1. Writing Accessible Abstracts Faculty of Medical Sciences
The Writing Development Centre
Contact:
@ncl_wdc
Writing Development Centre
Explore the possibilities

2. Today’s session
1.) Formulating an engaging and accessible title 2.) Selecting: what are organisers/selection committees really looking for? 3.) Writing: practical tips for drafting abstracts
@ncl_wdc
Writing Development Centre
Explore the possibilities

3. ‘Short and Simple’ Good advice?!
One of my favourites – advice on abstracts can be taken to extremes, or be too vague to be helpful. ‘Simple’ and ‘short’ depend on the context and audience. Also, this person (Professor Sir Michael Berry, FRS) is eminent and has licence to do this!

4. Titles
Create an informative and engaging conference paper title based on your own research (NOT one used for real!)
In groups of four, evaluate the titles each member has generated. Criteria: informative, engaging, accurate
Select one title from your group to put forward to the whole group vote
Titles need to both inform and engage. They are the first (and possibly only) thing your audience will encounter.
Accurate – make sure your title does in fact match your paper, and you aren’t over promising or getting carried away. Interest is inversely proportional to accuracy, sometimes (Hunting the Undead in 12th Century France – not about zombies after all but missing people from mortuary rolls. Dull.)

5. The Grand Final:
Which of these will we select? 1.) The automatic classification of canine sleep disturbances 2.) It’s not what you said, it’s the way you said it: developing a measure of speech to detect depression 3.) The use of an infant and parent therapeutic group to improve parent handling confidence and infant motor function 4.) Optimization of culture-conditions to reduce metal waste in Biopharmaceutical industry 5.) Stem cells and seaweeds combination enhances corneal regeneration

6. Title Tips
Complex science doesn’t necessarily mean complex language: simple and straightforward titles are best.
Jargon or Terminology? Abbreviations and Acronyms?
Your title should pass the ‘Three Second Rule’: be readily understood within three seconds

7. Title Tips Frontload– put the most important words near the beginning
Example: Grottomycin versus scabicillin in acute sinusitis in elderly patients: a randomised controlled trial = A randomised control trial of … (Fraser et al, p. 14)

8. Selection Criteria
You are organising a conference and have two places left. There are four abstracts in front of you. Which two will you choose? In your group of four: Step One: Decide your selection criteria – aspects to judge them on Step Two: Read the four abstracts and decide which two to accept based on your selection criteria. Step Three: Identify the general positive and negative principles you’ve seen in these abstracts

9. The abstract: key content
Good abstracts answer 5 main questions:
What did you do?
Why did you do it?
How did you do it?
What were your findings?
So what? Why are your findings important? What contribution do they make? What are their implications?
Implications for structure

10. Writing an abstract
Start small and add – don’t try to cut existing text down
Take the title you created earlier in the workshop
Write a 50 word abstract on this title
What else would you need to add to this to make it complete?
Add in another 50 words to include these details

11. Writing Tips: audience
Think about your audience for THIS abstract: who exactly are they, and what is their likely level of knowledge and vested interest?
Known > Unknown, Old > New: Keep the background section brief: move on to your contribution quickly
Avoid unnecessarily long-winded signposting sentences (“The purpose of this study was to …”)

12. Writing Tips: content Abstracts should be self-contained
Every result should have a corresponding method
No need to report all results in the abstract, just enough to indicate the outcome and show that the study’s aims have been addressed
Tenses: present tense for established facts (background section) and generalisations (conclusion); past tense for your specific actions
/findings (methods and results).

13. Writing Tips: style
Use the active voice (Aspirin prevented clotting) rather than the passive (Clotting was prevented by aspirin)
Be precise and specific (i.e. give specific details rather than saying something was ‘highly prevalent’)
Keep sentences a manageable length (check everything that runs to three lines or more): reading aloud can help

14. Bibliography
Fraser, J, Fuller, L and Hutber G Creating Effective Conference Abstracts and Posters in Biomedicine: 500 Tips for Success. Oxford: Radcliffe, 1998.

15. The Writing Development Centre Develop your academic skills
Revise effectively
Critically review literature
Structure essays
Use drafting & editing techniques
Make the most of lectures & seminars
Manage your dissertation or PhD thesis
Avoid plagiarism
Improve your exam technique
Take effective notes
Think critically
Interpret essay questions
Understand assessment criteria
Read efficiently
Argue convincingly
Plan assignments
Manage your time
Express ideas confidently

16. The Writing Development Centre Level 2, Philip Robinson Library
Undergraduate - Masters - PhD
Our team of expert tutors offers:
- One to one tutorials
- Online resources including our Blog
- Activities including Write Here, Write Now
Visit us online:
HASS – SAgE - FMS

17. Notice and Take Down Policy
Newcastle University seeks to observe the highest standards of compliance with the law and the rights of rights holders, while publishing research and teaching resources to support our students and staff and contribute to academic practice.
If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on our website or legitimately under our name elsewhere, for which you have not given permission, or is not covered by a limitation or exception in laws of the UK or other countries (as relevant), please contact us in writing stating the following:
your contact details
the full bibliographic details of the materials
the exact URL or other location where you found the material
proof that you are the rights holder and a statement that, under penalty of perjury, you are the rights holder or are an authorised representative
Contact details
Web: