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How to Write an Abstract | Steps & Examples
How to Write an Abstract | Steps & Examples
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How to Write an Abstract | Steps & Examples
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How to Write an Abstract | Steps & Examples
Published on
February 28, 2019
by
Shona McCombes.
Revised on
July 18, 2023
by
Eoghan Ryan.
An abstract is a short summary of a longer work (such as a thesis, dissertation or research paper). The abstract concisely reports the aims and outcomes of your research, so that readers know exactly what your paper is about.
Although the structure may vary slightly depending on your discipline, your abstract should describe the purpose of your work, the methods you’ve used, and the conclusions you’ve drawn.
One common way to structure your abstract is to use the IMRaD structure. This stands for:
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Abstracts are usually around 100–300 words, but there’s often a strict word limit, so make sure to check the relevant requirements.
In a dissertation or thesis, include the abstract on a separate page, after the title page and acknowledgements but before the table of contents.
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Table of contentsAbstract exampleWhen to write an abstractStep 1: IntroductionStep 2: MethodsStep 3: ResultsStep 4: DiscussionKeywordsTips for writing an abstractOther interesting articlesFrequently asked questions about abstracts
Abstract example
Hover over the different parts of the abstract to see how it is constructed.
Example: Humanities thesis abstract This paper examines the role of silent movies as a mode of shared experience in the US during the early twentieth century. At this time, high immigration rates resulted in a significant percentage of non-English-speaking citizens. These immigrants faced numerous economic and social obstacles, including exclusion from public entertainment and modes of discourse (newspapers, theater, radio).
Incorporating evidence from reviews, personal correspondence, and diaries, this study demonstrates that silent films were an affordable and inclusive source of entertainment. It argues for the accessible economic and representational nature of early cinema. These concerns are particularly evident in the low price of admission and in the democratic nature of the actors’ exaggerated gestures, which allowed the plots and action to be easily grasped by a diverse audience despite language barriers.
Keywords: silent movies, immigration, public discourse, entertainment, early cinema, language barriers.
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When to write an abstract
You will almost always have to include an abstract when:
Completing a thesis or dissertation
Submitting a research paper to an academic journal
Writing a book or research proposal
Applying for research grants
It’s easiest to write your abstract last, right before the proofreading stage, because it’s a summary of the work you’ve already done. Your abstract should:
Be a self-contained text, not an excerpt from your paper
Be fully understandable on its own
Reflect the structure of your larger work
Step 1: Introduction
Start by clearly defining the purpose of your research. What practical or theoretical problem does the research respond to, or what research question did you aim to answer?
You can include some brief context on the social or academic relevance of your dissertation topic, but don’t go into detailed background information. If your abstract uses specialized terms that would be unfamiliar to the average academic reader or that have various different meanings, give a concise definition.
After identifying the problem, state the objective of your research. Use verbs like “investigate,” “test,” “analyze,” or “evaluate” to describe exactly what you set out to do.
This part of the abstract can be written in the present or past simple tense but should never refer to the future, as the research is already complete.
This study will investigate the relationship between coffee consumption and productivity.
This study investigates the relationship between coffee consumption and productivity.
Step 2: Methods
Next, indicate the research methods that you used to answer your question. This part should be a straightforward description of what you did in one or two sentences. It is usually written in the past simple tense, as it refers to completed actions.
Structured interviews will be conducted with 25 participants.
Structured interviews were conducted with 25 participants.
Don’t evaluate validity or obstacles here—the goal is not to give an account of the methodology’s strengths and weaknesses, but to give the reader a quick insight into the overall approach and procedures you used.
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Step 3: Results
Next, summarize the main research results. This part of the abstract can be in the present or past simple tense.
Our analysis has shown a strong correlation between coffee consumption and productivity.
Our analysis shows a strong correlation between coffee consumption and productivity.
Our analysis showed a strong correlation between coffee consumption and productivity.
Depending on how long and complex your research is, you may not be able to include all results here. Try to highlight only the most important findings that will allow the reader to understand your conclusions.
Step 4: Discussion
Finally, you should discuss the main conclusions of your research: what is your answer to the problem or question? The reader should finish with a clear understanding of the central point that your research has proved or argued. Conclusions are usually written in the present simple tense.
We concluded that coffee consumption increases productivity.
We conclude that coffee consumption increases productivity.
If there are important limitations to your research (for example, related to your sample size or methods), you should mention them briefly in the abstract. This allows the reader to accurately assess the credibility and generalizability of your research.
If your aim was to solve a practical problem, your discussion might include recommendations for implementation. If relevant, you can briefly make suggestions for further research.
Keywords
If your paper will be published, you might have to add a list of keywords at the end of the abstract. These keywords should reference the most important elements of the research to help potential readers find your paper during their own literature searches.
Be aware that some publication manuals, such as APA Style, have specific formatting requirements for these keywords.
Tips for writing an abstract
It can be a real challenge to condense your whole work into just a couple of hundred words, but the abstract will be the first (and sometimes only) part that people read, so it’s important to get it right. These strategies can help you get started.
Read other abstracts
The best way to learn the conventions of writing an abstract in your discipline is to read other people’s. You probably already read lots of journal article abstracts while conducting your literature review—try using them as a framework for structure and style.
You can also find lots of dissertation abstract examples in thesis and dissertation databases.
Reverse outline
Not all abstracts will contain precisely the same elements. For longer works, you can write your abstract through a process of reverse outlining.
For each chapter or section, list keywords and draft one to two sentences that summarize the central point or argument. This will give you a framework of your abstract’s structure. Next, revise the sentences to make connections and show how the argument develops.
Write clearly and concisely
A good abstract is short but impactful, so make sure every word counts. Each sentence should clearly communicate one main point.
To keep your abstract or summary short and clear:
Avoid passive sentences: Passive constructions are often unnecessarily long. You can easily make them shorter and clearer by using the active voice.
Avoid long sentences: Substitute longer expressions for concise expressions or single words (e.g., “In order to” for “To”).
Avoid obscure jargon: The abstract should be understandable to readers who are not familiar with your topic.
Avoid repetition and filler words: Replace nouns with pronouns when possible and eliminate unnecessary words.
Avoid detailed descriptions: An abstract is not expected to provide detailed definitions, background information, or discussions of other scholars’ work. Instead, include this information in the body of your thesis or paper.
If you’re struggling to edit down to the required length, you can get help from expert editors with Scribbr’s professional proofreading services or use the paraphrasing tool.
Check your formatting
If you are writing a thesis or dissertation or submitting to a journal, there are often specific formatting requirements for the abstract—make sure to check the guidelines and format your work correctly. For APA research papers you can follow the APA abstract format.
Checklist: Abstract
0 / 8
The word count is within the required length, or a maximum of one page.
The abstract appears after the title page and acknowledgements and before the table of contents.
I have clearly stated my research problem and objectives.
I have briefly described my methodology.
I have summarized the most important results.
I have stated my main conclusions.
I have mentioned any important limitations and recommendations.
The abstract can be understood by someone without prior knowledge of the topic.
Well done!
You've written a great abstract! Use the other checklists to continue improving your thesis or dissertation.
See all other checklists
Return to checklist
Other interesting articles
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Frequently asked questions about abstracts
What is the purpose of an abstract?
An abstract is a concise summary of an academic text (such as a journal article or dissertation). It serves two main purposes:
To help potential readers determine the relevance of your paper for their own research.
To communicate your key findings to those who don’t have time to read the whole paper.
Abstracts are often indexed along with keywords on academic databases, so they make your work more easily findable. Since the abstract is the first thing any reader sees, it’s important that it clearly and accurately summarizes the contents of your paper.
How long is a dissertation abstract?
An abstract for a thesis or dissertation is usually around 200–300 words. There’s often a strict word limit, so make sure to check your university’s requirements.
When should I write the abstract?
The abstract is the very last thing you write. You should only write it after your research is complete, so that you can accurately summarize the entirety of your thesis, dissertation or research paper.
Can you cite sources in an abstract?
Avoid citing sources in your abstract. There are two reasons for this:
The abstract should focus on your original research, not on the work of others.
The abstract should be self-contained and fully understandable without reference to other sources.
There are some circumstances where you might need to mention other sources in an abstract: for example, if your research responds directly to another study or focuses on the work of a single theorist. In general, though, don’t include citations unless absolutely necessary.
Where does the abstract go in a thesis or dissertation?
The abstract appears on its own page in the thesis or dissertation, after the title page and acknowledgements but before the table of contents.
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Shona McCombes
Shona has a bachelor's and two master's degrees, so she's an expert at writing a great thesis. She has also worked as an editor and teacher, working with students at all different levels to improve their academic writing.
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Abstract Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Abstract Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
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Est. 1828
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Definition
adjective
noun
verb
adjective
3
adjective
noun
verb
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abstract
1 of 3
adjective
ab·stract
ab-ˈstrakt
ˈab-ˌstrakt
Synonyms of abstract
1
a
: disassociated from any specific instance
an abstract entity
b
: difficult to understand : abstruse
abstract problems
c
: insufficiently factual : formal
possessed only an abstract right
2
: expressing a quality apart from an object
the word poem is concrete, poetry is abstract
3
a
: dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects : theoretical
abstract science
b
: impersonal, detached
the abstract compassion of a surgeon—Time
4
: having only intrinsic form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation or narrative content
abstract painting
abstractly
ab-ˈstrak(t)-lē
ˈab-ˌstrak(t)-
adverb
abstractness
ab-ˈstrak(t)-nəs
ˈab-ˌstrak(t)-
noun
abstract
2 of 3
noun
ab·stract
ˈab-ˌstrakt
in sense 2 also ab-ˈstrakt
1
: a summary of points (as of a writing) usually presented in skeletal form
also
: something that summarizes or concentrates the essentials of a larger thing or several things
2
: an abstract thing or state (see abstract entry 1)
3
: abstraction sense 4a
abstract
3 of 3
verb
ab·stract
ab-ˈstrakt
ˈab-ˌstrakt
in sense 3 usually ˈab-ˌstrakt
abstracted; abstracting; abstracts
transitive verb
1
: to make a summary or abstract of : summarize
abstract an academic paper
2
: to draw away the attention of
His imagination had so abstracted him that his name was called twice before he answered.—James Joyce
3
: steal, purloin
She abstracted important documents from the safe.
4
: remove, separate
5
: to consider apart from application to or association with a particular instance
intransitive verb
: to make an abstraction
abstractable
ab-ˈstrak-tə-bəl
ˈab-ˌstrak-
adjective
abstractor
noun
or abstracter
ab-ˈstrak-tər
ˈab-ˌstrak-
Did you know?
The Crisscrossing Histories of Abstract and Extract Abstract is most frequently used as an adjective (“abstract ideas”) and a noun (“an abstract of the article”), but its somewhat less common use as a verb in English helps to clarify its Latin roots. The verb abstract is used to mean “summarize,” as in “abstracting an academic paper.” This meaning is a figurative derivative of the verb’s meanings “to remove” or “to separate.”
We trace the origins of abstract to the combination of the Latin roots ab-, a prefix meaning “from” or “away,” with the verb trahere, meaning “to pull” or “to draw.” The result was the Latin verb abstrahere, which meant “to remove forcibly” or “to drag away.” Its past participle abstractus had the meanings “removed,” “secluded,” “incorporeal,” and, ultimately, “summarized,” meanings which came to English from Medieval Latin.
