WRITING AN ABSTRACT Setting the tone for your research paper Michael Quiñones, NBCT

Purpose A good abstract is a concise summary of the entire project: introduction, problem statement, work accomplished, results, conclusions and recommendations. This requires efficiency of words and phrases. An abstract is written to stand alone, without jargon or reference to figures and tables in the report body. Note that an abstract emphasizes what was accomplished. The abstract should be about 200 words. The abstract should be on a separate page in the report.

Keywords Provide a list of words or short phrases that are descriptive of your project words that would enable a researcher to zero-in on your work in a database search. List these below the abstract. Future Senior Design Project students will locate your paper by searching on the key words. Include approximately 10 words.

Example ABSTRACT Solo Cup Company manufactures a variety of thermoformed plastic cups and other food service goods. Solo Cup engineers design and maintain the tooling utilized in the thermoforming manufacturing lines. Thermoforming employs air pressure and vacuum tooling to supply suction to a plastic sheet, forcing it onto the walls of a female mold cavity in the shape of the final product. Solo Cup desires that the vacuum tooling employed within the thermoforming process be analyzed in terms of airflow efficiency, followed by measures to improve the efficiency. Analyzing and redesigning the tooling to improve vacuum airflow efficiency can lead to a reduced cycle time and thus an increased production rate. Solo Cup identified the mold cavity assembly as the area to be evaluated and improved. To arrive at a solution, the airflow through the original cavity was analyzed using fluid dynamics, and the resistance to airflow through the cavity was determined by use of a physical experiment that measured the flow rate through the cavity. Design modifications within the mold cavity were tested using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software, to yield visual representations of flow conditions. Significant changes have been incorporated into a prototype, which was manufactured by Solo Cups machine shop. Testing of the prototype, in the physical experiment, showed a 39% improvement at one-third the operating pressure and satisfies all the project goals, and is recommended for implementation. KEYWORDS: thermoforming, airflow efficiency, mold cavity, computational fluid dynamics, CFD

Example Abstract The following literature review examines the effects of formative assessment, in public high schools with regard to its use in social studies, and the impact of this strategy toward promoting the self- efficacy and motivation of students. Several scholarly educational journal articles, related to the educational psychological principle of self-efficacy, were consulted in order to gain a deeper insight into the potential value of facilitating motivation for adolescent learning by providing descriptive, detailed written feedback. This analytical literature review examines two types of formative assessments: benchmark multiple choice testing and essay writing (especially prompted, specifically directed essays that are timed). Within this review I include a series of three vignettes based on several recent personal teaching experiences that utilized many of the research based strategies developed and tested by some of the most well known scholars in the fields of self- efficacy and formative assessment. Based on the convergence between my understandings, ethical beliefs and educational philosophy, and the literature cited in this review, I offer insights and critiques into some of the more practical benefits of using formative assessment to promote and enhance the self-efficacy of students. Further research forays, by me or others, may later yield additional tangible data in the area of how such strategies impact different populations of students (i.e. high, middle and low socio-economically impacted groups). Based on the three vignettes that follow there are several compelling reasons to believe that teacher dispositions and expectations may also have substantial impacts on the potential success of formative assessments. Less socio- scientific, however, is the less quantifiably measurable effect of what I term teacher finesse which is somewhat akin to the well known concept of teacher withitness (Kounin, 1958). Keywords: formative assessment, self-efficacy, descriptive feedback, benchmark testing, teacher disposition, teacher finesse

Example [without keywords] Abstract Using Kellys (1986) four perspectives on teacher disclosure, I analyze the quality of instruction present in the classrooms of six high school government teachers during their coverage of the 2008 Presidential Election, an event that received widespread media attention and elicited strong feelings on both sides of the political spectrum. Four of the teachers chose to remain neutral throughout their coverage of the election by not revealing their candidate preference to their students, while the remaining two teachers disclosed their preferences early in the semester, although in strikingly different ways. The findings of this study offer a practical approach to evaluating the disclosure dilemma encountered by many pre-service and practicing teachers during their classroom instruction.