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What Is An Abstract?: When Do People Write Abstracts?

An abstract summarizes a larger work concisely. Descriptive abstracts outline a work's purpose, methods, and scope, while informative abstracts also include results and conclusions. Abstracts are used when submitting publications, grants, or proposals. They are either descriptive, providing an overview, or informative, acting as a surrogate for the full work by presenting arguments, evidence, and conclusions. To write an abstract, consider the work's importance, problem, methodology, results, and implications for adding to the field's body of knowledge.

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48 views

What Is An Abstract?: When Do People Write Abstracts?

An abstract summarizes a larger work concisely. Descriptive abstracts outline a work's purpose, methods, and scope, while informative abstracts also include results and conclusions. Abstracts are used when submitting publications, grants, or proposals. They are either descriptive, providing an overview, or informative, acting as a surrogate for the full work by presenting arguments, evidence, and conclusions. To write an abstract, consider the work's importance, problem, methodology, results, and implications for adding to the field's body of knowledge.

Uploaded by

Shafiq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is an abstract?

An abstract is a self-contained, short, and powerful statement that describes a larger work.
Components vary according to discipline. An abstract of a social science or scientific work may
contain the scope, purpose, results, and contents of the work. An abstract of a humanities work
may contain the thesis, background, and conclusion of the larger work. An abstract is not a
review, nor does it evaluate the work being abstracted. While it contains key words found in the
larger work, the abstract is an original document rather than an excerpted passage.

When do people write abstracts?


 when submitting articles to journals, especially online journals
 when applying for research grants
 when writing a book proposal
 when completing the Ph.D. dissertation or M.A. thesis
 when writing a proposal for a conference paper
 when writing a proposal for a book chapter

Types of abstracts
There are two types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. They have different aims, so as a
consequence they have different components and styles. There is also a third type called critical,
but it is rarely used. If you want to find out more about writing a critique or a review of a work,
see the UNC Writing Center handout on writing a literature review. If you are unsure which type
of abstract you should write, ask your instructor (if the abstract is for a class) or read other
abstracts in your field or in the journal where you are submitting your article.

Descriptive abstracts
A descriptive abstract indicates the type of information found in the work. It makes no judgments
about the work, nor does it provide results or conclusions of the research. It does incorporate key
words found in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research.
Essentially, the descriptive abstract describes the work being abstracted. Some people consider it
an outline of the work, rather than a summary. Descriptive abstracts are usually very short—100
words or less.
Informative abstracts
The majority of abstracts are informative. While they still do not critique or evaluate a work,
they do more than describe it. A good informative abstract acts as a surrogate for the work itself.
That is, the writer presents and explains all the main arguments and the important results and
evidence in the complete article/paper/book. An informative abstract includes the information
that can be found in a descriptive abstract (purpose, methods, scope) but also includes the results
and conclusions of the research and the recommendations of the author. The length varies
according to discipline, but an informative abstract is rarely more than 10% of the length of the
entire work. In the case of a longer work, it may be much less.

How do I write an abstract?


The format of your abstract will depend on the work being abstracted. An abstract of a scientific
research paper will contain elements not found in an abstract of a literature article, and vice
versa. However, all abstracts share several mandatory components, and there are also some
optional parts that you can decide to include or not. When preparing to draft your abstract, keep
the following key process elements in mind:

 Reason for writing: What is the importance of the research? Why would a reader be
interested in the larger work?
 Problem: What problem does this work attempt to solve? What is the scope of the
project? What is the main argument/thesis/claim?
 Methodology: An abstract of a scientific work may include specific models or
approaches used in the larger study. Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence
used in the research.
 Results: Again, an abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that indicates
the results of the project. Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general
way.
 Implications: What changes should be implemented as a result of the findings of the
work? How does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic?
EXAMPLE:

This quantitative research study was conducted to illustrate the relationship(s) between social
media use and its effect on police brutality awareness. In 2015, social media was used to assist in
revealing an act of impulsive police brutality on an adult black woman in Waller County, Texas.
This act was one of a few examples of a substantial number of law enforcement officers around
the United States and other countries that are abusing their power by using excessive force
against citizens without penalty. The study found there is a relationship between social media use
and its impact on police brutality. The study also found that social media gave a voice to people
who may have feared isolation and/or negative consequences against police brutality. Over 100
undergraduates at Bowie State University in Maryland completed a survey questionnaire
instrument. The instrument consisted of 10; of which 2 were directly related to the hypothesis.
The author’s result of data analyses presented that there is a significant relationship between
independent and dependent variables.

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