Interestingly, the word passed from Latin into French with competing spellings as both abstract (closer to the Latin) and abstrait (which reflected the French form of abstrahere, abstraire), the spelling retained in modern French.
The idea of “removing” or “pulling away” connects abstract to extract, which stems from Latin through the combination of trahere with the prefix ex-, meaning “out of” or “away from.” Extract forms a kind of mirror image of abstract: more common as a verb, but also used as a noun and adjective. The adjective, meaning “derived or descended,” is now obsolete, as is a sense of the noun that overlapped with abstract, “summary.” The words intersected and have separated in modern English, but it’s easy to see that abstract applies to something that has been summarized, and summarized means “extracted from a larger work.”
Synonyms
Adjective
conceptual
ideal
ideational
metaphysical
notional
theoretical
theoretic
Noun
breviary
brief
capsule
conspectus
digest
encapsulation
epitome
inventory
outline
précis
recap
recapitulation
résumé
resume resumé
roundup
run-through
rundown
sum
sum-up
summa
summarization
summary
summing-up
synopsis
wrap-up
Verb
call off
detract
distract
divert
throw off
See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus
Examples of abstract in a Sentence
Adjective
It is true that the atrocities that were known remained abstract and remote, rarely acquiring the status of knee-buckling knowledge among ordinary Americans. Because the savagery of genocide so defies our everyday experience, many of us failed to wrap our minds around it.
—Samantha Power, New York Times Book Review, 14 Mar. 2002
A glance into the classrooms of the Los Angeles public school system … fleshes out the abstract debates with the faces of children.
—Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 1997
I take my photographs and print them on a laser copying machine in the "photo" mode; the resulting image is more stark and abstract than a traditional photographic print, which tends to dominate the page regardless of the text.
—Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit, 1996
abstract ideas such as love and hate
“Honesty” is an abstract word.
The word “poem” is concrete, the word “poetry” is abstract.
Noun
an artist admired for his abstracts
the scientist wrote a bare-bones abstract of his research and conclusions
Verb
… artists in the group put the emphasis on geometric abstraction rather than images abstracted from nature.
—Robert Atkins, Art Spoke, 1993
… the Romantic project was to abstract from religion its essential "feeling" and leave contemptuously behind its traditional formulations.
—Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture, 1969
… conscientiously and with great purity made the uncompromising effort to abstract his view of life into an art work …
—Norman Mailer, Advertisements for Myself, 1959
… basic esthetic criteria and standards he has abstracted from long intimacy with time-tested masterpieces.
—Aline B. Saarinen, New York Times Book Review, 7 Nov. 1954
Data for the study was abstracted from hospital records.
personal problems abstracted him so persistently that he struggled to keep his mind on his work
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Recent Examples on the WebAdjective
The dancing is abstract and classically based, with no narrative and few outward signs of violence and death.
—Jennifer Homans, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024
Thus, there can be no such thing as a purely abstract consciousness, completely distinct from the world it is embedded in.
—Karl Schroeder, IEEE Spectrum, 24 Feb. 2024
Therefore, the concept is somewhat abstract to them.
—Jeffrey Wheatman, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024
Many pieces on immigration feel abstract, impersonal; this is quite the opposite.
—Longreads, 23 Feb. 2024
Some of his works on paper and canvases are on view in Milton Keynes, abstract and figurative paintings influenced by the post-Impressionists and Japanese printmakers such as Hokusai (another artist who loved the rain).
—Christian House, CNN, 22 Feb. 2024
Lunar New Year traditions were abstract until my grandmother died.
—Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2024
One of the first to identify as a liberal and be called one in his own lifetime, Constant rejected the concepts of the state of nature and the social contract as too abstract for practical use.
—Helena Rosenblatt, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024
This change reflects the broadening of the concept of building from mere physical construction to include the creation of more abstract forms, such as building a community or building up one's strength.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024
Noun
By now the material feels innately theatrical: Finance is all about the tension between simplicity and complexity, the material and the abstract.
—Sophia Nguyen, Washington Post, 29 Feb. 2024
The etymology of 'build' thus reflects a journey from the concrete to the abstract, illustrating how language evolves with human innovation and societal development.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024
The women in the study showed a clear preference for Black obstetricians, but noted how difficult this was to find, the researchers wrote in the study abstract.
—Claretta Bellamy, NBC News, 14 Feb. 2024
In his wake, dozens of domestic chefs came forward with their takes on ramen, using it as a vehicle for ideas and translating American dishes, using ramen’s elements to reassemble our classics in abstract.
—Abe Beame, Essence, 20 Dec. 2023
In October, conservative politicians and activists started filing public records requests with MUSC to get the data behind Agostini’s abstract.
—Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, 6 Dec. 2023
That’s what brings union membership out of the abstract and makes its benefits concrete.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2023
Gold coins, bars and collectibles For some investors, ownership of shares of a stock or fund might seem a little abstract.
—Chris Taylor, wsj.com, 25 Oct. 2023
The trick is to stick with the patterns in the same color family and layer abstracts, geometrics, florals, or stripes of similar weights.
—Marisa Spyker, Southern Living, 18 Dec. 2023
Verb
But the man himself has been abstracted into an image for sale, a signifier adorning a dorm-room poster, his songs of peace and freedom the dutiful standards of beach-bar cover bands across the globe.
—Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2024
Second, pay attention to abstracting complexity to ensure APIs are SDKable within an integration ecosystem.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes, 12 Feb. 2024
But the artist’s land-like shapes lapped by expanses of blue are actually abstracted from photographs of leaves floating on the surface of pool.
—Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024
Mediha makes this question — often abstracted for the comfort of international audiences — more concrete by putting the camera in its subject’s hands.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2023
Bird’s musical color is magenta, and it gets passed to Coltrane who abstracts the shape of the sound, and then that gets passed to Hendrix, in whose hands the sound becomes electrified, noisy.
—Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 7 Nov. 2023
Beyoncé, 42, has figured out how to adjust her voice (her characteristic growl floats in falsetto) and adjust her body language (more benevolent, like a gilded patroness) to abstract the object and subject of the song.
—Jenna Wortham, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2023
But greater use of AI will create a growing number of military encounters in which humans are removed or abstracted from the equation.
—WIRED, 27 July 2023
Park notes that Hollywood action scenes often function like balletic interludes, entertaining spectacles to be enjoyed for their own sake and somewhat abstracted from the story.
—Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Aug. 2023
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'abstract.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Adjective
Middle English, "withdrawn, removed, abstruse, extracted from a longer work, (of nouns in grammar) not concrete," borrowed from Medieval Latin abstractus "removed, secluded, incorporeal, universal, extracted from a larger work, summarized," going back to Latin, past participle of abstrahere "to remove forcibly, turn aside, divert," from abs- (variant of ab- ab- before c- and t-) + trahere "to drag, draw, take along" — more at draw entry 1
Noun
Middle English, derivative of abstract abstract entry 1 (or borrowed directly from Medieval Latin abstractus)
Verb
Middle English abstracten "to draw away, remove," derivative of abstract abstract entry 1 (or borrowed directly from Latin abstractus)
First Known Use
Adjective
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2 Noun
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2 Verb
15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 4
Time Traveler
The first known use of abstract was
in the 14th century
See more words from the same century
Phrases Containing abstract
abstract of title
abstract algebra
abstract expressionism
in the abstract
Articles Related to abstract
Examples of 'Abstract' in a Sentence
Dictionary Entries Near abstract
abstr
abstract
abstracta
See More Nearby Entries
Cite this Entry
Style
MLA
Chicago
APA
Merriam-Webster
“Abstract.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abstract. Accessed 12 Mar. 2024.
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Kids Definition
abstract
1 of 3
adjective
ab·stract
ab-ˈstrakt
ˈab-ˌstrakt
1
: expressing a quality or idea without reference to an actual person or thing
"honesty" is an abstract word
2
: difficult to understand : hard
abstract problems
3
: using elements of form (as color, line, or texture) with little or no attempt at creating a realistic picture
abstract art
abstractly
ab-ˈstrak-(t)lē
ˈab-ˌstrak-
adverb
abstractness
ab-ˈstrak(t)-nəs
ˈab-ˌstrak(t)-
noun
abstract
2 of 3
noun
ab·stract
ˈab-ˌstrakt
: a brief statement of the main points or facts : summary
abstract
3 of 3
verb
ab·stract
ab-ˈstrakt
ˈab-ˌstrakt
in sense 3 usually ˈab-ˌstrakt
1
: to take out : remove
abstract a diamond from a pile of sand
2
: to consider apart from a particular instance
abstract the idea of roundness from a ball
3
: to make an abstract of : summarize
4
: to draw away the attention of
abstractor
noun
or abstracter
-ˈstrak-tər
-ˌstrak-
Etymology
Adjective
from Latin abstractus "abstract," from earlier abstrahere "to draw away," from abs-, ab- "from, away" and trahere "to draw" — related to attract, trace entry 1, trace entry 3
Medical Definition
abstract
1 of 2
noun
ab·stract
ˈab-ˌstrakt
1
: a written summary of the key points especially of a scientific paper
2
: a pharmaceutical preparation made by mixing a powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance with lactose in such proportions that one part of the final product represents two parts of the original drug from which the extract was made
abstract
2 of 2
transitive verb
ab·stract
ˈab-ˌstrakt
ab-ˈ
: to make an abstract of
abstractor
noun
or abstracter
-tər
Legal Definition
abstract
noun
ab·stract
ˈab-ˌstrakt
1
: a summary of a legal document
2
: abstract of title
abstract
ab-ˈstrakt, ˈab-ˌstrakt
transitive verb
More from Merriam-Webster on abstract
Nglish: Translation of abstract for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of abstract for Arabic Speakers
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7 Mar 2024
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Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper – The Writing Center – UW–Madison
Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper – The Writing Center – UW–Madison
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UW-Madison Writer’s Handbook
Academic and Professional Writing
Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper
Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper
Definition and Purpose of Abstracts
An abstract is a short 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, in order to decide whether to read the full paper;
an abstract prepares readers to follow the detailed information, analyses, and arguments in your full paper;
and, later, an abstract helps readers remember key points from your paper.
It’s also worth remembering that search engines and bibliographic databases use abstracts, as well as the title, to identify key terms for indexing your published paper. So what you include in your abstract and in your title are 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 specific 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 fully. 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 that 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, without a reader’s having to read your entire paper. And 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.
When to Write Your Abstract
Although you might be tempted to write your abstract first because it will appear as the very first part of your paper, it’s a good idea to wait to write your abstract until after you’ve drafted your full paper, so that you know what you’re summarizing.
What follows are some sample abstracts in published papers or articles, all written by faculty at UW-Madison who come from a variety of disciplines. We have annotated these samples to help you see the work that these authors are doing within their abstracts.
Choosing Verb Tenses within Your Abstract
The social science sample (Sample 1) below uses the present tense to describe general facts and interpretations that have been and are currently true, including the prevailing explanation for the social phenomenon under study. That abstract also uses the present tense to describe the methods, the findings, the arguments, and the implications of the findings from their new research study. The authors use the past tense to describe previous research.
The humanities sample (Sample 2) below uses the past tense to describe completed events in the past (the texts created in the pulp fiction industry in the 1970s and 80s) and uses the present tense to describe what is happening in those texts, to explain the significance or meaning of those texts, and to describe the arguments presented in the article.
The science samples (Samples 3 and 4) below use the past tense to describe what previous research studies have done and the research the authors have conducted, the methods they have followed, and what they have found. In their rationale or justification for their research (what remains to be done), they use the present tense. They also use the present tense to introduce their study (in Sample 3, “Here we report . . .”) and to explain the significance of their study (In Sample 3, This reprogramming . . . “provides a scalable cell source for. . .”).
