Writing an Abstract-Instructions
What is an abstract?
An abstract is a condensed version of a longer piece of writing that highlights the major points covered, concisely, and reviews the writing's contents in abbreviated form.
Abstracts communicate specific information from your paper including the purpose, methods, and scope of the paper. The abstracts:
· provide the paper's results, conclusions, and recommendations.
· are short -- from a paragraph to a page
· allow readers to understand what you have done and what you have found in a shortened version.
Why are abstracts so important?
The practice of using key words in an abstract is vital because of today's electronic information retrieval systems. Titles and abstracts are filed electronically, and key words are put in electronic storage. When people search for information, they enter key words related to the subject, and the computer prints out the titles of articles, papers, and reports
containing those key words. Thus, an abstract must contain key words about what is essential in an article, paper, or report so that someone else can retrieve information from it.
Qualities of a Good Abstract
An effective abstract has the following qualities:
· Uses one or more well developed paragraphs: these are unified, coherent, concise, and able to stand alone.
· Uses an introduction/body/conclusion structure which presents the article, paper, or report's purpose, results, conclusions, and recommendations in that order.
· Adds no new information, but simply summarizes the report.
· Is understandable to a wide audience.
· oftentimes uses passive verbs to downplay the author and emphasize the information.
Steps for Writing Effective Abstracts
To write an effective abstract, follow these steps:
· Reread the paper with the goal of abstracting in mind.
· Look specifically for these main parts of the paper: purpose, methods, scope, results,
conclusions, and recommendation.
· After you've finished rereading the article, paper, or report, write a rough draft without looking back
· Don't merely copy key sentences from the article, paper, or report: you'll put in too much or too little information.
· Don't rely on the way material was phrased in the paper: summarize information in a new way.
· Revise your rough draft to correct weaknesses in organization.
· drop unnecessary information.
· add important information you left out.
· eliminate wordiness.
· fix errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
· Print your final copy and read it again to catch any glitches that you find.
Email: lsoroka@hfc.edu
