How to write a scientific abstract Anne E. Carey Interim director, Undergraduate Research Office August 2, 2011 Anne E. Carey Interim director, Undergraduate.
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How to write a scientific abstract
How to write a scientific abstract
Anne E. CareyInterim director, Undergraduate Research Office
August 2, 2011
Anne E. CareyInterim director, Undergraduate Research Office
August 2, 2011
When do you write an abstract?
When do you write an abstract?
Professional meeting
Conference paper
Journal article
Grant proposal
Thesis
Why care about writing abstracts?Why care about
writing abstracts?A good abstract will repay you with increased impact on the world by enticing people to read your publications or come to your poster.
Make sure that all the components of a good abstract are included in the next one you write.
Writing a good abstract is hard work.
Helps you learn to read others’ abstracts effectively
Getting startedGetting started
Questions to ask yourself before you start writing your abstract…
What’s the problem?
Why hasn’t it been done before?
Why and how could you do it now?
What was the purpose of the research?
Parts of an abstractParts of an abstract
1.Introduction
2.Background
3.Why you are doing your research
4.How you did your research
5.Findings
6.Implications
1. Introduction1. IntroductionSet the stage for why your work is important
Was the research difficult?
Does it have major implications?
Make sure you make the work interesting to the reader
Brief introduction to your work
Usually one to two sentences
2. Background2. Background
What have others done?
What has not yet been done?
Identify gaps in the field
Which are the important gaps?
The hook that draws the reader in
3. Why your research
3. Why your research
How were your data collected, compiled, generated, analyzed?
What gaps are you filling?
Is the problem urgent?
What new method or tools became available that you used?
What method from another field are you applying to your field?
4. Methods4. MethodsList, tabulate, mention
Methods
Models
Procedures
Approaches
Avoid detail here (unless your work is about methods development)
5. Findings5. FindingsWhat’s the answer?
What did you learn (or invent or create)?
Give quantitative results (if you have them)
Avoid hand-waving words (very, small, significant…)
Use hedge words if you need them (might, could, may, seem)
Don’t give results that could be mis-interpreted or don’t actually exist yet
6. Implications6. ImplicationsRelate back to the gaps in the field identified in step 2
What are the larger implications of your findings?
How does it add to the body of knowledge?
Is your work going to change the world?
Are your results general, generalizable, or specific to certain cases?
RulesRulesFollow the rules (formatting, language, etc)
Word limit (different for different kinds of purposes)
typically 150–200 words
sometimes it’s character count (with or without spaces matters)
Graphs and figures (are they allowed?)
References (sometimes allowed, sometimes not)
AdviceAdviceRemember you are writing for a general audience
Plan ahead (know what the deadline is!)
Good abstracts are not written at the last minute
Start writing early and revise multiple times
Write short sentences
Avoid abbreviations
Define acronyms except for very standard ones (e.g., DNA)
Other considerations
Other considerations
Title should…
summarize the abstract
convince the reader to read the whole abstract because it will be interesting, informative, important, relevant or innovative
be catchy
Authorship
presenter is usually first author
include affiliations, email, phone numbers
Other sourcesOther sources
American Psychological Association
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/03/making-a-concrete-abstract.html
American Chemical Society Style Guide
http://www.oup.com/us/samplechapters/0841234620/?view=usa
Modern Language Association
http://library.osu.edu/help/research-strategies/cite-references/mla
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