Sample Abstract 1
From the social sciences
Reporting new findings about the reasons for increasing economic homogamy among spouses
Gonalons-Pons, Pilar, and Christine R. Schwartz. “Trends in Economic Homogamy: Changes in Assortative Mating or the Division of Labor in Marriage?” Demography, vol. 54, no. 3, 2017, pp. 985-1005.
Sample Abstract 2
From the humanities
Analyzing underground pulp fiction publications in Tanzania, this article makes an argument about the cultural significance of those publications
Emily Callaci. “Street Textuality: Socialism, Masculinity, and Urban Belonging in Tanzania’s Pulp Fiction Publishing Industry, 1975-1985.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 59, no. 1, 2017, pp. 183-210.
Sample Abstract/Summary 3
From the sciences
Reporting a new method for reprogramming adult mouse fibroblasts into induced cardiac progenitor cells
Lalit, Pratik A., Max R. Salick, Daryl O. Nelson, Jayne M. Squirrell, Christina M. Shafer, Neel G. Patel, Imaan Saeed, Eric G. Schmuck, Yogananda S. Markandeya, Rachel Wong, Martin R. Lea, Kevin W. Eliceiri, Timothy A. Hacker, Wendy C. Crone, Michael Kyba, Daniel J. Garry, Ron Stewart, James A. Thomson, Karen M. Downs, Gary E. Lyons, and Timothy J. Kamp. “Lineage Reprogramming of Fibroblasts into Proliferative Induced Cardiac Progenitor Cells by Defined Factors.” Cell Stem Cell, vol. 18, 2016, pp. 354-367.
Note: This journal calls this paragraph at the beginning of the article a “Summary,” rather than an “Abstract.” This journal provides multiple ways for readers to grasp the content of this research article quickly. In addition to this paragraph-length prose summary, this article also has an effective graphical abstract, a bulleted list of highlights list at the beginning of the article, and a two-sentence “In Brief” summary.
Sample Abstract 4, a Structured Abstract
From the sciences
Reporting results about the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy in managing acute bacterial sinusitis, from a rigorously controlled study
Note: This journal requires authors to organize their abstract into four specific sections, with strict word limits. Because the headings for this structured abstract are self-explanatory, we have chosen not to add annotations to this sample abstract.
Wald, Ellen R., David Nash, and Jens Eickhoff. “Effectiveness of Amoxicillin/Clavulanate Potassium in the Treatment of Acute Bacterial Sinusitis in Children.” Pediatrics, vol. 124, no. 1, 2009, pp. 9-15.
Abstract
“OBJECTIVE: The role of antibiotic therapy in managing acute bacterial sinusitis (ABS) in children is controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of high-dose amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate in the treatment of children diagnosed with ABS.
METHODS: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Children 1 to 10 years of age with a clinical presentation compatible with ABS were eligible for participation. Patients were stratified according to age (<6 or ≥6 years) and clinical severity and randomly assigned to receive either amoxicillin (90 mg/kg) with potassium clavulanate (6.4 mg/kg) or placebo. A symptom survey was performed on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 20, and 30. Patients were examined on day 14. Children’s conditions were rated as cured, improved, or failed according to scoring rules.
RESULTS: Two thousand one hundred thirty-five children with respiratory complaints were screened for enrollment; 139 (6.5%) had ABS. Fifty-eight patients were enrolled, and 56 were randomly assigned. The mean age was 6630 months. Fifty (89%) patients presented with persistent symptoms, and 6 (11%) presented with nonpersistent symptoms. In 24 (43%) children, the illness was classified as mild, whereas in the remaining 32 (57%) children it was severe. Of the 28 children who received the antibiotic, 14 (50%) were cured, 4 (14%) were improved, 4(14%) experienced treatment failure, and 6 (21%) withdrew. Of the 28children who received placebo, 4 (14%) were cured, 5 (18%) improved, and 19 (68%) experienced treatment failure. Children receiving the antibiotic were more likely to be cured (50% vs 14%) and less likely to have treatment failure (14% vs 68%) than children receiving the placebo.
CONCLUSIONS: ABS is a common complication of viral upper respiratory infections. Amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate results in significantly more cures and fewer failures than placebo, according to parental report of time to resolution.” (9)
Some Excellent Advice about Writing Abstracts for Basic Science Research Papers, by Professor Adriano Aguzzi from the Institute of Neuropathology at the University of Zurich:
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ABSTRACT | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
ABSTRACT | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
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English
Meaning of abstract in English
abstractadjective uk
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/ˈæb.strækt/ us
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/ˈæb.strækt/
abstract adjective
(GENERAL)
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B2 existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object: Truth and beauty are abstract concepts. Opposite
concrete
An abstract argument or discussion is general and not based on particular examples: This debate is becoming too abstract - let's have some hard facts! Opposite
concrete
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
abstract ideasabstractHappiness, faith, and confidence are abstract qualities.conceptualThe introduction lays out a conceptual framework for the book.notionalThere is a notional improvement in air quality that cannot be demonstrated.theoreticalVitamin supplements can give a theoretical boost to health.
See more results »
the abstract
general ideas: in the abstract So far we've only discussed the question in the abstract (= without referring to any real examples). I have difficulty dealing with the abstract - let's discuss particular cases.
More examplesFewer examplesIt is sometimes easier to illustrate an abstract concept by analogy with something concrete.He is good at explaining quite complex, abstract ideas in a nice simple way.Your idea is rather vague and abstract - could you explain it in a bit more detail, please?These early humans were clearly capable of abstract thought, and probably language too.Some of these new theories are so abstract that they don't seem to relate to our everyday work at all.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Ideas, concepts and theories
abstraction
afterthought
anthropocentrism
anti-Darwinian
anti-Darwinism
exceptionalism
foundation stone
great minds think alike idiom
have a brainstorm
natalism
non-dogmatic
non-empirical
non-material
non-practical
social Darwinism
straw man
supersensible
tenet
the domino theory
theory
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
General
abstract adjective
(ART)
B2 used to refer to a type of painting, drawing, or sculpture that uses shapes, lines, and colour in a way that does not try to represent the appearance of people or things: abstract art an abstract painter
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Art history & artistic movements
aesthetic
anti-modern
anti-modernism
anti-modernist
anti-romantic
expressionism
expressionist
expressionistic
expressionistically
figurative
modernist
montage
naturalism
naturalistic
non-abstract
rococo
romantic
romanticism
screen printing
silkscreen
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abstractnoun [ C ] uk
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/ˈæb.strækt/ us
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/ˈæb.strækt/
abstract noun [C]
(SHORT DOCUMENT)
a short form of a speech, article, book, etc., giving only the most important facts or ideas: There is a section at the end of the magazine that includes abstracts of recent articles/books.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Summaries and summarizing
abridgment
biodata
brushstroke
catch-all
catch-all phrase
encapsulation
executive summary
gist
handout
in short idiom
recapitulation
resume
shorthand
shorthand for something idiom
story
sum (something/someone) up
TLDR
to cut a long story short idiom
trot
upsum
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abstract noun [C]
(ART)
a painting that uses shapes, lines, and colour in a way that does not try to represent the appearance of people or things
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Pictures
-scape
aquatint
autostereogram
balloon
canvas
caricature
cartoon
graphic arts
graphic novel
halo
hellscape
identikit
pastel
pencil
poster
raster
rehang
screen print
shade
sketch
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abstractverb uk
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/æbˈstrækt/ us
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/æbˈstrækt/
[ I or T ] to consider something in a general way or make a general judgment after looking at particular details: Most interviewees focus on their own experience and do not generalize or abstract the situation. A general rule is arrived at by abstracting from the data.
[ T ] to remove or separate someone or something from a place or context (= the situation, facts, words, etc. that exist around something): abstract someone from something It was impossible to abstract children from their social environment with all its dangers.abstract something from something Relevant information was abstracted from the database or from medical records.
[ T ] to give a summary or abstract (= a short description giving the most important ideas) of something: If you find an article you think should be abstracted in our journal, submit it for consideration.
More examplesFewer examplesThere are several observations that might be abstracted from this example.We abstracted the number of cases and deaths from the 2001–2019 annual reports.She leaves it to the reader to collect and abstract insights from her text.We abstract a general data structure from the list of data.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Elaborating, specifying and simplifying
anti-reductionism
anti-reductionist
broad brush
broaden
complicate
enlarge on/upon something
expand
expand on something
expansively
expansiveness
overgeneralization
overgeneralize
oversimplification
oversimplify
particularization
spec
specification
specificity
specify
split hairs idiom
See more results »
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Removing and extracting
Summaries and summarizing
(Definition of abstract from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
abstract | American Dictionary
abstractadjective us
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/æbˈstrækt, ˈæb·strækt/
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existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object: "Humanity" is an abstract idea.
English If a statement, argument, or discussion is abstract, it is general and not based on particular examples.
art A painting, drawing, or sculpture is described as abstract if it tries to represent the qualities of objects or people but does not show their outer appearance: abstract art
abstractnoun [ C ] us
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/ˈæb·strækt/
writing a few sentences that give the main ideas in an article or a scientific paper
(Definition of abstract from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
abstract | Business English
abstractadjective uk
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/ˈæbstrækt/ us
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Add to word list
Add to word list
existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object: "Satisfaction" is difficult to measure as it is an abstract concept.
abstractnoun [ C ] uk
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio
/ˈæbstrækt/ us
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio
a shortened form of a speech, article, book, etc., giving the most important facts or ideas: There is a section at the end of the magazine which includes abstracts of recent articles.
(Definition of abstract from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
Examples of abstract
abstract
Each four-part volume contains around 700 abstracts reporting research in some 200 jour nals from around the world.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Function is a source of knowledge that abstracts behavior.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The editors are happy to consider advice on additional journals for abstracting.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
A direct consequence of abstracting to constant functions is that any issues relating to the analysis of polymorphic functions disappear.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The underlying rock from which the water was abstracted, was calcareous and the depth of the borehole was about 60 m.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
A core set of features could be abstracted for particular domains, which could then be extended by a programmer.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Data were abstracted from the original source publication by two independent, blinded research assistants.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The different strategies utilizing evolutionary algorithms for knowledge acquisition are abstracted from the work reviewed.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Another important remark is that the presented model also abstracts from real-word resources, external to the multiagent system.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
From any concrete social or political situation, a large and possibly infinite number of different ideal constructs can be abstracted.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
By abstracting over a strict variable we get call by value (strict abstraction); in the other case we have call by name (lazy abstraction).
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The pointer chasing could be abstracted over different monads, and reused with multiple data structures representing different kinds of terms.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
What is needed is one big "class-like" thing that abstracts over all the types s, r and m, and all their operations at once.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
According to their work, top-down design of a mechanism involves defining the mechanism configuration, which is abstracted in terms of kinematic pair relations between parts.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Data on the inclusion cr iter ia, patients, methods, results, and quality of each study were independently abstracted.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
See all examples of abstract
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of abstract?
