How to write an abstract for your thesis

How to write an abstract for your thesis? MA students Methods of research Week 5

outline • What is an abstract • Why do we write an abstract • When is it necessary to write abstracts • What to include in an abstract • Types of Abstract • Qualities of a good abstract • An overview of abstract

What is an Abstract? • Abstract is an important section of thesis. It is placed at the beginning of your paper, immediately following the title page, and the first essential description of your work that is read by an examiner. • It is the summary of the whole thesis. It presents all the major elements of your work in an abbreviated form. • It is a well-developed single paragraph of approximately 250 words in length. The abstract briefly reports the aims and outcomes of your research so that readers know exactly what the paper is about. • An abstract should give the whole picture of your research in terms of the aims, literature review, methodology, results and conclusion. Readers use the abstract to quickly find out what your research is about. • The department can guide the researcher to the institution's specific requirements for word count of abstract. • The trick is to include all of this information in very limited space.

Why do we write an abstract? • Abstracts are important for both selection and indexing purposes. • Selection: Abstracts allow readers who may be interested in the paper to quickly decide whether it is relevant to their purposes and whether they need to read the whole paper. • Indexing: Most academic journal databases accessed through the library to allow you to search abstracts. This allows for quick retrieval by users. Abstracts must combine the key words that a potential researcher would use to search.

When is it necessary to write abstracts? Abstracts are usually obligatory for: • Submission of articles to journals • Application for research grants • Completion and submission of theses • Submission of proposals for conference papers

What to include in an abstract? • The format of your abstract depends on the work being abstracted. The abstract of a scientific research paper contains elements that are not found in an abstract of a literature article. But all abstracts share several mandatory components, there are some parts that are optional which means depending on your decision. While preparing your abstract, the following key process elements needs to be kept in mind: • Introduction: This is the firs at part of the abstract, and should be brief and attractive to the reader at the same time. After reading a well written intro, the reader would be eager to read more. • The Reason for writing: questions like the following should be kept in mind , such as What is the importance of the research? Why would a reader be interested in the work? • Problem: What problem does this work try to solve? What is the scope of the project? What is the main argument, thesis or claim in thesis?

• Methodology: An abstract of a scientific work may contain specific models or approaches used in the larger study. Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence that is used in the research. This answers the question: What did you find out after doing the research? Or what are the advantages of your method based on the results? • Results: An abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that shows the results of the project. Other abstracts may discuss the discoveries in a more general way. This answers the question: What did you find out after doing the research? Or what are the advantages of your method based on the results? • Implications: How does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic? Are there any practical or theoretical applications from your findings or implications for future research? What changes should be applied as a result of the findings of the work?

Types of Abstract There are three types of abstracts: descriptive, informative, and Critical. • Descriptive abstract: • It describes the work being abstracted , briefly describes the longer work. • It makes no judgments about the work, nor does it provide results or conclusions of the research. • It does unify key words found in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research. • Some people consider it an outline of the work, rather than a summary. • Descriptive abstracts are usually very short(100 words or less).

• Informative abstract: • It presents all the main arguments and important results. • The majority of abstracts are informative. • While they still do not critique or evaluate a work, they do more than describing it. • The researcher presents and explains all the main arguments and the important results and evidence in the complete article/paper/book. • It contains the information that can be found in a descriptive abstract (such as purpose, methods, scope) but also includes the results and conclusions of the research and the recommendations of the author. • The length differs according to discipline.

• Critical abstract: • It provides a judgment or comment about the study’s validity. • The researcher evaluates the paper and often compares to other works on the same subject.

Qualities of a good abstract • Includes one or more coherent and short paragraphs (usually 200 -300 words), • Uses an introduction-body-conclusion structure in which the parts of the report are discussed in order: purpose, research questions, methods, findings, conclusions, recommendations, • No new information should be added, • It can be understood easily without reading the whole thesis, • Provides a shortened and focused version of the full text ( the whole paper), • There are no citations, • Does not contain lengthy background information, • Does not contain any sort of explanation (illustration), figure , or references to them.

An overview of abstract Abstract: ① An opening statement related to your research subject to attract readers. ② Introduce the research problem point you investigated. ③State the overall purpose of the study. ④ Clarify the basic method you used; analytical/experimental/ numerical/…. ⑤ Describe rig, software, tools, … ⑥ State major assumptions and conditions. ⑦ Major results that are found as a result of your research work; state your observations, values, rates, trends, etc. ⑧Compare your results. ⑨A brief summary of your interpretations and main conclusions. ⑩ A nice closing statement containing a recommendation.

References https: //proofreadingmalaysia. com/ https: //writingcenter. unc. edu/ https: //services. unimelb. edu. au/ https: //www. sfu. ca/~jcnesbit g: Most academic journal da