The best tip I have learned in recent years regarding writing abstracts is to try to write them using concise but complete sentences. Get to the point quickly and always use the past tense because you are reporting on a study that has been completed. You must include four things: 1) your research problem and objectives, 2) your methods, 3) your key results or arguments, and 4) your conclusion.
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According to the writing center, an abstract is a summary of your (published or unpublished) research paper, usually about a paragraph (c. 6-7 sentences, 150-250 words) long. A well-written abstract serves multiple purposes:
An abstract lets readers get the gist or essence of your paper or article quickly to decide whether to read the full paper;
An abstract prepares readers to follow the detailed information, analyses, and arguments in your entire paper;
Later, an abstract helps readers remember key points from your paper.
It’s also worth remembering that search engines and bibliographic databases use abstracts and the title to identify key terms for indexing your published paper. So, what you include in your abstract and your title is crucial for helping other researchers find your paper or article.
If you are writing an abstract for a course paper, your professor may give you specific guidelines for what to include and how to organize your abstract. Similarly, academic journals often have particular requirements for abstracts. So, in addition to following the advice on this page, you should be sure to look for and follow any guidelines from the course or journal you’re writing for.
The Contents of an Abstract
Abstracts contain most of the following kinds of information in brief form. The body of your paper will, of course, develop and explain these ideas much more comprehensively. As you will see in the samples below, the proportion of your abstract that you devote to each kind of information—and the sequence of that information—will vary depending on the nature and genre of the paper you are summarizing in your abstract. And in some cases, some of this information is implied, rather than stated explicitly. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which is widely used in the social sciences, gives specific guidelines for what to include in the abstract for different kinds of papers—for empirical studies, literature reviews or meta-analyses, theoretical papers, methodological papers, and case studies.
Here are the typical kinds of information found in most abstracts:
the context or background information for your research; the general topic under study; the specific topic of your research
the central questions or statement of the problem your research addresses
what’s already known about this question, what previous research has done or shown
the main reason(s), the exigency, the rationale, the goals for your research—Why is it important to address these questions? Are you, for example, examining a new topic? Why is that topic worth examining? Are you filling a gap in previous research? Applying new methods to take a fresh look at existing ideas or data? Resolving a dispute within the literature in your field? . . .
your research and/or analytical methods
your main findings, results, or arguments
the significance or implications of your findings or arguments.
Your abstract should be intelligible on its own. In an abstract, you usually do not cite references—most of your abstract will describe what you have studied in your research and what you have found and what you argue in your paper. In the body of your paper, you will cite the specific literature that informs your research.
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