B2,B2
Translations of abstract
in Chinese (Traditional)
籠統的, 抽象的, 純理論的…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
笼统的, 抽象的, 纯理论的…
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in Spanish
abstracto, resumen, cuadro abstracto…
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in Portuguese
abstrato, pintura abstrata, abstrato/-ta [masculine-feminine]…
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in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Dutch
in Tamil
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Russian
in Telugu
in Arabic
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
अमूर्त, विषय सोडून अथवा असंबंध चर्चा करणे, चित्रकलेचा किंवा शिल्पकलेचा एक प्रकार ज्यामधे आकार…
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理論的な, 概念的な, (絵などが)抽象的な…
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soyut, gerçek nesne ve kişilerin imgelerinden çok renk ve şekilleri içeren soyut sanat, abstrak…
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abstrait/-aite, résumé [masculine], abstrait…
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abstracte…
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abstract, abstract werk, uittreksel…
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ஒரு யோசனை, உணர்வு அல்லது தரமாக இருக்கும் ஆனால் ஒரு பொருளாக அல்ல, ஒரு சுருக்க வாதம் அல்லது விவாதம் பொதுவானது மற்றும் குறிப்பிட்ட எடுத்துக்காட்டுகளின் அடிப்படையில் அல்ல.…
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अमूर्त, अमूर्त तर्क, साधारण तर्क बिना किन्हीं विशेष उदाहरणों पर आधारित…
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અમૂર્ત, (તર્ક વા દલીલ) અમૂર્ત, ચોક્કસ ઉદાહરણો વિના સામાન્ય/સરળ તર્ક…
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abstrakt, uddrag, resume…
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abstrakt, sammandrag, referat…
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abstrak, ringkasan…
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abstrakt, das abstrakte Bild, Zusammenfassung…
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astrakt, abstrakt, sammendrag [neuter]…
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قیاسی, خیالی, غیر اطلاقی…
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абстрактне поняття, абстракція, конспект…
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абстрактный…
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అమూర్త, నైరూప్య, ఒక ఊహగా…
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مُجرّد, تَجريدي…
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বিমূর্ত, ধারণা, অনুভূতি বা গুণ হিসাবে বিদ্যমান…
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abstraktní, abstraktní dílo, souhrn…
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tidak nyata, abstrak, ikhtisar…
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ที่เป็นนามธรรม, นามธรรม, บทคัดย่อ…
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trừu tượng, tác phẩm trừu tượng, bản tóm tắt…
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abstrakcyjny, streszczenie, abstrakt…
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추상적인…
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astratto, riassunto…
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ABSTRACT Definition & Usage Examples | Dictionary.com
ABSTRACT Definition & Usage Examples | Dictionary.com
GamesDaily CrosswordWord PuzzleWord FinderAll gamesFeaturedWord of the DaySynonym of the DayWord of the YearNew wordsLanguage storiesAll featuredPop cultureSlangEmojiMemesAcronymsGender and sexualityAll pop cultureWriting tipsGrammar Coach™Writing hubGrammar essentialsCommonly confusedAll writing tipsGamesFeaturedPop cultureWriting tipsabstract[ adjective ab-strakt, ab-strakt; noun ab-strakt; verb ab-strakt for 11-14, ab-strakt for 10 ]show ipaSee synonyms for: abstractabstractedabstractsabstractly on Thesaurus.comadjectivethought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances: an abstract idea.expressing a quality or characteristic apart from any specific object or instance, as justice, poverty, and speed.not applied or practical; theoretical: abstract science.difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract speculations.Fine Arts. of or relating to the formal aspect of art, emphasizing lines, colors, generalized or geometrical forms, etc., especially with reference to their relationship to one another.Often Abstract . pertaining to the nonrepresentational art styles of the 20th century.See morenouna summary of a text, scientific article, document, speech, etc.; epitome. something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; essence.an idea or term considered apart from some material basis or object.an abstract work of art.See moreverb (used with object)to make an abstract of; summarize. to draw or take away; remove. to divert or draw away the attention of.to steal.to consider as a general quality or characteristic apart from specific objects or instances: to abstract the notions of time, space, and matter.See moreIdioms about abstractabstract away from, to omit from consideration.in the abstract, without reference to a specific object or instance; in theory: beauty in the abstract.Origin of abstract1First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “withdrawn from worldly interests,” from Latin abstractus “drawn off” (past participle of abstrahere ). See abs-, tract1Other words from abstractab·stract·er, nounab·stract·ly, adverbab·stract·ness, nounnon·ab·stract, adjective, nounnon·ab·stract·ly, adverbnon·ab·stract·ness, nouno·ver·ab·stract, verb (used with object), adjectivepre·ab·stract, adjectivesu·per·ab·stract, adjectivesu·per·ab·stract·ly, adverbsu·per·ab·stract·ness, nounWords Nearby abstractabstinenceabstinence syndromeabstinence theoryabstinentabstr.abstractabstract algebraabstract artabstractedabstract expressionismabstracting journalDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024How to use abstract in a sentenceIn a pursuit whose meaning and purpose is abstract at the best of times, that’s not nothing.Stop Counting Your Running Mileage | Alex Hutchinson | August 28, 2020 | Outside Online“Our models can validate thousands of unseen candidates in seconds,” the study’s authors wrote in the abstract to their paper, which appears in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.50 new planets, including one as big as Neptune, are identified using A.I. | rhhackettfortune | August 26, 2020 | FortuneIt also makes it more real and concrete, rather than abstract.Hurricanes have names. Some climate experts say heat waves should, too | Jack J. Lee | August 14, 2020 | Science NewsThe same applies in fields of biology dealing with more abstract concepts of the individual — entities that emerge as distinct patterns within larger schemes of behavior or activity.What Is an Individual? Biology Seeks Clues in Information Theory. | Jordana Cepelewicz | July 16, 2020 | Quanta MagazineThe Ising model represents one of the simplest places in this abstract “theory space,” and so serves as a proving ground for developing novel tools for exploring uncharted territory.The Cartoon Picture of Magnets That Has Transformed Science | Charlie Wood | June 24, 2020 | Quanta MagazineThese matters are not mere threats to abstract constitutional principles.Politicians Only Love Journalists When They're Dead | Luke O’Neil | January 8, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTDo you think that as we get older our thoughts shift to the more abstract, the music, than the definite, the lyrics?Belle & Sebastian Aren’t So Shy Anymore | James Joiner | January 7, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTTo listeners, Adnan is a real human while Jay remains an abstract figure.The Deal With Serial’s Jay? He’s Pissed Off, Mucks Up Our Timeline | Emily Shire | December 31, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the mindset of the Coexist camp, those abstract beliefs have become twisted things, wrapped up with hate.COEXIST’s Bonehead Bumper-Sticker Politics | Michael Schulson | December 21, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST“There will be flashbacks to that day, but I think it will be a reasonably abstract performance,” Berger said.The My Lai Massacre Inspires an Opera | Asawin Suebsaeng | December 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThis work is now lost, and we know it only by the abstract given by Photius in the passage quoted.Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV. | VariousIf you are thinking of making an abstract of a particular book, awaken the utmost interest in regard to it before you begin.Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)Any other work of which an abstract is published will serve the student as well as the above.Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)Three things are required: To learn how to abstract; To make one, at least, such abstract; and To learn it when made.Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)He never made any attempt to learn the abstract science of war, and until stirred by danger his character seemed to slumber.Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-PattisonSee More ExamplesBritish Dictionary definitions for abstractabstractadjective(ˈæbstrækt)having no reference to material objects or specific examples; not concretenot applied or practical; theoreticalhard to understand; recondite; abstrusedenoting art characterized by geometric, formalized, or otherwise nonrepresentational qualitiesdefined in terms of its formal properties: an abstract machinephilosophy (of an idea) functioning for some empiricists as the meaning of a general term: the word ``man'' does not name all men but the abstract idea of manhoodSee morenoun(ˈæbstrækt)a condensed version of a piece of writing, speech, etc; summaryan abstract term or ideaan abstract painting, sculpture, etcin the abstract without reference to specific circumstances or practical experienceSee moreverb(æbˈstrækt) (tr)to think of (a quality or concept) generally without reference to a specific example; regard theoreticallyto form (a general idea) by abstraction(ˈæbstrækt) (also intr) to summarize or epitomizeto remove or extracteuphemistic to stealSee moreOrigin of abstract1C14: (in the sense: extracted): from Latin abstractus drawn off, removed from (something specific), from abs- ab- 1 + trahere to drawCollins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Abstract (summary) - Wikipedia
Abstract (summary) - Wikipedia
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1Purpose and limitations
2History
3Copyright
4Structure
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4.1Example
5Abstract types
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5.1Informative
5.2Descriptive
6Graphical abstracts
7Abstract quality assessment
8See also
9References
10Further reading
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Abstract (summary)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brief summary of a research article
An abstract is a brief summary of a research article, thesis, review, conference proceeding, or any in-depth analysis of a particular subject and is often used to help the reader quickly ascertain the paper's purpose.[1] When used, an abstract always appears at the beginning of a manuscript or typescript, acting as the point-of-entry for any given academic paper or patent application. Abstracting and indexing services for various academic disciplines are aimed at compiling a body of literature for that particular subject.
The terms précis or synopsis are used in some publications to refer to the same thing that other publications might call an "abstract". In management reports, an executive summary usually contains more information (and often more sensitive information) than the abstract does.
Purpose and limitations[edit]
Academic literature uses the abstract to succinctly communicate complex research. An abstract may act as a stand-alone entity instead of a full paper. As such, an abstract is used by many organizations as the basis for selecting research that is proposed for presentation in the form of a poster, platform/oral presentation or workshop presentation at an academic conference. Most bibliographic databases only index abstracts rather than providing the entire text of the paper. Full texts of scientific papers must often be purchased because of copyright and/or publisher fees and therefore the abstract is a significant selling point for the reprint or electronic form of the full text.[2]
The abstract can convey the main results and conclusions of a scientific article but the full text article must be consulted for details of the methodology, the full experimental results, and a critical discussion of the interpretations and conclusions. Abstracts are occasionally inconsistent with full reports.[3][4] This has the potential to mislead clinicians who rely solely on the information present in the abstract without consulting the full report.
An abstract allows one to sift through copious numbers of papers for ones in which the researcher can have more confidence that they will be relevant to their research. Once papers are chosen based on the abstract, they must be read carefully to be evaluated for relevance.
