not with a row of empty returns that shift as soon as a margin changes. Same break before the contents.

In LaTeX, with the book class in twoside, a \cleardoublepage before and after is enough, with the dedication in a flushright and \thispagestyle{empty} to drop the number.

Before you send the PDF to print, open it in two-page view and check that the title page and the dedication both fall on the right. Scrolling one page at a time will not show it.

The most common dedication of all. It works when it says one true thing: if your family made a specific sacrifice, an extra job, the trips to visit you, a move, naming it in a few words beats any formula. Replace [Name] with yours.

• To my parents.
• To Mum and Dad, who believed it before I did.
• To my parents, for every sacrifice they never let me feel.
• To my mother and father: this degree is yours too.
• To my family, my fixed point.
• To Mum, who lived every exam as if it were hers.
• To Dad, who taught me to finish what I start.
• To my parents, who let me choose.
• To my family, who waited for this day as long as I did.

If your family does not read English, the dedication is one place where writing in your own language is perfectly fine, even in a thesis written in English or Italian.

A quotation can replace the dedication or go with it, with the author underneath and the work if you know it. A few you can check against the text:

• "Non quia difficilia sunt non audemus, sed quia non audemus difficilia sunt." Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 104: it is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
• "Fatti non foste a viver come bruti, / ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza." Dante, Inferno, canto XXVI: you were not made to live like brutes, but to pursue virtue and knowledge.
• "Per aspera ad astra." Latin motto: through hardship to the stars.

⚠️ Fake quotations travel further than real ones: the internet is full of lines attributed to Einstein or Seneca that they never wrote. If you cannot find it in the work, do not put an author's name under it. Someone on the committee may know that author well.

• A long dedication. Ten lines are acknowledgments in the wrong place. If you have a lot to say, say it at the end.
• A "Dedication" heading. The page explains itself; a heading takes the air out of it.
• The dedication on the back of the title page. Double-sided, it lands on a left-hand page and looks like a page someone forgot. It goes on the right, after a blank back.
• An unchecked quotation, or one without an author. See above.
• Changing it after printing. Like the acknowledgments, the dedication is among the last things you write. Read it last, names spelled right, before you send us the PDF: once a copy is bound, it has to be made again from scratch.