Learning Connection
An abstract is a brief overview, not an evaluative summary, of a longer piece of writing. There are different kinds of abstracts which contain different information. Social science and scientific abstracts contain a statement of the research problem or purpose, the method and methodology, the findings and the conclusions. Humanities abstracts contain a description of the problem, the main position or 'argument' and an overview of the contents.
The purpose and conventions of abstract writing, and the elements related to the specific types of abstracts are discussed in more detail below.
Abstracts are found in a number of different places, including:
There are four main purposes for abstracts.
The main purpose of abstracts is to enable readers to decide whether to read the longer document. Similarly, abstracts for conference papers enable decisions about which sessions to attend. This is actually the second level of screening – the first being the title. The abstract provides further information about the problem or aim, the methodology, findings and conclusions. It provides a framework and prepares the reader to read or listen to the paper more closely. One important aspect of abstract writing is therefore to ensure that the abstract provides an accurate description of the paper and does not leave anything important out.
The other main purpose of abstracts is to provide key words for information searches. Librarians, and other information managers, use abstracts and the key words contained within them to develop indexing systems. Researchers use key words within online data bases to retrieve relevant information. This prevents searches of full texts, which would be too broad to be useful, and titles alone, which often do not provide enough information. Another important consideration in abstract writing is therefore to ensure that the abstract includes the key words that are applicable to the field or topic area.
‘Good’ abstracts conform to the following basic rules.
It is important to conform to the word limit. Word limits are designed to ensure a concise and disciplined approach to writing. They enable readers, publishers, conference organisers and information indexers to access and use the information quickly and economically.
The abstract should have a clear structure with each sentence or part of a sentence designed to explain an aspect of the longer paper in the order in which that element appears in the longer version. More important information is provided before less important information. Depending on the type of abstract, this will usually include the problem statement, purpose, methods, results and conclusions.
An abstract is a summary of the longer paper and does not introduce new information or tangents.
Definitions of key terms can be provided in the introduction of the longer work.
Check that:
Abstracts do not usually contain references. This is because the abstract aims to distil the unique contribution the current paper makes to a broader field of writing.
Conferences and journals often ask for a list of key words. Key words are designed to describe the topics and audiences that will be interested in the longer paper. The key words in the abstract will determine who is likely to access the abstract when they conduct a literature search. The more thoughtful your key words, the more likely that your article or conference presentation will be found in key word search and therefore be read.
Some tips for writing key words:
Sometimes authors are asked to provide specific biographic details. This is often the name and institution to which you belong, but it can include information about your research background. Your research background includes the discipline area or areas, and the fields of scholarship within which your research is situated, as well as the topic areas you have researched within them. Try to describe your research area as accurately as possible in order not to misrepresent your research history.
Academic abstracts generally fall into three categories:
The informative abstract is most common. It is used within the social sciences and the sciences. This kind of abstract describes what happened during the research process. It is also more likely to speak about ‘the research’ rather than ‘the paper’.
Although short and written to a word limit, informative abstract are longer than the descriptive abstracts described below. Informative abstracts contain specific information about the research and, in effect, the abstract becomes a summary of the key information from each section of the longer paper.
Upon reading an informative abstract we should know why the research was conducted, what it set out to do, how it was done, what the main findings were, and what we can conclude from this.
The key elements of an informative abstract are:
Sometimes, informative abstracts are divided into subheadings for each of these elements, or broken into two or more smaller paragraphs with transition words to signify the move between elements.
The elements of an informative abstract are described below. Each is written in a particular tense.
Descriptive abstracts are used for papers in which a main proposition or argument, typically stated in the opening sections of the paper, is substantiated by reasoned debate, evidence, presentation of data, or reflective commentary. Descriptive abstracts are commonly found in the humanities disciplines. The descriptive abstract describes the main proposition or finding of the paper, and the main themes or bodies of evidence provided in the paper. In this sense it acts like a preview of the main event. It should relate directly to the information that is in the longer paper or presentation, and is more likely to speak about ‘the paper’ rather than ‘the research’.
Descriptive abstracts are short, sometimes under 100 words, and usually contain the following elements.
Each of the these elements has a particular function and is written in the present or future tense in terms of:
The purpose of each element within an informative abstract is as follows.
Although an Executive summary is similar to an abstract in that they both summarise a longer paper, there are some key differences. An Executive summary:
One of the key differences is the focus on recommendations. In research abstracts, recommendations are rarely made, or if they are, they are implicit rather than explicit. Recommendations are not made in academic abstracts because academics operate in a discursive environment, where debates, discussions and dialogue are meant to precede the implementation of any new research findings. The conceptual nature of much academic writing also means that recommendations arising from the findings are widespread and not easily or usefully encapsulated in regard to a single setting. This is quite different to the environment in which managers operate, where quick decisions and decisive actions are required in relation to specific issues.
Executive summaries are used mainly when a research report has been developed for an industry partner, a government department or an organisation that has participated in the research. In such cases the research report and executive summary are written for policy makers within non-academic organisations, while abstracts, research papers and articles are written for the academic community.
From Zeigler, M. Essentials of writing biomedical research papers, Second
edition. McGraw Hill: New York. 271-272.
To determine whether lesions of the nucleus tractus solitarium alter pulmonary artery pressures and pulmonary lymph flow without altering the systemic circulation (reason for writing and question), we measured pressures and lymph flow in 6 halothane-anesthetised sheep in which we created lesions of the nucleus by bilateral thermo coagulation (experiment done). We found that pulmonary artery pressure role to 150% of baseline and remained elevated for the 3-h duration of the experiment. Pulmonary lymph flow doubled within 2 h. Systemic and left atrial pressures did not change. Sham nucleus tractus solitarium lesions and lesions lateral to the nucleus produced no changes (results - from variables that changed, to variables that did not change to control). These experiments demonstrate that lesions of the nucleus tractus solitarium alter pulmonary artery pressures and pulmonary lymph flow independently of the effects on the systemic circulation (answer to the question).
NB: Details for question and answer are presented in the same order: that is, pulmonary artery pressures, pulmonary lymph flow, systemic circulatory variables.
Abstract for a published journal paper: Barnacle, R and R. Usher, 2003, 'Assessing the quality of research training: The case of part-time candidates in full-time professional work', Higher Education Research and Development, vol. 22, no. 3, November 2003.
Intrinsic to the Australian Federal Government's Research Training Scheme (RTS) is a perception that the quality of research degree graduates is in question; in particular, that they lack a skill set that would enable them after graduating to make a greater contribution to the knowledge economy, the information-rich workplace and to national innovation. However, little or no concrete evidence has ever been given to support these claims. Furthermore, no substantive distinction is made between different categories of research degree candidates – for example, between those who are undertaking their research full-time and those who are already full-time professional workers and are undertaking their research degree in a part-time mode (problem statement or purpose). We argue that making this distinction and exploring its impact is vital (main point) and report on a study that examines the role and relevance of research degrees to professionals and the workplace. This provides an evidence-based contribution to questions regarding the quality and attributes of research degree graduates and the synergies between their development in the workplace and the research program (overview of contents).