It is generally agreed that one must not base reference citations on the abstract alone, but the content of an entire paper.[3][5] This is because abstracts may not be fully representative of the full report or article. Therefore, basing reference citations solely on the information present in the abstract could be misleading.[3][5]
According to the results of a study published in PLOS Medicine, the "exaggerated and inappropriate coverage of research findings in the news media" is ultimately related to inaccurately reporting or over-interpreting research results in many abstract conclusions.[6] A study published in JAMA concluded that "inconsistencies in data between abstract and body and reporting of data and other information solely in the abstract are relatively common and that a simple educational intervention directed to the author is ineffective in reducing that frequency."[7] Other "studies comparing the accuracy of information reported in a journal abstract with that reported in the text of the full publication have found claims that are inconsistent with, or missing from, the body of the full article."[3][8][9]
According to the Modern Language Association, there are almost no circumstances in which it is acceptable to cite an abstract: "It only makes sense to cite an abstract if you are writing about the abstract as an abstract and not about the work it summarizes: for instance, if you are writing about different styles of writing abstracts used in the sciences and humanities."[10]
History[edit]
The history of abstracting dates back to the point when it was felt necessary to summarise the content of documents in order to make the information contained in them more accessible. In Mesopotamia during the early second millennium BCE, clay envelopes designed to protect enclosed cuneiform documents from tampering were inscribed either with the full text of the document or a summary. In the Greco-Roman world, many texts were abstracted: summaries of non-fiction works were known as epitomes, and in many cases the only information about works which have not survived to modernity comes from their epitomes which have survived. Similarly, the text of many ancient Greek and Roman plays commenced with a hypothesis which summed up the play's plot. Non-literary documents were also abstracted: the Tebtunis papyri found in the Ancient Egyptian town of Tebtunis contain abstracts of legal documents. During the Middle Ages, the pages of scholarly texts contained summaries of their contents as marginalia, as did some manuscripts of the Code of Justinian.[11]
The use of abstracts to summarise science originates in the early 1800s, when the secretary of the Royal Society would record brief summaries of talks into the minutes of each meeting, which were referred to as 'abstracts'.[12] The Royal Society abstracts from 1800 – 1837 were later collated and published in the society's journal Philosophical Transactions, with the first group appearing in 1832.[13] These abstracts were generally one or more pages long. Other learned societies adopted similar practices. The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) may have been the first to publish its abstracts: the Monthly Notices of the RAS launched in 1827, containing (among other things) abstracts of talks given at their monthly meetings;[14] the full papers were published months or years later in the Memoirs of the RAS.[15] The RAS abstracts were between one and three paragraphs long. In both cases, these early abstracts were written by the learned society, not the author of the paper. Perhaps the earliest example of an abstract published alongside the paper it summarises was the 1919 paper On the Irregularities of Motion of the Foucault Pendulum published in the Physical Review of the American Physical Society,[16][12] which often published abstracts thereafter.[17]
Copyright[edit]
Abstracts are protected under copyright law just as any other form of written speech is protected.[18]
Structure[edit]
Abstract is often expected to tell a complete story of the paper, as for most readers, abstract is the only part of the paper that will be read. It should allow the reader to give an elevator pitch of the full paper.[19]
An academic abstract typically outlines four elements relevant to the completed work:
The research focus (statement of the problem(s)/specific gap in existing research/research issue(s) addressed);
The research methods (experimental research, case studies, questionnaires, etc) used to solve the problem;
The major results/findings of the research; and
The main conclusions and recommendations (i.e., how the work answers the proposed research problem).
It may also contain brief references,[20] although some publications' standard style omits references from the abstract, reserving them for the article body (which, by definition, treats the same topics but in more depth).
Abstract length varies by discipline and publisher requirements. Typical length ranges from 100 to 500 words, but very rarely more than a page and occasionally just a few words.[21] An abstract may or may not have the section title of "abstract" explicitly listed as an antecedent to content.
Sometimes, abstracts are sectioned logically as an overview of what appears in the paper, with any of the following subheadings: Background, Introduction, Objectives, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions. Abstracts in which these subheadings are explicitly given are often called structured abstracts.[22] Abstracts that comprise one paragraph (no explicit subheadings) are often called unstructured abstracts. Abstracts are important enough that IMRAD is even sometimes recast as AIMRAD.
Example[edit]
Example taken from the Journal of Biology, Volume 3, Issue 2.:[23]
The hydrodynamics of dolphin drafting
by Daniel Weihs, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Abstract:
Background
Drafting in cetaceans is defined as the transfer of forces between individuals without actual physical contact between them. This behavior has long been surmised to explain how young dolphin calves keep up with their rapidly moving mothers. It has recently been observed that a significant number of calves become permanently separated from their mothers during chases by tuna vessels. A study of the hydrodynamics of drafting, initiated inmechanisms causing the separation of mothers and calves during fishing-related activities, is reported here.
Results
Quantitative results are shown for the forces and moments around a pair of unequally sized dolphin-like slender bodies. These include two major effects. First, the so-called Bernoulli suction, which stems from the fact that the local pressure drops in areas of high speed, results in an attractive force between mother and calf. Second is the displacement effect, in which the motion of the mother causes the water in front to move forwards and radially outwards, and water behind the body to move forwards to replace the animal's mass. Thus, the calf can gain a 'free ride' in the forward-moving areas. Utilizing these effects, the neonate can gain up to 90% of the thrust needed to move alongside the mother at speeds of up to 2.4 m/s. A comparison with observations of eastern spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) is presented, showing savings of up to 60% in the thrust that calves require if they are to keep up with their mothers.
Conclusions
A theoretical analysis, backed by observations of free-swimming dolphin schools, indicates that hydrodynamic interactions with mothers play an important role in enabling dolphin calves to keep up with rapidly moving adult school members.
© 2004 Weihs; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL
Abstract types[edit]
Informative[edit]
The informative abstract, also known as the complete abstract, is a compendious summary of a paper's substance and its background, purpose, methodology, results, and conclusion.[24][25] Usually between 100 and 200 words, the informative abstract summarizes the paper's structure, its major topics and key points.[24] A format for scientific short reports that is similar to an informative abstract has been proposed in recent years.[26] Informative abstracts may be viewed as standalone documents.[24]
Descriptive[edit]
The descriptive abstract, also known as the limited abstract or the indicative abstract, provides a description of what the paper covers without delving into its substance.[27] A descriptive abstract is akin to a table of contents in paragraph form.[27]
Graphical abstracts[edit]
Main article: Graphical abstract
See also: Video abstract
During the late 2000s, due to the influence of computer storage and retrieval systems such as the Internet, some scientific publications, primarily those published by Elsevier, started including graphical abstracts alongside the text abstracts.[28] The graphic is intended to summarize or be an exemplar for the main thrust of the article. It is not intended to be as exhaustive a summary as the text abstract, rather it is supposed to indicate the type, scope, and technical coverage of the article at a glance. The use of graphical abstracts has been generally well received by the scientific community.[29][30] Moreover, some journals also include video abstracts and animated abstracts made by the authors to easily explain their papers.[31] Many scientific publishers currently encourage authors to supplement their articles with graphical abstracts, in the hope that such a convenient visual summary will facilitate readers with a clearer outline of papers that are of interest and will result in improved overall visibility of the respective publication. However, the validity of this assumption has not been thoroughly studied, and a recent study statistically comparing publications with or without graphical abstracts with regard to several output parameters reflecting visibility failed to demonstrate an effectiveness of graphical abstracts for attracting attention to scientific publications.[32]
Abstract quality assessment[edit]
Various methods can be used to evaluate abstract quality, e.g. rating by readers, checklists), and readability measures (such as Flesch Reading Ease).[29][33]
See also[edit]
Abstract (law)
Abstract management
Academic conference
Annotation
Executive summary
Fast abstract
IMRAD – commonly used structure for academic journal articles and their abstracts
List of academic databases and search engines
Preface
TL;DR
References[edit]
^ Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly, The Elements of Technical Writing, pg. 117. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1993.ISBN 0020130856
^ Gliner, Jeffrey A.; Morgan, George A. (2000). Research Methods in Applied Settings: An Integrated Approach to Design and Analysis. Mahwah, NJ: Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-8058-2992-1.[page needed]
^ a b c d Kamel, SA; El-Sobky, TA (23 August 2023). "Reporting quality of abstracts and inconsistencies with full text articles in pediatric orthopedic publications". Research Integrity and Peer Review. 8 (1): 11. doi:10.1186/s41073-023-00135-3. PMC 10463470. PMID 37608346.
^ Li, G; Abbade, LPF; Nwosu, I; Jin, Y; Leenus, A; Maaz, M; Wang, M; Bhatt, M; Zielinski, L; Sanger, N; Bantoto, B; Luo, C; Shams, I; Shahid, H; Chang, Y; Sun, G; Mbuagbaw, L; Samaan, Z; Levine, MAH; Adachi, JD; Thabane, L (29 December 2017). "A scoping review of comparisons between abstracts and full reports in primary biomedical research". BMC Medical Research Methodology. 17 (1): 181. doi:10.1186/s12874-017-0459-5. PMC 5747940. PMID 29287585.
^ a b Pavlovic, Vedrana; Weissgerber, Tracey; Stanisavljevic, Dejana; Pekmezovic, Tatjana; Milicevic, Ognjen; Lazovic, Jelena Milin; Cirkovic, Andja; Savic, Marko; Rajovic, Nina; Piperac, Pavle; Djuric, Nemanja; Madzarevic, Petar; Dimitrijevic, Ana; Randjelovic, Simona; Nestorovic, Emilija; Akinyombo, Remi; Pavlovic, Andrija; Ghamrawi, Ranine; Garovic, Vesna; Milic, Natasa (12 March 2021). "How accurate are citations of frequently cited papers in biomedical literature?". Clinical Science. 135 (5): 671–681. doi:10.1042/CS20201573. PMC 8048031. PMID 33599711.
^ Yavchitz, Amélie; Boutron, Isabelle; Bafeta, Aida; Marroun, Ibrahim; Charles, Pierre; Mantz, Jean; Ravaud, Philippe; Bero, Lisa A. (11 September 2012). "Misrepresentation of randomized controlled trials in press releases and news coverage: a cohort study". PLOS Medicine. 9 (9): e1001308. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001308. PMC 3439420. PMID 22984354.
^ Pitkin, Roy M.; Branagan, Mary Ann (15 July 1998). "Can the accuracy of abstracts be improved by providing specific instructions? A randomized controlled trial". JAMA. 280 (3): 267–9. doi:10.1001/jama.280.3.267. PMID 9676677.
^ Hopewell, Sally; Clarke, Mike; Moher, David; Wager, Elizabeth; Middleton, Philippa; Altman, Douglas G; Schulz, Kenneth F; von Elm, Erik (22 January 2008). "CONSORT for reporting randomized controlled trials in journal and conference abstracts: explanation and elaboration". PLOS Medicine. 5 (1): e20. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050020. PMC 2211558. PMID 18215107.
^ O'Donohoe, TJ; Dhillon, R; Bridson, TL; Tee, J (1 July 2019). "Reporting Quality of Systematic Review Abstracts Published in Leading Neurosurgical Journals: A Research on Research Study". Neurosurgery. 85 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1093/neuros/nyy615. PMID 30649511.
^ How do I cite an abstract?
^ Witty, Francis J. (October 1973). "The Beginnings of Indexing and Abstracting: Some Notes towards a History of Indexing and Abstracting in Antiquity and the Middle Ages" (PDF). The Indexer. 8 (4): 193–198. doi:10.3828/indexer.1973.8.4.1. S2CID 239271784. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
^ a b "What's So Abstract About Scientific Abstracts? | Inside Science". Archived from the original on 2020-09-21. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
^ "Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London".
^ Goldingham, John (April 1827). "On the longitude of Madras". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 1: 13. Bibcode:1827MNRAS...1...13G. the end of this abstract
^ Goldingham, John (1827). "Observations of the Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites, taken at the Madras Observatory, in the Years 1817—1825". Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. 3: 106–108. Bibcode:1827MmRAS...3..106G.
^ Longden, A. C. (1 April 1919). "On the Irregularities of Motion of the Foucault Pendulum". Physical Review. 13 (4): 241–258. Bibcode:1919PhRv...13..241L. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.13.241.
^ Bazerman, Charles (1988). Shaping written knowledge : the genre and activity of the experimental article in science. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299116903.
^ Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office practices. Library of Congress. 2014. p. 387.
^ Mensh, Brett; Kording, Konrad (2016-11-28). "Ten simple rules for structuring papers". bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/088278. S2CID 195953236.
^ mmm3 (2008-11-15). "Journal Paper Submission Guidelines". Docstoc. Archived from the original on 4 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
^ Berry; Brunner, N; Popescu, S; Shukla, P (2011). "Can apparent superluminal neutrino speeds be explained as a quantum weak measurement?". J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 44 (49): 2001. arXiv:1110.2832. Bibcode:2011JPhA...44W2001B. doi:10.1088/1751-8113/44/49/492001. S2CID 3468441.
