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?
- To persuade the reader to see the full text
- To help readers decide if the article is relevant for their purposes
- To answer a call of paper in a conference
- 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?
- 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.
