According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed., an abstract is a "brief, comprehensive summary fo the contents of the paper" (American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 73). Including an abstract allows a reader to quickly assess whether the article will be of interest or fulfill a particular information need.
Generally, it is one paragraph ranging from 150 to 250 words . A well written abstract should be:
See the Quick Lesson on Abstracts in APA Academic Writer for more information.
This is the abstract, or summary, of your entire paper. It is usually no longer than 250 words in length. You should choose your words carefully so that the abstract does not get too long. Notice that there is no indentation in the abstract. It is one paragraph and the left margin is flush and the right margin is ragged (not justified). The abstract is written in the past tense and should include general overview of the paper you wrote. It also should include any major hypotheses and your method(s), if applicable. Be sure to write your results in a general style, without using numbers. The abstract should end with a very brief concluding statement.
Q. I need to write an abstract. What is that? How do I do it? Where do I put it in my paper?
- Accurate
- Nonevaluative
- Coherent and readable
- Concise
An abstract begins on its own page and is placed immediately after the cover page and before the text of the paper.
Learn how to write an abstract and how to select keywords, including how to achieve the appropriate length, content, and format.
Those still unsure about how to write an abstract for a scientific paper can look at the following examples and try to create their abstracts.
As your abstract is typically small (most academic institutions and scholarly journals put a cap of 250 words), every word in this section counts. So, choosing the correct language and formulating your ideas concisely is of strategic importance. Are you wondering how to write an effective abstract for a research paper? Here are some pro tips for structuring your abstract so that it gives maximum value to the readers.
Sample #2 Arabic language acquisition through role-playing in Saudi kindergartens
- The abstract typically starts with a context description and a brief account of the study phenomenon’s background.
- Then come the topic and objective of the study.
- It’s good to include the central research question in the abstract
- If space allows, make sure to give a brief account of previous research on your subject so that the reader understands what is known and not known about it, what gaps researchers point out, what urgency the issue represents, etc.
- Research methodology, data collection, and analysis methods
- Key findings derived from the study
- Implications of your findings and recommendations for improving the situation/solving an issue.
Use the right language
Sample #3 Efficiency of self-monitoring blood pressure apps for patients with uncontrolled hypertension
First, you need to keep in mind that an abstract precedes the research paper’s body and serves as its brief annotation. Many researchers skim through paper abstracts to see whether this or that study fits their search criteria. When you conduct research, you may waste hours, if not days, of vital time reading full texts of articles. Based on the information in the abstract, a careful reader can extract the key facts about this specific study, thus making a quick decision whether to read it on or not.
As soon as you receive an assignment to write a research paper, there will be an Abstract required in most cases. So, what is an abstract, and how to write an abstract for a research paper? This article will guide you through all ins and outs of high-quality abstract completion.
The expected content in any abstract is the study’s objective, study type (qualitative or quantitative, case study or interview, etc.), the research methods you used, the study setting and population, key findings, and their implications. All these data form the gist of your study encapsulated in a maximum of 250 words.
The conclusion, in particular, should be given attention in writing the abstract. The conclusion should be well supported by the findings of the investigation
- state clearly the objectives of the study
The limited number of words required for the abstract means that every word included in the abstract is necessary and that this should be presented in a coherent manner. Important information should fit into one paragraph so this requires a little bit of thinking challenge and practice to the beginning researcher.
So how should the abstract of a research paper be written so that maximum benefit is derived from it?
Number of Words
The abstract should be written in the past tense because the investigation has transpired. However, statement of facts in, say, the results and discussion and the conclusion, must be in the present tense.
Abstracts are important references for scientists or students working on their research proposal
How do you write a good abstract? Here are four elements of a good abstract.
The information provided in the abstract must be sufficient to help the researcher decide whether the work is relevant to his interest or not. It should be brief but not lacking in important elements necessary for understanding of the research conducted. The abstract will also help the researcher decide whether to read the research paper in its entirety or not.
Research always comes first. It might seem that the abstract should be the first thing you write, as it is the summary of your whole paper, though, there are many advantages to choosing this sequence of actions when starting to work on your paper:
An abstract is a brief summary of a research paper. Usually, an abstract is about 6-7 sentences long (approx. 150-250 words). There are many purposes that an abstract may serve. First and foremost, it gives readers a glimpse of your paper. This gives your readers an opportunity to make a decision whether or not your study is worth their full attention. Another purpose of an abstract is to prepare your audience for the details from your research, your arguments and your supporting evidence. And lastly, an abstract introduces the key points of your paper so that readers can keep them in mind while reading your research.
An informative abstract is a detailed summary of the research itself. There are instances when readers rely on the abstract itself as a source of information. Therefore, it is extremely important to include all the specifics from a certain study. A well-presented, informative abstract can almost substitute the rest of the paper by itself.
- just summarizes the job, but some researchers consider it to be more of an outline
Conclusion
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Very often, abstracts are found as descriptions for books and scholarly articles. They include the main ideas of a book or an article and give a general understanding of its contents and purpose. Sometimes, professors provide students with very specific guidelines for how to write an abstract. Make sure you follow these instructions, if they are available, in order to satisfy all the requirements.
Identifying purpose and motivation is one of the most difficult, yet important parts of your abstract. Let’s assume that your paper is about the importance of recycling plastic. Your primary job is to explain to readers why they should care about the contamination of plastics on land and in the ocean. You need to provide some solid arguments to keep your reader interested in continuing to read. It is crucial to answer these questions:
It usually focuses on the importance and significance of the subject of a paper. Going back to our topic regarding the importance of plastic recycling, the importance of the paper is to reduce plastic waste contamination by recycling your own plastic waste. Here, you need to answer the question – what problem does your study help to resolve on a global scale? Is it preventing global warming by reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in oceanic waters? Is it assessing global warming issues? Is it a solution for sea-life conservation? The possibilities are endless, so make sure to take the right direction to appeal to any audience, regardless of their background and interests. In this section, it is important to address the problem itself, indicate whether it covers something broad or specific, and present your argument.
You should dedicate about three to four sentences to your methodology section. Here, you should describe the following:
Additionally, ask yourself a few things when writing the introduction:
From this, you can surmise what an abstract is: a takeaway from the research itself. It should be self-contained, independent of the corpus of the study, but it should describe the problem, the methods used to explore the problem, and the results of these processes. The exact components of the work will vary, depending on the field (Jalalian, 2012), but all in all, it should be a concise summary of the entire paper (Slade, 1997). It is also similar to an executive summary in a business report (Koopman, 1997).
Most researchers and studies use one of the two major types of abstracts: descriptive and informative (Kilborn, 1998). We look at how they differ below.
Results
Most people who write abstracts (and those who read them) encounter the other type, called an informative abstract. This type does more than just describe a paper
An abstract is also typically written last, although it prefaces the paper. In general, your abstract should be able to:
As mentioned earlier, searching a database is a highly time-consuming task. Therefore, most researchers rely on abstracts so they can spend their time wisely looking for supporting data or information. An abstract is thus useful for those who are also conducting research.
- just summarizes the job, but some researchers consider it to be more of an outline