^ "Structured Abstracts – What are structured abstracts?". Retrieved 12 September 2023.
^ Mann, J; Smuts, B (2004). "The hydrodynamics of dolphin drafting". Journal of Biology. 3 (2): 8. doi:10.1186/jbiol2. PMC 416558. PMID 15132740.
^ a b c Finkelstein 2004, pp. 212–214.
^ "Types of Abstracts". Colorado State University. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015.
^ Hortolà, Policarp (2008). "An ergonomic format for short reporting in scientific journals using nested tables and the Deming's cycle". Journal of Information Science. 34 (2): 207–212. doi:10.1177/0165551507082590. S2CID 39334416.
^ a b Finkelstein 2004, pp. 211–212.
^ "Graphical Abstracts". Elsevier. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
^ a b Bui, Lily (March 3, 2015). "A Glance at Graphical Abstracts". Comparative Media Studies: Writing. MIT. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
^ Romans, Brian (February 16, 2011). "Are graphical abstracts a good idea?". Wired. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
^ "Video Abstracts". Journal of the American Chemical Society. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
^ Pferschy-Wenzig, EM; Pferschy, U; Wang, D; Mocan, A; Atanasov, AG (Sep 2016). "Does a Graphical Abstract Bring More Visibility to Your Paper?". Molecules. 21 (9): 1247. doi:10.3390/molecules21091247. PMC 5283664. PMID 27649137.
^ Ufnalska, Sylwia B.; Hartley, James (August 2009). "How can we evaluate the quality of abstracts?" (PDF). European Science Editing. 35 (3): 69–71. ISSN 0258-3127.
Further reading[edit]
Finkelstein, Leo Jr. (2004). Pocket Book of Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists (2. ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Education – Europe. ISBN 978-0072468496.
ISO 214: Documentation — Abstracts for publications and documentation. [1]
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ABSTRACT | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
ABSTRACT | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
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Meaning of abstract in English
abstractadjective us
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/ˈæb.strækt/ uk
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/ˈæb.strækt/
abstract adjective
(GENERAL)
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B2 existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object: Truth and beauty are abstract concepts. Opposite
concrete
An abstract argument or discussion is general and not based on particular examples: This debate is becoming too abstract - let's have some hard facts! Opposite
concrete
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
abstract ideasabstractHappiness, faith, and confidence are abstract qualities.conceptualThe introduction lays out a conceptual framework for the book.notionalThere is a notional improvement in air quality that cannot be demonstrated.theoreticalSupplements may give your health a theoretical boost, though scientists do not necessarily agree.
See more results »
the abstract
general ideas: in the abstract So far we've only discussed the question in the abstract (= without referring to any real examples). I have difficulty dealing with the abstract - let's discuss particular cases.
More examplesFewer examplesIt is sometimes easier to illustrate an abstract concept by analogy with something concrete.He is good at explaining quite complex, abstract ideas in a nice simple way.Your idea is somewhat vague and abstract - could you explain it in a little more detail, please?These early humans were clearly capable of abstract thought, and probably language too.Some of these new theories are so abstract that they don't seem to relate to our everyday work at all.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Ideas, concepts and theories
abstraction
afterthought
anthropocentrism
anti-Darwinian
anti-Darwinism
exceptionalism
foundation stone
great minds think alike idiom
have a brainstorm
natalism
non-dogmatic
non-empirical
non-material
non-practical
social Darwinism
straw man
supersensible
tenet
the domino theory
theory
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
General
abstract adjective
(ART)
B2 used to refer to a type of painting, drawing, or sculpture that uses shapes, lines, and color in a way that does not try to represent the appearance of people or things: abstract art an abstract painter
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Art history & artistic movements
aesthetic
anti-modern
anti-modernism
anti-modernist
anti-romantic
esthetics
expressionism
expressionist
expressionistic
expressionistically
modernism
modernist
montage
naturalism
naturalistic
regency
rococo
romantic
romanticism
screen printing
See more results »
abstractnoun [ C ] us
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/ˈæb.strækt/ uk
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/ˈæb.strækt/
abstract noun [C]
(SHORT DOCUMENT)
a short form of a speech, article, book, etc., giving only the most important facts or ideas: There is a section at the end of the magazine that includes abstracts of recent articles/books.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Summaries and summarizing
abridgment
biodata
brushstroke
catch-all
catch-all phrase
encapsulation
executive summary
gist
handout
in short idiom
recapitulation
resume
shorthand
shorthand for something idiom
story
sum (something/someone) up
TLDR
to make a long story short idiom
trot
upsum
See more results »
abstract noun [C]
(ART)
a painting that uses shapes, lines, and color in a way that does not try to represent the appearance of people or things
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Pictures
-scape
aquatint
autostereogram
balloon
canvas
caricature
cartoon
graphic arts
graphic novel
halo
hellscape
identikit
pastel
pencil
poster
raster
rehang
screen print
shade
sketch
See more results »
abstractverb us
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/æbˈstrækt/ uk
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/æbˈstrækt/
[ I or T ] to consider something in a general way or make a general judgment after looking at particular details: Most interviewees focus on their own experience and do not generalize or abstract the situation. A general rule is arrived at by abstracting from the data.
[ T ] to remove or separate someone or something from a place or context (= the situation, facts, words, etc. that exist around something): abstract someone from something It was impossible to abstract children from their social environment with all its dangers.abstract something from something Relevant information was abstracted from the database or from medical records.
[ T ] to give a summary or abstract (= a short description giving the most important ideas) of something: If you find an article you think should be abstracted in our journal, submit it for consideration.
More examplesFewer examplesThere are several observations that might be abstracted from this example.We abstracted the number of cases and deaths from the 2001–2019 annual reports.She leaves it to the reader to collect and abstract insights from her text.We abstract a general data structure from the list of data.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Elaborating, specifying and simplifying
anti-reductionism
anti-reductionist
broad brush
broaden
complicate
enlarge on/upon something
expand
expand on something
expansively
expansiveness
overgeneralization
overgeneralize
oversimplification
oversimplify
particularization
spec
specification
specificity
specify
split hairs idiom
See more results »
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Removing and extracting
Summaries and summarizing
(Definition of abstract from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
abstract | Intermediate English
abstractadjective us
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/æbˈstrækt, ˈæb·strækt/
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existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object: "Humanity" is an abstract idea.
English If a statement, argument, or discussion is abstract, it is general and not based on particular examples.
art A painting, drawing, or sculpture is described as abstract if it tries to represent the qualities of objects or people but does not show their outer appearance: abstract art
abstractnoun [ C ] us
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/ˈæb·strækt/
writing a few sentences that give the main ideas in an article or a scientific paper
(Definition of abstract from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
abstract | Business English
abstractadjective uk
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/ˈæbstrækt/ us
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Add to word list
Add to word list
existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object: "Satisfaction" is difficult to measure as it is an abstract concept.
abstractnoun [ C ] uk
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/ˈæbstrækt/ us
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a shortened form of a speech, article, book, etc., giving the most important facts or ideas: There is a section at the end of the magazine which includes abstracts of recent articles.
(Definition of abstract from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
Examples of abstract
abstract
I love abstract photography and this theme suited me just fine.
From Gizmodo
It can also be referred to as abstract thinking, and fluid intelligence declines with age.
From TechCrunch
At the hyperlocal level, concerns over various environmental factors move from abstract to the concrete, from the beyond-control something that can be dealt with.
From Huffington Post
While diving to see sharks has its abstract value, many tour operators and volunteer organizations are taking advantage of shark tourism to directly benefit conservation.
From National Geographic
The abstract is real and the real is abstract.
From Huffington Post
Copying in the abstract is vapid and neutral.
From Wired
While these costs are very real, the economic argument can still be abstract to people.
From ThinkProgress
As our notions of dying get more abstract and mythologized, we should feel less disgust at reminders of our physicality.
From Slate Magazine
An event becomes abstract when it becomes just a historical text.
From OregonLive.com
The mere mention of the word "refugee" usually conjures two reactions: heartbreaking images from far-flung camps and numbers that border on the abstract.
From TIME
Of course, this was only an abstract model.
From The Atlantic
Improvised music like jazz is abstract by definition; references to known quantities often provide incredibly valuable context.
From NPR
In the abstract, we might think that the old days were better.
From Los Angeles Times
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of abstract?
B2,B2
Translations of abstract
in Chinese (Traditional)
籠統的, 抽象的, 純理論的…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
笼统的, 抽象的, 纯理论的…
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in Spanish
abstracto, resumen, cuadro abstracto…
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in Portuguese
abstrato, pintura abstrata, abstrato/-ta [masculine-feminine]…
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अमूर्त, विषय सोडून अथवा असंबंध चर्चा करणे, चित्रकलेचा किंवा शिल्पकलेचा एक प्रकार ज्यामधे आकार…
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理論的な, 概念的な, (絵などが)抽象的な…
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soyut, gerçek nesne ve kişilerin imgelerinden çok renk ve şekilleri içeren soyut sanat, abstrak…
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abstrait/-aite, résumé [masculine], abstrait…
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abstracte…
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abstract, abstract werk, uittreksel…
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ஒரு யோசனை, உணர்வு அல்லது தரமாக இருக்கும் ஆனால் ஒரு பொருளாக அல்ல, ஒரு சுருக்க வாதம் அல்லது விவாதம் பொதுவானது மற்றும் குறிப்பிட்ட எடுத்துக்காட்டுகளின் அடிப்படையில் அல்ல.…
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अमूर्त, अमूर्त तर्क, साधारण तर्क बिना किन्हीं विशेष उदाहरणों पर आधारित…
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અમૂર્ત, (તર્ક વા દલીલ) અમૂર્ત, ચોક્કસ ઉદાહરણો વિના સામાન્ય/સરળ તર્ક…
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abstrakt, uddrag, resume…
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abstrakt, sammandrag, referat…
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abstrak, ringkasan…
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abstrakt, das abstrakte Bild, Zusammenfassung…
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astrakt, abstrakt, sammendrag [neuter]…
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قیاسی, خیالی, غیر اطلاقی…
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абстрактне поняття, абстракція, конспект…
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абстрактный…
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అమూర్త, నైరూప్య, ఒక ఊహగా…
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مُجرّد, تَجريدي…
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বিমূর্ত, ধারণা, অনুভূতি বা গুণ হিসাবে বিদ্যমান…
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abstraktní, abstraktní dílo, souhrn…
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tidak nyata, abstrak, ikhtisar…
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ที่เป็นนามธรรม, นามธรรม, บทคัดย่อ…
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trừu tượng, tác phẩm trừu tượng, bản tóm tắt…
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abstrakcyjny, streszczenie, abstrakt…
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추상적인…
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astratto, riassunto…
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How to Write an Abstract for Your Paper | Grammarly Blog
How to Write an Abstract for Your Paper | Grammarly Blog
Grammarly HomeProductLearnFeaturesProduct DemoTrust & SecurityDownloadDesktopMobileBrowserWorkBy Team SizeEnterpriseTeams & BusinessesIndividualsBy Team FunctionCustomer SupportMarketingITSalesHREducationStudentsInstitutionsPricingResourcesLearnBlogCustomer StoriesBusiness Events & ReportsEducation Events & ReportsSupport CenterToolsAI Writing ToolsGrammar CheckerPlagiarism CheckerParaphrasing ToolContact SalesLog inGet GrammarlyIt's freeGrammarly HomeProductLearnFeaturesProduct DemoTrust & SecurityDownloadDesktopMobileBrowserWorkBy Team SizeEnterpriseTeams & BusinessesIndividualsBy Team FunctionCustomer SupportMarketingITSalesHREducationStudentsInstitutionsPricingResourcesLearnBlogCustomer StoriesBusiness Events & ReportsEducation Events & ReportsSupport CenterToolsAI Writing ToolsGrammar CheckerPlagiarism CheckerParaphrasing ToolGet GrammarlyIt's freeContact SalesLog inGrammarly Blog HomeWritingWriting TipsGrammarStudentsProfessionalsLifestyleProductCompanyGrammarly HomeWritingWriting TipsGrammarStudentsProfessionalsLifestyleProductCompanyGet GrammarlyIt's freeContact SalesLog inHow to Write an Abstract for Your PaperMatt EllisUpdated on June 2, 2022StudentsAn abstract is a self-contained summary of a larger work, such as research and scientific papers or general academic papers. Usually situated at the beginning of such works, the abstract is meant to “preview” the bigger document. This helps readers and other researchers find what they’re looking for and understand the magnitude of what’s discussed.
