Develop a 200–300-word abstract, an annotated outline, and an annotated bibliography that contains at least 10 references, as the third step in completing your project
How to Write an Abstract
Like a paper’s title, an abstract is an important reference to lead researchers to a writer’s
paper and to motivate them to read the paper. An inaccurate abstract may cause researchers
to prematurely dismiss a paper’s relevance to their research, and it may even prevent a paper
from being found in a key word search that is relevant to the paper’s actual content.
Therefore, with a focus on the Central Components of an Abstract listed above, writers should
follow these guidelines to compose an effective, comprehensive abstract:
· Compose the abstract only after the paper is formally complete since the abstract’s
content must accurately summarize the final version of the paper.
· Mimic the paper’s table of contents in sentence form (i.e., the purpose, methods,
scope, results, conclusions, and recommendations). The final outline is also very
helpful to generate comprehensive content.
· Scan the document to identify key words and specific phrases that are central to the
paper. Input these key words and phrases to aid in the paper’s discovery by
researchers who will use computers to look for key words, phrases, and titles.
· Summarize the main ideas of each section of the paper, and then continue to revise
and edit each individual summary before bringing them together to form the first draft
of the abstract.
· Begin with the most important information: the thesis, the purpose, or the results and
· conclusions.
Limit the abstract to only four or five of the most important conclusions, findings, or
implications of the paper. Why should researchers be interested in this research?
· What is unique or imperative about this paper’s purpose, results, and conclusions?
· Exclude any new information that is not included in the paper.
· Define all abbreviations, acronyms, and unique terms, spell-out any special names,
and type all numbers as Arabic numerals (except those that begin a sentence).
· Avoid formulaic sentences and phrases that do not provide relevant information (e.g.,
“Curriculum changes are discussed” or “It is concluded that”). Be direct (e.g., write
“Curriculum changes include…” and/or ”Curriculum should be changed to…”).
· Be concise and specific, and write in complete sentences (no fragments). Maximize as much information as possible to motivate researchers to read the paper.
Like a movie trailer or a product commercial, the abstract is used to “sell” the paper to
researchers. Following these guidelines will help writers compose an abstract that is accurate,
concise, comprehensive, and informative, increasing the audience as well as the future
retrievability of the paper.
How to Read an Abstract
Researchers rely on accurate, comprehensive abstracts to ensure them they have not wasted
time retrieving and reading a paper that is not relevant to their research. To maximize the
effectiveness of their research and to ensure relevant and vital information is present in a
potential research paper, read every abstract to find specific information that will directly
answer each of the following questions:
• What is the topic, subject, or research problem addressed in the paper?
• What is the purpose of the paper?
• What are key words, definitions, and specific phrases are present?
• What are the concepts, findings, or implications of the paper?
• What methodologies and/or data were used?
• What are the interpretations or results of included data?
• What portions of the paper may be useful or informative?
Finding the answers to these questions will help to save valuable research time, and they will
also help to narrow down key words, phrases, and titles searches in abstracting and
information services.