Importance of a Good Abstract Writing Tip

Sometimes your professor will ask you to include an abstract, or general summary of your work, with Never Cite Just the
your research paper. The abstract allows you to elaborate upon each major aspect of the paper and Abstract!
helps readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Therefore, enough key
Citing to just a journal article's
information [e.g., summary results, observations, trends, etc.] must be included to make the abstract
abstract does not confirm for
useful to someone who may want to examine your work.
the reader that you have

How do you know when you have enough information in your abstract? A simple rule-of-thumb is to conducted a thorough or reliable

imagine that you are another researcher doing a similar study. Then ask yourself: if your abstract was review of the literature. If the

the only part of the paper you could access, would you be happy with the amount of information full-text is not available, go to

presented there? Does it tell the whole story about your study? If the answer is "no" then the abstract the USC Libraries main page

likely needs to be revised. and enter the title of the article

[NOT the title of the journal]. If

the Libraries have a subscription

How to Write a Research Abstract. Office of Undergraduate Research. University of Kentucky; Staiger, David L. “What
to the journal, the article should
Today’s Students Need to Know about Writing Abstracts.” International Journal of Business Communication January 3
appear with a link to the full-text
(1966): 29-33; Swales, John M. and Christine B. Feak. Abstracts and the Writing of Abstracts. Ann Arbor, MI: University of
or to the journal publisher page
Michigan Press, 2009.
where you can get the article. If

the article does not appear, try

searching Google Scholar using

Structure and Writing Style the link on the USC Libraries

I.  Types of Abstracts

To begin, you need to determine which type of abstract you should include with your paper. There are


main page. If you still can't find

the article after doing this,

contact a librarian or you can

four general types. request it from our free

interlibrary loan and document

Critical Abstract
delivery service.
A critical abstract provides, in addition to describing main findings and information, a judgement or
comment about the study’s validity, reliability, or completeness. The researcher evaluates the paper
and often compares it with other works on the same subject. Critical abstracts are generally 400-500
words in length due to the additional interpretive commentary. These types of abstracts are used
infrequently.

Descriptive Abstract
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 only describes the work being summarized. Some researchers
consider it an outline of the work, rather than a summary. Descriptive abstracts are usually very short,
100 words or less.

Informative Abstract
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
researcher presents and explains all the main arguments and the important results and evidence in
the paper. An informative abstract includes the information that can be found in a descriptive
abstract [purpose, methods, scope] but it 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 usually no more than 300 words in length
abstract is usually no more than 300 words in length.

Highlight Abstract
A highlight abstract is specifcally written to attract the reader’s attention to the study. No pretence is
made of there being either a balanced or complete picture of the paper and, in fact, incomplete and
leading remarks may be used to spark the reader’s interest. In that a highlight abstract cannot stand
independent of its associated article, it is not a true abstract and, therefore, rarely used in academic
writing.

II.  Writing Style

Use the active voice when possible, but note that much of your abstract may require passive
sentence constructions. Regardless, write your abstract using concise, but complete, sentences. Get
to the point quickly and always use the past tense because you are reporting on a study that has
been completed.

Although it is the first section of your paper, the abstract, by definition, should be written last since
it will summarize the contents of your entire paper. To begin composing your abstract, take whole
sentences or key phrases from each section and put them in a sequence that summarizes the paper.
Then revise or add connecting phrases or words to make the narrative flow clearly and smoothly.
Before handing in your final paper, check to make sure that the information in the abstract completely
agrees with what you have written in the paper. Think of the abstract as describing the most
information using the fewest necessary words in complete sentences.

The abstract SHOULD NOT contain: 


Lengthy background information,
References to other literature [say something like, "current research shows that..." or "studies
have indicated..."],
Using ellipticals [i.e., ending with "..."] or incomplete sentences,
Abbreviations, jargon, or terms that may be confusing to the reader, and
Any sort of image, illustration, figure, or table, or references to them.

Abstract. Writing Center. University of Kansas; Abstract. The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style

Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Abstracts. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Borko,

Harold and Seymour Chatman. "Criteria for Acceptable Abstracts: A Survey of Abstracters' Instructions." American

Documentation 14 (April 1963): 149-160; Abstracts. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin,

Madison; Hartley, James and Lucy Betts. "Common Weaknesses in Traditional Abstracts in hte Social Sciences." Journal

of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60 (October 2009): 2010-2018; Procter, Margaret. The

Abstract. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Writing Report Abstracts. The Writing Lab and The

OWL. Purdue University; Writing Abstracts. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana

University; Koltay, Tibor. Abstracts and Abstracting: A Genre and Set of Skills for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford, UK: 2010

Last Updated: Jan 8, 2019 10:15 AM URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide  Print Page Login to LibApps
Subjects: General Reference & Research Help Tags: citation, writing_support