Writing an Abstract

The objective of an abstract is to summarize your paper or project, it is an outline of what is to come. Not only should an abstract provide an overview of the information that can be found in your paper or talk, but it should also be captivating. The first glimpse of your writing comes from this brief summary of your research. With that being said, this blog post will address the importance of writing a compelling abstract, how to structure your ideas and why you need to pay attention to keywords.

Why write an abstract?

GradProSkills facilitator, Anja Novkovik, states that an “abstract contextualizes your work and communicates the gap your research fills.” It addresses two fundamental questions that every reader asks before they engage with material: (1) what is this research about? and (2) why should I pay attention to it?

An abstract bears the weight of concisely abbreviating the extensive research that you’ve done to craft your paper, project or presentation, and also promotes and highlights your field of thought. Think of it like the summary on the back of a novel. If you don’t like what you see, it’s very likely that you’ll end up putting the book back on the shelf. That’s why it’s important to put considerable thought into what you want to include in your abstract.   

What goes into the construction of an abstract?

Just like the format of a research paper, an abstract contains an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Before you construct your abstract, make sure you take a few moments to think about who your audience is. If you’re writing for an audience that isn’t familiar with your academic discipline, then you’re going to need to simplify your language and put a little more effort into explaining your theoretical underpinnings.

Introduction:

Your introduction is where you state what your topic is. You can do this by either talking about a problem you’ve discovered, you can connect your research to a real-world phenomenon like an election or an environmental crisis, or you can be direct and just state the purpose of your research. Your introduction is also where you state what field of study you are coming from.

Body:

The body contains background information on your field of knowledge as well as the methodology you used to discover your findings. This is where you briefly pay homage to the theoretical perspectives or scientific findings that you have been interacting with to carry out your own research. You also want to make sure that you discuss how you carried out your research, whether it was done by interviewing participants, simulations, etc.

Conclusion:

Anja recommends that the conclusion should be a “standalone statement that expresses your ideas.” It shouldn’t introduce anything new. It should reiterate what your topic is.

When should you write your abstract?

You may choose to write your abstract before you start writing your paper or you may leave it to the end. Writing your abstract before you start your paper provides an outline that you can follow. If you leave it until the end, then you can check that you understand the argument you’re making throughout your work. A wise decision is to start with a rough abstract and then revise it once you’ve finished your paper, adding in new ideas that you learned through the writing process.

Why you should care about keywords

When looking at papers on an online database you may have noticed a selection of keywords that appear after the abstract. Those keywords are selected by the author of the paper and they are important for librarians and online databases. When thinking about your keywords, you should keep in mind the role that they will play to make your work visible in a search engine. The keywords you select should highlight the important themes or ideas that are being discussed in your paper.

Lastly, Anja recommends that when writing your abstract, you pay close attention to the word limit, especially if you are submitting it to a conference or for a funding application. Do not put any abbreviations or acronyms in your abstract and try not to repeat yourself. Also, it’s better to write in the active voice. Though for engineering students, writing in the passive voice may be preferred.

To improve your abstract writing attend the GradProSkills workshop, GPSC26 – Writing Compelling Abstracts.