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Writing An Abstract For Your Research Paper: Definition and Purpose of Abstracts

This document provides guidance on writing an abstract for a research paper. It defines an abstract as a short summary, around 150-250 words, that lets readers understand the key points of the paper quickly. An abstract should serve to introduce the topic being studied, outline the research problem and questions, review previous work, describe the methods and findings, and discuss the significance of the results. The contents of an abstract will vary depending on the type of paper, but should include the context, research problem, methods, findings, and implications. It is best to write the abstract after completing the full paper so the key elements can be accurately summarized. Sample abstracts from published works are provided and annotated to demonstrate how to structure an abstract.

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86 views

Writing An Abstract For Your Research Paper: Definition and Purpose of Abstracts

This document provides guidance on writing an abstract for a research paper. It defines an abstract as a short summary, around 150-250 words, that lets readers understand the key points of the paper quickly. An abstract should serve to introduce the topic being studied, outline the research problem and questions, review previous work, describe the methods and findings, and discuss the significance of the results. The contents of an abstract will vary depending on the type of paper, but should include the context, research problem, methods, findings, and implications. It is best to write the abstract after completing the full paper so the key elements can be accurately summarized. Sample abstracts from published works are provided and annotated to demonstrate how to structure an abstract.

Uploaded by

iqra khalid
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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An abstract is a short summary of your (published or unpublished) research paper,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:

1. the context or background information for your research; the general topic under


study; the specific topic of your research
2. the central questions or statement of the problem your research addresses
3. what’s already known about this question, what previous research has done or
shown
4. 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? . . .
5. your research and/or analytical methods
6. your main findings, results, or arguments
7. 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 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.

Sample 1

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.

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