How to write a scientific abstract Anne E. Carey Interim director, Undergraduate Research Office August 2, 2011 Anne E. Carey Interim director, Undergraduate Research Office August 2, 2011

When do you write an abstract? Professional meeting Conference paper Journal article Grant proposal Thesis

Why care about writing abstracts? A good abstract will repay you with increased impact on the world by enticing people to read your publications or come to your poster. Make sure that all the components of a good abstract are included in the next one you write. Writing a good abstract is hard work. Helps you learn to read others’ abstracts effectively

Getting started Questions to ask yourself before you start writing your abstract… What’s the problem? Why hasn’t it been done before? Why and how could you do it now? What was the purpose of the research?

Parts of an abstract 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Why you are doing your research 4. How you did your research 5. Findings 6. Implications

1. Introduction Set the stage for why your work is important Was the research difficult? Does it have major implications? Make sure you make the work interesting to the reader Brief introduction to your work Usually one to two sentences

2. Background What have others done? What has not yet been done? Identify gaps in the field Which are the important gaps? The hook that draws the reader in

3. Why your research How were your data collected, compiled, generated, analyzed? What gaps are you filling? Is the problem urgent? What new method or tools became available that you used? What method from another field are you applying to your field?

4. Methods List, tabulate, mention Methods Models Procedures Approaches Avoid detail here (unless your work is about methods development)

5. Findings What’s the answer? What did you learn (or invent or create)? Give quantitative results (if you have them) Avoid hand-waving words (very, small, significant…) Use hedge words if you need them (might, could, may, seem) Don’t give results that could be mis-interpreted or don’t actually exist yet

6. Implications Relate back to the gaps in the field identified in step 2 What are the larger implications of your findings? How does it add to the body of knowledge? Is your work going to change the world? Are your results general, generalizable, or specific to certain cases?

Rules Follow the rules (formatting, language, etc) Word limit (different for different kinds of purposes) typically 150–200 words sometimes it’s character count (with or without spaces matters) Graphs and figures (are they allowed?) References (sometimes allowed, sometimes not)

Advice Remember you are writing for a general audience Plan ahead (know what the deadline is!) Good abstracts are not written at the last minute Start writing early and revise multiple times Write short sentences Avoid abbreviations Define acronyms except for very standard ones (e.g., DNA)

Other considerations Title should… summarize the abstract convince the reader to read the whole abstract because it will be interesting, informative, important, relevant or innovative be catchy Authorship presenter is usually first author include affiliations, , phone numbers

Other sources American Psychological Association concrete-abstract.html American Chemical Society Style Guide /?view=usa Modern Language Association references/mla