Like the trailer for a movie, an abstract can determine whether or not someone becomes interested in your work. Aside from enticing readers, abstracts are also useful organizational tools that help other researchers and academics find papers relevant to their work.
Because of their specific requirements, it’s best to know a little about how to write an abstract before doing it. This guide explains the basics of writing an abstract for beginners, including what to put in them and some expert tips on writing them.
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What’s the purpose of an abstract?
The main purpose of an abstract is to help people decide whether or not to read the entire academic paper. After all, titles can be misleading and don’t get into specifics like methodology or results. Imagine paying for and downloading a hundred-page dissertation on what you believe is relevant to your research on the Caucasus region—only to find out it’s about the other Georgia.
Likewise, abstracts can encourage financial support for grant proposals and fundraising. If you lack the funding for your research, your proposal abstract would outline the costs and benefits of your project. This way, potential investors could make an informed decision, or jump to the relevant section of your proposal to see the details.
Abstracts are also incredibly useful for indexing. They make it easier for researchers to find precisely what they need without wasting time skimming actual papers. And because abstracts sometimes touch on the results of a paper, researchers and students can see right away if the paper can be used as evidence or a citation to support their own theses.
Nowadays, abstracts are also important for search engine optimization (SEO)—namely, for getting digital copies of your paper to appear in search engine results. If someone Googles the words used in your abstract, the link to your paper will appear higher in the search results, making it more likely to get clicks.
How long should an abstract be?
Abstracts are typically 100–250 words and comprise one or two paragraphs. However, more complex papers require more complex abstracts, so you may need to stretch it out to cover everything. It’s not uncommon to see abstracts that fill an entire page, especially in advanced scientific works.
When do you need to write an abstract?
Abstracts are only for lengthy, often complicated texts, as with scientific and research papers. Similar academic papers—including doctorate dissertations, master’s theses, or elaborate literary criticisms—may also demand them as well. If you’re learning how to write a thesis paper for college, you’ll want to know how to write an abstract, too.
Specifically, most scientific journals and grant proposals require an abstract for submissions. Conference papers often involve them as well, as do book proposals and other fundraising endeavors.
However, most writing, in particular casual and creative writing, doesn’t need an abstract.
Types of abstracts
There are two main types of abstracts: informative and descriptive. Most abstracts fall into the informative category, with descriptive abstracts reserved for less formal papers.
Informative abstracts
Informative abstracts discuss all the need-to-know details of your paper: purpose, method, scope, results, and conclusion. They’re the go-to format for scientific and research papers.
Informative abstracts attempt to outline the entire paper without going into specifics. They’re written for quick reference, favor efficiency over style, and tend to lack personality.
Descriptive abstracts
Descriptive abstracts are a little more personable and focus more on enticing readers. They don’t care as much for data and details, and instead read more like overviews that don’t give too much away. Think of descriptive abstracts like synopses on the back of a book.
Because they don’t delve too deep, descriptive abstracts are shorter than informative abstracts, closer to 100 words, and in a single paragraph. In particular, they don’t cover areas like results or conclusions — you have to read the paper to satisfy your curiosity.
Since they’re so informal, descriptive abstracts are more at home in artistic criticisms and entertaining papers than in scientific articles.
What to include in an abstract
As part of a formal document, informative abstracts adhere to more scientific and data-based structures. Like the paper itself, abstracts should include all of the IMRaD elements: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion.
This handy acronym is a great way to remember what parts to include in your abstract. There are some other areas you might need as well, which we also explain at the end.
Introduction
The beginning of your abstract should provide a broad overview of the entire project, just like the thesis statement. You can also use this section of your abstract to write out your hypothesis or research question.
In the one or two sentences at the top, you want to disclose the purpose of your paper, such as what problem it attempts to solve and why the reader should be interested. You’ll also need to explain the context around it, including any historical references.
Methods
This section covers the methodology of your research, or how you collected the data. This is crucial for verifying the credibility of your paper — abstracts with no methodology or suspicious methods won’t be taken seriously by the scientific community.
If you’re using original research, you should disclose which analytical methods you used to collect your data, including descriptions of instruments, software, or participants. If you’re expounding on previous data, this is a good place to cite which data and from where to avoid plagiarism.
Results
For informative abstracts, it’s okay to “give away the ending.” In one or two sentences, summarize the results of your paper and the conclusive outcome. Remember that the goal of most abstracts is to inform, not entice, so mentioning your results here can help others better classify and categorize your paper.
This is often the biggest section of your abstract. It involves most of the concrete details surrounding your paper, so don’t be afraid to give it an extra sentence or two compared to the others.
Discussion
The discussion section explains the ultimate conclusion and its ramifications. Based on the data and examination, what can we take away from this paper? The discussion section often goes beyond the scope of the project itself, including the implications of the research or what it adds to its field as a whole.
Other inclusions
Aside from the IMRaD aspects, your abstract may require some of the following areas:
Keywords — Like hashtags for research papers, keywords list out the topics discussed in your paper so interested people can find it more easily, especially with online formats. The APA format (explained below) has specific requirements for listing keywords, so double-check there before listing yours.
Ethical concerns — If your research deals with ethically gray areas, i.e., testing on animals, you may want to point out any concerns here, or issue reassurances.
Consequences — If your research disproves or challenges a popular theory or belief, it’s good to mention that in the abstract — especially if you have new evidence to back it up.
Conflicts of Interest/Disclosures — Although different forums have different rules on disclosing conflicts of interests, it’s generally best to mention them in your abstract. For example, maybe you received funding from a biased party.
If you’re ever in doubt about what to include in your abstract, just remember that it should act as a succinct summary of your entire paper. Include all the relevant points, but only the highlights.
Abstract formats
In general, abstracts are pretty uniform since they’re exclusive to formal documents. That said, there are a couple of technical formats you should be aware of.
APA format
The American Psychological Association (APA) has specific guidelines for their papers in the interest of consistency. Here’s what the 7th edition Publication Manual has to say about formatting abstracts:
Double-space your text.
Set page margins at 1 inch (2.54 cm).
Write the word “Abstract” at the top of the page, centered and in a bold font.
Don’t indent the first line.
Keep your abstract under 250 words.
Include a running header and page numbers on all pages, including the abstract.
Abstract keywords have their own particular guidelines as well:
Label the section as “Keywords:” with italics.
Indent the first line at 0.5 inches, but leave subsequent lines as is.
Write your keywords on the same line as the label.
Use lower-case letters.
Use commas, but not conjunctions.
Structured abstracts
Structured abstracts are a relatively new format for scientific papers, originating in the late 1980s. Basically, you just separate your abstract into smaller subsections — typically based on the IMRaD categories — and label them accordingly.
The idea is to enhance scannability; for example, if readers are only interested in the methodology, they can skip right to the methodology. The actual writing of structured abstracts, though, is more-or-less the same as traditional ones.
Unstructured abstracts are still the convention, though, so double-check beforehand to see which one is preferred.
3 expert tips for writing abstracts
1
Autonomous works
Abstracts are meant to be self-contained, autonomous works. They should act as standalone documents, often with a beginning, middle, and end. The thinking is that, even if you never read the actual paper, you’ll still understand the entire scope of the project just from the abstract.
Keep that in mind when you write your abstract: it should be a microcosm of the entire piece, with all the key points, but none of the details.
2
Write the abstract last
Because the abstract comes first, it’s tempting to write it first. However, writing the abstract at the end is more effective since you have a better understanding of what is actually in your paper. You’ll also discover new implications as you write, and perhaps even shift the structure a bit. In any event, you’re better prepared to write the abstract once the main paper is completed.
3
Abstracts are not introductions
A common misconception is to write your abstract like an introduction — after all, it’s the first section of your paper. However, abstracts follow a different set of guidelines, so don’t make this mistake.
Abstracts are summaries, designed to encapsulate the findings of your paper and assist with organization and searchability. A good abstract includes background information and context, not to mention results and conclusions. Abstracts are also self-contained, and can be read independently of the rest of the paper.
Introductions, by contrast, serve to gradually bring the reader up to speed on the topic. Their goals are less clinical and more personable, with room to elaborate and build anticipation. Introductions are also an integral part of the paper, and feel incomplete if read independently.
Give your formal writing the My Fair Lady treatment
Formal papers — the kind that requires abstracts — need formal language. But for most of us, that means changing the way we communicate or even think. You may want to consider the My Fair Lady treatment, which is to say, having a skilled mentor coach what you say.
Grammarly Premium now offers a new Set Goals feature that helps you tailor your language to your audience or intention. All you have to do is set the goals of a particular piece of writing and Grammarly will customize your feedback accordingly. For example, you can select the knowledge level of your readers, the formality of the tone, and the domain or field you’re writing for (i.e., academic, creative, business, etc.). You can even set a tone to sound more analytical or respectful!
Here’s a tip: Grammarly’s Citation Generator ensures your essays have flawless citations and no plagiarism. Try it for citing abstracts in Chicago, MLA, and APA styles.
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Abstracts – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Abstracts – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Home / Tips & Tools / Abstracts
Abstracts
What this handout is about
This handout provides definitions and examples of the two main types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. It also provides guidelines for constructing an abstract and general tips for you to keep in mind when drafting. Finally, it includes a few examples of abstracts broken down into their component parts.
What is an abstract?
An abstract is a self-contained, short, and powerful statement that describes a larger work. Components vary according to discipline. An abstract of a social science or scientific work may contain the scope, purpose, results, and contents of the work. An abstract of a humanities work may contain the thesis, background, and conclusion of the larger work. An abstract is not a review, nor does it evaluate the work being abstracted. While it contains key words found in the larger work, the abstract is an original document rather than an excerpted passage.
Why write an abstract?
You may write an abstract for various reasons. The two most important are selection and indexing. Abstracts allow readers who may be interested in a longer work to quickly decide whether it is worth their time to read it. Also, many online databases use abstracts to index larger works. Therefore, abstracts should contain keywords and phrases that allow for easy searching.
