What do you find in Abstract?

What is an abstract?

An abstract is a concise statement of the major elements of your research project, and the reader’s first encounter with your research. Essentially, it should act as an advertisement for your work. It states the purpose, methods, and findings of your research project. 

There are two types:

A descriptive abstract identifies the areas to be covered in the report (an extended statement of

purpose); it does not demonstrate the paper’s content.

An informative abstract summarizes the entire report and gives the reader an overview of the

facts that will be investigated in more details in the paper or presentation itself.

Why write an abstract?

The abstract allows readers to make decisions about your project. Your sponsoring professor can use the abstract to decide if your research is proceeding smoothly. The conference organizer uses it to decide if your project fits the conference criteria. The conference audience (faculty, administrators, peers, and presenters' families) uses your abstract to decide whether or not to attend your panel. You will also be expected to write abstracts when applying for research grants (the reader will use it to determine whether your project is important or interesting), submitting articles to journals (especially online), when writing a proposal. More often than not, you will be addressing an educated non-expert to understand that purpose and value of your work.

Some writing instructors and experienced writers suggest writing an abstract for all of your writing projects since it makes you focus on what is important in your paper/project. It also provides a powerful way of reevaluating your logic and in defining your purpose, and it can be helpful in the writing process if you are stuck.

What is my Abstract from my Article?

"You can certainly ignore motivation if you choose. But if you do, you maybe neglecting the most important part of reading. There are two sides to reading. On one side are the skills which include phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, vocabulary, and simple comprehension. On the other side is the will to read. A good reader has both skill and will. In the "will" part, we are talking about motivation to read. This describes children's enjoyments, their wants, and their behaviors surrounding reading. A student with skill may be capable, but without will, she cannot become a reader. It is her will power that determines whether she reads widely and frequently and grows into a student who enjoys and benefits from literacy. So we think you should care about motivation because it is the other half of reading. Sadly, it is the neglected half."

 How does an abstract appeal to such a broad audience?

The audience for this abstract covers the broadest possible scope--from expert to lay person. You need to find a comfortable balance between writing an abstract that both shows your knowledge and yet is still comprehensible--with some effort--by lay members of the audience. Limit the amount of technical language you use and explain it where possible. Always use the full term before you refer to it by acronym [for example, portal venous transfusions (PVT)].

Remember that you are yourself an expert in the field that you are writing about--don't take for granted that the reader will share your insider knowledge. Even if you get used to presenting ideas to people who speak your “language,” it’s unlikely that when it comes time to get funding or publish, you will need to speak beyond those disciplinary boundaries.

What should the abstract include?

Think of your abstract as an advertisement, or a condensed version of your whole essay. By reading it, the reader should understand the nature of your research question.

You should include the following:

• A specific and detailed title, indicating the question you investigated, or the method, if that is important—it should be complete enough to stand on its own without the abstract.

• A brief introduction to the topic-providing context or background (don’t repeat or re￾phrase your title or any sentences from your paper, and don’t analyze other papers!).

Remember that what might seem obvious to you after working on a longer research project is likely to be new to your audience.

• Motivation. Why do we care about the problem and the results? How do you address a “gap” in the field? This section should include the importance of the work, and the impact it might have if successful.

• A statement of the study's objectives/purpose--what is the research question or the problem you are trying to solve? What is the scope of your work (a generalized approach? A specific situation?)? What is your hypothesis? What are the specific questions you are addressing with this project? For text- based research projects, what argument are you proposing? Do not include a statement like “this paper will look at” such a statement is too specific when you are discussing the general purpose and approach of your research.

 For Example: