Writing an Abstract The abstract is an important
Writing an Abstract
�The abstract is an important component of your thesis. It presents all the major elements of your work in a highly condensed form which highlights the major points covered, concisely describes its content and scope. �Presented at the beginning of thesis, it is likely the first substantive description of your work read by an external examiner. �You should view it as an opportunity to set accurate expectations.
� Because on-line search databases typically contain only abstracts, it is vital to write a complete but concise description of your work to tempt potential readers into obtaining a copy of the full paper. � Despite the fact that an abstract is quite brief, it must do almost as much work as the multi-page paper that follows it. � It will help your reader to understand the paper and it will help people searching for a particular work to find it and decide whether it suits their purposes.
�Writers should follow a checklist consisting of: motivation, problem statement, approach, results, and conclusions. �Following this checklist should increase the chance of people taking the time to obtain and read your complete paper. �Each section is typically a single sentence, although there is room for creativity. In particular, the parts may be merged or spread among a set of sentences.
�What problem are you trying to solve? �What is the scope of your work (a generalized approach, or for a specific situation)? �Be careful not to use too much jargon. �How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem? �What's the answer? �What are the implications of your answer? �Are your results general, potentially generalizable, or specific to a particular case?
◦ What problem is your research trying to better understand or solve? ◦ What is the scope of your study - a general problem, or something specific? ◦ What is your main claim or argument?
�Your abstract is a summary, but it should be written completely separate from your paper. � Don’t copy and paste direct quotes from yourself, and avoid simply paraphrasing your own sentences from elsewhere in your writing. �Write your abstract using completely new vocabulary and phrases to keep it interesting and redundancy-free. �You should not need to explain or define any terms in your abstract, a reference is all that is needed. �It must be concise and easy to read and must cover the important points of the paper.
The best way to write an effective abstract is to start with a draft of the complete manuscript and follow these 10 steps: 1. Identify the major objectives and conclusions. 2. Identify phrases with keywords in the methods section. 3. Identify the major results from the discussion or results section. 4. Assemble the above information into a single paragraph. 5. State your hypothesis or method used in the first sentence.
6. Omit background information, literature review, and detailed description of methods. 7. Remove extra words and phrases. 8. Revise the paragraph so that the abstract conveys only the essential information. 9. Check to see if it meets the guidelines of the targeted journal. 10. Give the abstract to a colleague (preferably one who is not familiar with your work) and ask him/her whether it makes sense.
Don't Forget the Results �The most common error in abstracts is failure to present results. �The primary function of your thesis (and by extension your abstract) is not to tell readers what you did, it is to tell them what you discovered. Other information, such as the account of your research methods, is needed mainly to back the claims you make about your results. �Approximately the last half of the abstract should be dedicated to summarizing and interpreting your results.
- Slides: 12