WHAT IS AN ABSTRACT

WHAT IS AN ABSTRACT?

A short, self-contained, powerful summary of an article, paper or thesis.

Length:

                                 between 150 and 250 words;

 Layout:

                                 usually one single paragraph; font size is different from the main text;

Position:

                                usually at the beginning of the paper (but it can appear elsewhere, e.g. in book of abstracts or on-line);

PURPOSES OF ABSTRACT?

1.  To persuade the reader to see the full text
2.  To help readers decide if the article is relevant for their purposes
3. To answer a call of paper in a conference
4. To make it possible for your piece of research to appear in online publication databases (indexing).

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ABSTRACT

   Abstracts are usually divided into two main categories:

DESCRIPTIVE AND INFORMATIVE

•Descriptive abstracts describe:

• What the text is about
•  The issues or problems explored
• The purpose and methodology of the research

Informative abstracts describe:

• What the text is about
• The issues or problems explored
• The purpose and methodology of the research
• The results
• The conclusion and recommendations.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

   Reason for writing:

• What is the importance of the research?
• Why would a reader be interested in the larger work?

   Problem:

• What problem does this work attempt to solve?
• What is the scope of the project?
• What is the main argument/thesis/claim?

  Methodology:

• An abstract of a scientific work may include specific models or approaches used in the larger study.
• Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence used in the research (e.g.  Qualitat.ive interviews, book reviews, etc.)

    Results:

• An abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that indicates the results of the project.
• Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general way.

   Implications:

• What changes should be implemented as a result of the findings of the work?
• How does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic?

   To put it simple:

• What the author did
• How the author did it
• What the author found
• What the author concluded.