Selection
Say you are beginning a research project on how Brazilian newspapers helped Brazil’s ultra-liberal president Luiz Ignácio da Silva wrest power from the traditional, conservative power base. A good first place to start your research is to search Dissertation Abstracts International for all dissertations that deal with the interaction between newspapers and politics. “Newspapers and politics” returned 569 hits. A more selective search of “newspapers and Brazil” returned 22 hits. That is still a fair number of dissertations. Titles can sometimes help winnow the field, but many titles are not very descriptive. For example, one dissertation is titled “Rhetoric and Riot in Rio de Janeiro.” It is unclear from the title what this dissertation has to do with newspapers in Brazil. One option would be to download or order the entire dissertation on the chance that it might speak specifically to the topic. A better option is to read the abstract. In this case, the abstract reveals the main focus of the dissertation:
This dissertation examines the role of newspaper editors in the political turmoil and strife that characterized late First Empire Rio de Janeiro (1827-1831). Newspaper editors and their journals helped change the political culture of late First Empire Rio de Janeiro by involving the people in the discussion of state. This change in political culture is apparent in Emperor Pedro I’s gradual loss of control over the mechanisms of power. As the newspapers became more numerous and powerful, the Emperor lost his legitimacy in the eyes of the people. To explore the role of the newspapers in the political events of the late First Empire, this dissertation analyzes all available newspapers published in Rio de Janeiro from 1827 to 1831. Newspapers and their editors were leading forces in the effort to remove power from the hands of the ruling elite and place it under the control of the people. In the process, newspapers helped change how politics operated in the constitutional monarchy of Brazil.
From this abstract you now know that although the dissertation has nothing to do with modern Brazilian politics, it does cover the role of newspapers in changing traditional mechanisms of power. After reading the abstract, you can make an informed judgment about whether the dissertation would be worthwhile to read.
Indexing
Besides selection, the other main purpose of the abstract is for indexing. Most article databases in the online catalog of the library enable you to search abstracts. This allows for quick retrieval by users and limits the extraneous items recalled by a “full-text” search. However, for an abstract to be useful in an online retrieval system, it must incorporate the key terms that a potential researcher would use to search. For example, if you search Dissertation Abstracts International using the keywords “France” “revolution” and “politics,” the search engine would search through all the abstracts in the database that included those three words. Without an abstract, the search engine would be forced to search titles, which, as we have seen, may not be fruitful, or else search the full text. It’s likely that a lot more than 60 dissertations have been written with those three words somewhere in the body of the entire work. By incorporating keywords into the abstract, the author emphasizes the central topics of the work and gives prospective readers enough information to make an informed judgment about the applicability of the work.
When do people write abstracts?
when submitting articles to journals, especially online journals
when applying for research grants
when writing a book proposal
when completing the Ph.D. dissertation or M.A. thesis
when writing a proposal for a conference paper
when writing a proposal for a book chapter
Most often, the author of the entire work (or prospective work) writes the abstract. However, there are professional abstracting services that hire writers to draft abstracts of other people’s work. In a work with multiple authors, the first author usually writes the abstract. Undergraduates are sometimes asked to draft abstracts of books/articles for classmates who have not read the larger work.
Types of abstracts
There are two types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. They have different aims, so as a consequence they have different components and styles. There is also a third type called critical, but it is rarely used. If you want to find out more about writing a critique or a review of a work, see the UNC Writing Center handout on writing a literature review. If you are unsure which type of abstract you should write, ask your instructor (if the abstract is for a class) or read other abstracts in your field or in the journal where you are submitting your article.
Descriptive abstracts
A descriptive abstract indicates the type of information found in the work. It makes no judgments about the work, nor does it provide results or conclusions of the research. It does incorporate key words found in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research. Essentially, the descriptive abstract describes the work being abstracted. Some people consider it an outline of the work, rather than a summary. Descriptive abstracts are usually very short—100 words or less.
Informative abstracts
The majority of abstracts are informative. While they still do not critique or evaluate a work, they do more than describe it. A good informative abstract acts as a surrogate for the work itself. That is, the writer presents and explains all the main arguments and the important results and evidence in the complete article/paper/book. An informative abstract includes the information that can be found in a descriptive abstract (purpose, methods, scope) but also includes the results and conclusions of the research and the recommendations of the author. The length varies according to discipline, but an informative abstract is rarely more than 10% of the length of the entire work. In the case of a longer work, it may be much less.
Here are examples of a descriptive and an informative abstract of this handout on abstracts.
Descriptive abstract:
The two most common abstract types—descriptive and informative—are described and examples of each are provided.
Informative abstract:
Abstracts present the essential elements of a longer work in a short and powerful statement. The purpose of an abstract is to provide prospective readers the opportunity to judge the relevance of the longer work to their projects. Abstracts also include the key terms found in the longer work and the purpose and methods of the research. Authors abstract various longer works, including book proposals, dissertations, and online journal articles. There are two main types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. A descriptive abstract briefly describes the longer work, while an informative abstract presents all the main arguments and important results. This handout provides examples of various types of abstracts and instructions on how to construct one.
Which type should I use?
Your best bet in this case is to ask your instructor or refer to the instructions provided by the publisher. You can also make a guess based on the length allowed; i.e., 100-120 words = descriptive; 250+ words = informative.
How do I write an abstract?
The format of your abstract will depend on the work being abstracted. An abstract of a scientific research paper will contain elements not found in an abstract of a literature article, and vice versa. However, all abstracts share several mandatory components, and there are also some optional parts that you can decide to include or not. When preparing to draft your abstract, keep the following key process elements in mind:
Reason for writing: What is the importance of the research? Why would a reader be interested in the larger work?
Problem: What problem does this work attempt to solve? What is the scope of the project? What is the main argument/thesis/claim?
Methodology: An abstract of a scientific work may include specific models or approaches used in the larger study. Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence used in the research.
Results: Again, an abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that indicates the results of the project. Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general way.
Implications: What changes should be implemented as a result of the findings of the work? How does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic?
(This list of elements is adapted with permission from Philip Koopman, “How to Write an Abstract.”)
All abstracts include:
A full citation of the source, preceding the abstract.
The most important information first.
The same type and style of language found in the original, including technical language.
Key words and phrases that quickly identify the content and focus of the work.
Clear, concise, and powerful language.
Abstracts may include:
The thesis of the work, usually in the first sentence.
Background information that places the work in the larger body of literature.
The same chronological structure as the original work.
How not to write an abstract:
Do not refer extensively to other works.
Do not add information not contained in the original work.
Do not define terms.
If you are abstracting your own writing
When abstracting your own work, it may be difficult to condense a piece of writing that you have agonized over for weeks (or months, or even years) into a 250-word statement. There are some tricks that you could use to make it easier, however.
Reverse outlining:
This technique is commonly used when you are having trouble organizing your own writing. The process involves writing down the main idea of each paragraph on a separate piece of paper–see our short video. For the purposes of writing an abstract, try grouping the main ideas of each section of the paper into a single sentence. Practice grouping ideas using webbing or color coding.
For a scientific paper, you may have sections titled Purpose, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each one of these sections will be longer than one paragraph, but each is grouped around a central idea. Use reverse outlining to discover the central idea in each section and then distill these ideas into one statement.
Cut and paste:
To create a first draft of an abstract of your own work, you can read through the entire paper and cut and paste sentences that capture key passages. This technique is useful for social science research with findings that cannot be encapsulated by neat numbers or concrete results. A well-written humanities draft will have a clear and direct thesis statement and informative topic sentences for paragraphs or sections. Isolate these sentences in a separate document and work on revising them into a unified paragraph.
If you are abstracting someone else’s writing
When abstracting something you have not written, you cannot summarize key ideas just by cutting and pasting. Instead, you must determine what a prospective reader would want to know about the work. There are a few techniques that will help you in this process:
Identify key terms:
Search through the entire document for key terms that identify the purpose, scope, and methods of the work. Pay close attention to the Introduction (or Purpose) and the Conclusion (or Discussion). These sections should contain all the main ideas and key terms in the paper. When writing the abstract, be sure to incorporate the key terms.
Highlight key phrases and sentences:
Instead of cutting and pasting the actual words, try highlighting sentences or phrases that appear to be central to the work. Then, in a separate document, rewrite the sentences and phrases in your own words.
Don’t look back:
After reading the entire work, put it aside and write a paragraph about the work without referring to it. In the first draft, you may not remember all the key terms or the results, but you will remember what the main point of the work was. Remember not to include any information you did not get from the work being abstracted.
Revise, revise, revise
No matter what type of abstract you are writing, or whether you are abstracting your own work or someone else’s, the most important step in writing an abstract is to revise early and often. When revising, delete all extraneous words and incorporate meaningful and powerful words. The idea is to be as clear and complete as possible in the shortest possible amount of space. The Word Count feature of Microsoft Word can help you keep track of how long your abstract is and help you hit your target length.
Example 1: Humanities abstract
Kenneth Tait Andrews, “‘Freedom is a constant struggle’: The dynamics and consequences of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1984” Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1997 DAI-A 59/02, p. 620, Aug 1998
This dissertation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform social structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so. The time period studied includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in black political power, the desegregation of public schools and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. I use two major research strategies: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three case studies. Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports. This dissertation challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view federal agencies, courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically these groups acted in response to the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in Mississippi.
Now let’s break down this abstract into its component parts to see how the author has distilled his entire dissertation into a ~200 word abstract.
What the dissertation does
This dissertation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform social structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so.
How the dissertation does it
The time period studied in this dissertation includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in black political power, the desegregation of public schools and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. I use two major research strategies: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three case studies.
What materials are used
Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports.
Conclusion
This dissertation challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view federal agencies, courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically these groups acted in response to movement demands and the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in Mississippi.
Keywords
social movements
Civil Rights Movement
Mississippi
voting rights
desegregation
Example 2: Science Abstract
Luis Lehner, “Gravitational radiation from black hole spacetimes” Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 1998 DAI-B 59/06, p. 2797, Dec 1998
The problem of detecting gravitational radiation is receiving considerable attention with the construction of new detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the wave forms that would be produced in particular systems will expedite the search for and analysis of detected signals. The characteristic formulation of GR is implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black holes in 3D asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future null infinity is included in the evolved region, which enables the unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced by some compact source. A module to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in the evolution algorithm. This code is shown to be second-order convergent and to handle highly non-linear spacetimes. In particular, we have shown that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is equivalent to a galaxy converting its whole mass into gravitational radiation in one second. We further use the characteristic formulation to treat the region close to the singularity in black hole spacetimes. The code carefully excises a region surrounding the singularity and accurately evolves generic black hole spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.
This science abstract covers much of the same ground as the humanities one, but it asks slightly different questions.
Why do this study
The problem of detecting gravitational radiation is receiving considerable attention with the construction of new detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the wave forms that would be produced in particular systems will expedite the search and analysis of the detected signals.
What the study does
The characteristic formulation of GR is implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black holes in 3D asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future null infinity is included in the evolved region, which enables the unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced by some compact source. A module to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in the evolution algorithm.
Results
This code is shown to be second-order convergent and to handle highly non-linear spacetimes. In particular, we have shown that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is equivalent to a galaxy converting its whole mass into gravitational radiation in one second. We further use the characteristic formulation to treat the region close to the singularity in black hole spacetimes. The code carefully excises a region surrounding the singularity and accurately evolves generic black hole spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.
Keywords
gravitational radiation (GR)
spacetimes
black holes
Works consulted
We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.
Belcher, Wendy Laura. 2009. Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press.
Koopman, Philip. 1997. “How to Write an Abstract.” Carnegie Mellon University. October 1997. http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html.
Lancaster, F.W. 2003. Indexing And Abstracting in Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. London: Facet Publishing.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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